Officials in Sierra Leone’s capital are trying to find a woman who left a hospital with the help of her family after testing positive for the deadly Ebola virus. The 32-year-old woman, whom radio stations in Freetown named as Saudatu Koroma, was being tested for the virus in an isolation ward, then was “forcefully removed” by her family, Reuters reports. That’s led to a hunt for Koroma to keep her from spreading the virus to others.
Promising early results from a clinical trial at the Mayo Clinic out this week suggest that a modified version of the measles virus can be used to target cancer cells and put the condition into remission.
Penn State University has found a virus that is not harmful to humans but is capable of killing cancer cells. This has the potential to open up some new avenues towards cancer therapy. The mechanism is still unknown but the virus, named adeno-associated virus type 2, is still being researched and has a long way to go before any clinical application can be gained from it. And so the plot thickens…
Viruses are typically considered dead or non-living because they lack much of what we consider to be “living” such as the lack of metabolism in its shell. They pack only what they need to spread its own genetic information. Recent findings show a virus that carries many proteins that belong to typical living cells. Those sly little buggers.