"There is a very small chance that some patients could have been exposed to the hepatitis B virus, the hepatitis C virus, or HIV, based on practices identified at the facility, " the congressional memo states.
Until researchers can come out with a potent enough antiviral combo to account for the massive numbers of mutations that hepatitis c virus can produce, interferon will remain part of hepatitis C treatments.
FORBES: Why Aren't There AIDS-Style Cocktails for Hepatitis C?
The leader in the pack with protease inhibitors for the hepatitis virus, say Markowitz and Jenner, is Vertex Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge, Mass.
The leader in the pack with protease inhibitors for the hepatitis virus, say Markowitz and Jenner, is Vertex Pharmaceuticals (nasdaq: VRTX - news - people ) of Cambridge, Mass.
Invited to China in 1977 to talk about his great discovery, a virus that caused hepatitis, and his greater invention, a vaccine to prevent it, he would slip out in the early mornings to run for hours through fields, farmyards or the just-stirring streets of Beijing.
It is a general antiviral agent that does not specifically target the hepatitis C virus at all.
FORBES: Why Aren't There AIDS-Style Cocktails for Hepatitis C?
And that should help it in the long race to develop new weapons against the hepatitis C virus.
During the past year, there was a frenzy to acquire drug assets aimed at the hepatitis C virus (HCV).
The drugs, so-called hepatitis C protease inhibitors, represent the first class of agents that directly target the hepatitis C virus.
FORBES: Vertex Edges Merck In First Round of Hepatitis C Fight
Chronic infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) is estimated to affect 170 million people worldwide, and more than five million in Europe.
That is expected to be a big selling point to many patients with the hepatitis C virus who have until now foregone treatment.
The drug is a synthetic version of interferon gamma-1b, a distant cousin of the more famous virus fighter used against hepatitis and cancer.
Pegasys and PEG-Intron are both significant improvements over old ways of treating the hepatitis C virus, which can slowly damage or destroy the liver.
Gemayel says that aside from the giveaway, Roche has a clear marketing message for the new treatment, which combats hepatitis C virus and the chronic liver disease it causes.
The hepatitis A virus can survive in sea water for a number of weeks - meaning these people could contract the disease if the local sea water has been contaminated.
Cohen took the malaria surface protein used in Ballou's vaccine and fused it to a protein from the hepatitis B virus, creating a harmless particle that looked like a virus to the immune system.
The company is betting on studies showing that patients with certain strains of the hepatitis C virus can do with half as much time on Pegasys as they can on Schering-Plough 's (nyse: SGP - news - people ) Peg-Intron.
Here are a few posts that you may have missed about the sales potential for the first cancer vaccine, why pharmaceutical giants are failing at their attempts to develop cancer drugs, and the race to market new pills to fight the hepatitis C virus.
According to the CDC, it takes less than a minute for E. coli to be inactivated if chlorine levels are adequate, about 16 minutes to control Hepatitis A virus, about 45 minutes to kill off the Giardia parasite and over 10 days for a Crypto parasite.
Since type A hepatitis is a virus, it cannot be treated with antibiotics, but it is rarely deadly, the health department said.
The 254-nanometer light kills the hardy waterborne polio virus, rotavirus (which causes vomiting, diarrhea and dehydration), the bacterium that causes cholera, the virus that gives rise to hepatitis A, and cysts of cryptosporidium (a nasty parasite).
"These studies show that RSV is a 'hit and hide' virus, rather like HIV or some hepatitis viruses, " said Professor Peter Openshaw of Imperial College and one of those involved in the study.
BBC: RSV infects most babies within their first year of life
Another 60 antivirals have begun clinical trials, aimed primarily at HIV, the virus that can lead to AIDS, and hepatitis B and C.
Hepatitis C has been a particularly tough virus to target because it has proven very difficult to grow in the lab.
Baraclude is approved in the United States to treat patients with chronic hepatitis B in adults who have active virus and liver damage.
The researchers said that people were more infectious at in the early days of catching hepatitis C because they had higher levels of virus.
The first clear hint of targeted therapy's potential came in late 2003, when researchers at the German firm Boehringer Ingelheim reported that its hepatitis C protease inhibitor lowered the quantity of virus particles by roughly 99.9% in eight patients in two days of treatment, beating what interferon can accomplish in that time period.
Over 200 diners and workers at a New York eatery have been vaccinated for hepatitis A after an employee handling desserts revealed she had the virus.
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