Recently the world has held breath as the new dangerous disease was discovered. The Adult-Onset Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AOIS) resembles Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) not only in its name, but more importantly in its clinical course. Patients, who were born almost exclusively in Thailand or Taiwan present with symptoms of multiple opportunistic infections. Authors of the study (1) on AOIS, published in the August issue of prestigious New England Journal Of Medicine, claim there is no evidence on the viral etiology of the disease. However, as some media hailed AOIS as “HIV 2.0”, the tension remains. Read full text »

In the UK alone, 500 000 people are infected with Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and still, most of the patients are not diagnosed. Therefore, HCV infection is a major cause of liver transplantation there. A few years ago, scientists have found monoclonal antibodies which gave hope for the acquisition of an effective vaccine. Now, the first results of the testing of vaccines based on adenoviral vectors have occurred. Read full text »