News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – The British biotechnology company Acambis announced yesterday that it has launched the first clinical trial of its vaccine for West Nile virus, called ChimeriVax-West Nile.

The phase 1 trial will involve 60 adult volunteers in Lenexa, Kan., the company said in a news release. The volunteers will receive one of three doses of the West Nile vaccine or a licensed yellow fever vaccine that is being used as a control.

(CIDRAP News) – Some Wisconsin farm workers who had West Nile virus (WNV) infection might have caught the virus from turkeys rather from mosquitoes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials yesterday announced grants to build 11 new biodefense laboratories around the country, including two that will be authorized to study the most dangerous pathogens.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal health officials yesterday released a 37-page report that they say demonstrates "tremendous progress" in developing countermeasures for bioterrorism through federally funded research since early 2002.

Sep 25, 2002 (CIDRAP News) – This year's West Nile virus outbreak in the United States has far surpassed last year's in number of cases, but the death toll remains lower than last year's, according to the latest count from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

(CIDRAP News) – An international review panel has concluded that the Singapore man who had the world's first new SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) case since the end of the outbreak probably acquired the virus in a government laboratory where he worked, the Singapore Ministry of Health announced today.

(CIDRAP News) – A new blood test for West Nile virus (WNV) is not foolproof but has made the blood supply safer now than it was a year ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – A Singapore man who tested positive for SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) is doing well and will probably be released from a hospital to home quarantine this week, the Singapore Ministry of Health said today.

(CIDRAP News) – West Nile virus infected 1,067 people the week of Sep 4 to 10, more than double the number the previous week, and claimed 17 more lives, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

So far this year there have been 2,923 cases with 54 deaths, the CDC reports in the Sep 12 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. That compares with 4,156 cases and 284 deaths last year.

(CIDRAP News) – The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) yesterday announced a clinical trial to assess whether a new immunoglobulin product can alleviate or prevent encephalitis in patients infected with West Nile virus (WNV).