Viral Fusion Inhibitors

(AP) — Chinese authorities say five people have been sickened with pneumonic plague in Tibet and that the deadly disease has killed one of them.

The Tibetan regional health department says the cases were reported in Laduo, a village in Lang county in the remote region.

The department said in a statement Sunday that the first case was found Sept. 23 and that the patient died of a severe lung infection. The remaining four people have been quarantined.

The disease can kill in as few as 24 hours if left untreated.

Last year, an outbreak of the disease in a farming town in Qinghai province killed three people and sickened nine, prompting authorities to seal off the community of 10,000 people for more than a week.

A recent study by researchers at the University of Utah determined that the 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) caused a higher rate of neurological complications in children than the seasonal flu. The most common complications observed were seizures and encephalopathy. Full details of the study, the most extensive evaluation of neurological complications following H1N1 flu in children, are published in the September issue of Annals of Neurology, a journal of the American Neurological Association.

The H1N1 virus (swine flu) was identified in Mexico and the U.S. in April 2009 and quickly spread worldwide, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the novel influenza A virus a pandemic. According to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 43 million to 89 million Americans were infected with H1N1 between April 2009 and April 10, 2010, with approximately 14 million to 28 million of those cases in children 17 years of age and younger. On August 10, 2010 the WHO International Health Regulations Emergency Committee officially declared an end to the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.

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West Nile virus tricks mosquitoes into producing a particular protein complex that allows it to survive and be transmitted, Yale researchers report in the Sept. 3 issue of the journal Cell.

This molecular survival mechanism helps explain how West Nile virus got a foothold for the first time in North America nearly a decade ago, note the researchers. And as temperatures rise in the hemisphere, this mechanism may help public health officials in traditionally temperate climates identify emerging threats from tropical diseases, they add.

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Colorado State University researchers have discovered that mosquitoes that transmit deadly viruses such as dengue avoid becoming ill by mounting an immediate, potent immune response. Because their immune system does not eliminate the virus, however, they are able to pass it on to a new victim.

In a study published February 13 in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens, the researchers show that RNA interference – the mosquito immune response — is initiated immediately after they ingest blood containing dengue virus, but the virus multiplies in the mosquitoes nevertheless.

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Dengue fever — caused by a virus transmitted by mosquitoes — threatens 2.5 billion people each year and there is no vaccine or treatment. New research by Michigan State University entomologists has found that a bacterium can stop dengue viruses from replicating in the mosquitoes.

“In nature, about 28 percent of mosquito species harbor Wolbachia bacteria, but the mosquitoes that are the primary transmitters of dengue, Aedes aegypti, have no Wolbachia in them,” said Zhiyong Xi, MSU assistant professor of entomology and study author. “We found that Wolbachia is able to stop the dengue virus from replicating. If there is no virus in the mosquito, it can’t spread to people, so disease transmission can be blocked.”

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This is the SECOND in a series of brief expositions about disease-causing viruses among humans.

Because everyone and anyone can be infected by deadly viruses, it is best to be educated and enlightened about these deadly diseases as well as what type of virus could have been causing it, how to know when one is affected and how long does the infection take. These information is especially important in determining how to avoid, prevent or treat these diseases.

Coming from the most common insect around the globe, Malaria is a disease caused by mosquito-borne organisms called Plasmodium, of which the Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax are the most common. However, the first type is considered the deadliest.

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Here’s another health tip from my good friend Ray Collins:

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Common foods that help you breathe more easily

A report in the medical journal Allergy in June 2008 came up with a very pleasing suggestion…. that eating delicious, hearty Mediterranean food could relieve asthma symptoms.

The study was carried out by a team at the University of Porto in Portugal. They looked closely at the diet of 174 asthmatics. They found that those who ate large quantities of Mediterranean foods had fewer attacks and flare-ups.

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Here’s an interesting letter I received from Ray Collins of the Good Life Letter:

If you sent me an email with a tip for gout, then THANKS!

I’ve not had a response like that in quite a while. Gout seems to be one of those ailments brings out strong opinions and some fascinating stories.

If you’re interested, there are two really strong remedies for gout in my book The Honey Garlic and Vinegar Miracle.

From recent emails it seems that there’s plenty about gout I’ve not mentioned in my books or previous Good Life Letters.

WHY HIDDEN HEAVY METAL TOXINS COULD CAUSE GOUT AND OTHER PAINFUL PROBLEMS

Many people believe that heavy metals could be a cause of problems like gout.

I don’t mean to say that listening to Iron Maiden makes your legs hurt. (Although it may make your brain fall out.)

What I refer to are the metals that exist in our environment. For instance the mercury in fillings, or found in some types of fish. Or the metals in paint, car fumes, some forms of cooking equipment, food containers, deodorants (ones that contain aluminum) and polluted water supplies.

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