SERIOUS OUTBREAKS OF AVIAN INFLUENZA A (H5N1) have occurred among birds in Asia, with cases now reported in Europe. Although H5N1 is highly contagious among birds, it is rare in humans due to a significant species barrier. As of January 7, 2006, 146 cases were reported with 76 deaths. Human-to-human transmission has occurred, but transmission to date has not continued beyond one person. The pre...

Mx proteins are interferon-induced members of the dynamin superfamily of large guanosine triphosphatases. These proteins have attracted attention because some display antiviral activity against pathogenic RNA viruses, for example against members of the orthomyxovirus (influenzavirus) family or the bunyavirus family. Transfected cells and transgenic mice expressing Mx proteins are highly resista...

BACKGROUND Currently, virus discovery is mainly based on molecular techniques. Here, we propose a method that relies on virus culturing combined with state-of-the-art sequencing techniques. The most natural ex vivo culture system was used to enable replication of respiratory viruses. METHOD Three respiratory clinical samples were tested on well-differentiated pseudostratified tracheobronchial...

INTRODUCTION The aetiology of lower respiratory tract infections in young children admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) is often difficult to establish. However, most infections are believed to be caused by respiratory viruses. A diagnostic study was performed to compare conventional viral tests with the recently developed real-time PCR technique. METHOD Samples from children...