Laptop Battery The first high resolution images of the West Nile virus show something that looks like a minuscule golf ball. The virus is just one five-hundred-thousandth of an inch wide.
West Nile Virus causes some victims to become seriously ill with encephalitis or meningitis, according to Cuyahoga County health officials. But many people have been infected without knowing. "Many victims have no symptoms and experience no ill effects from West Nile Virus, " Picker said. "Upon exposure, the chances of contracting West Nile Virus are rare." He also said that pesticides are sprayed 20 feet from a truck in the street and never make it to back yards.
Thinkpad "This is a small virus," said Dr. Richard J. Kuhn, a professor of biological sciences at Purdue.
Brault said this makes it easier for the West Nile virus to adapt to rapidly changing environments. The study found that the death rate among crows exposed to the more virulent strain of the virus was 94 percent, compared to 31 percent among crows exposed to a less virulent version, AFP reported. In 2006, 4, 200 people in the United States were infected with the West Nile virus and 177 died. So far this year, only about a dozen deaths have been reported, but the number of infections has increased fourfold compared to the same time last year.
Microsoft To obtain the images, Dr. Kuhn and his colleagues at Purdue chilled the fragile virus to about minus 300 degrees Fahrenheit in liquid ethane, a hydrocarbon, then bombarded it with high-energy electrons. The deflection of electrons off the virus's atoms produced the images.
Re "The West Nile Epidemic" (editorial, Aug. 25): The West Nile virus has captured the public imagination. It causes a rash and other scary symptoms, including swollen lymph nodes, which other viruses in its class do not exhibit.
Laptop Computers The Purdue researchers are reporting their findings in the current issue of the journal Science.
Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of Scientists Spot Deadly West Nile Virus Mutation A single genetic mutation causes the West Nile virus to become far more virulent, which leads to an increased risk of death in birds and likely in humans as well, concludes a U.S. study in the journal Nature.
Laptop Computer Detailed information about the structure of West Nile could help scientists understand its unusual life cycle. That information should help researchers pinpoint West Nile's vulnerabilities and develop drugs to disarm it. The virus usually lives in birds, but also spreads from birds to mosquitoes to people and horses and other animals.
If you are 40 or older and in general good health, you are invited to participate in this study of an investigational vaccine to prevent West Nile Virus. The West Nile Virus can produce symptoms including fever, headache, myalgia, like symptoms. The research site is in Phoenix, Ariz. Please see //www.centerwatch. stu117138.html.
Desktop Computer Since it appeared in New York in 1999, West Nile has quickly spread across the country. So far this year, West Nile has infected more than 6,600 people and caused 139 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Notebooks Unlike H.I.V., flu, measles and most other viruses which have proteins that stick out like sharp spikes, the West Nile virus has surface proteins that snap together in a pattern resembling the fabric of a herringbone jacket, forming a smooth sphere.
Lenovo The researchers deduced more about the location of atoms within West Nile based on its close resemblance to the virus that causes dengue fever, another mosquito-borne disease.
Hard Drive "It's a very different disease, but it's a very similarly organized virus particle," Dr. Kuhn said.
Travelstar The main differences between dengue and West Nile probably lie in the proteins that make up their outer shells, he said. The proteins' shapes determine which types of cells the viruses can infiltrate.
Gateway Viruses, the smallest of living organisms, cannot reproduce by themselves. Instead a virus uses the machinery of the host cell to make copies of itself.
Laptop Parts Dr. Kuhn said the researchers would next try to determine how the body's immune system defends against West Nile. "I think that will give us some insights how antibodies will actually neutralize the virus," he said.
Software By Kenneth Chang
New York Times - 10/14/2003
Topic: Pesticides
[ Comment, Edit or Article Submission ]
