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Promising cure for West Nile Virus

by Medindia Content Team on Apr 29 2005 11:03 AM

West Nile virus that spreads through mosquito bites, among other things, did not had a proper cure till date. In the recent issue of Nature Medicine scientists have shown a successful treatment on mice suffering from West Nile virus.

The researchers have developed an antibody that can successfully fight the virus. The antibody is derived from human beings who develop this antibody naturally against this virus and in turn never get affected by the virus anymore. When inoculated in mice the mice were capable of fighting the virus on their own. The researchers feel that this antibody developed by them can fight the virus if given within 5 days of them being infected.

West Nile virus may have only flu like symptoms in some people while in others there may be serious manifestations like the central nervous system being affected and people falling into a coma or paralysis. The virus mainly affects people over the age of 50 yrs.

The researchers feel that it may still be a long way to develop the antibody to be inoculated in the human beings, as the ones they have created have certain disadvantages like their varied ability to fight the disease, etc.


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