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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – ATLANTA–In a study published in PLoS Pathogens, researchers at Emory University have discovered a potentially important mechanism by which the Ebola virus alters and evades the immune response of its infected host.
Ebola virus is the causative agent of Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever (EHF), a disease with up to 90 percent mortality. While human outbreaks of Ebola hemorrhagic fever have been confined to Africa, Ebola virus infections in bats, the presumed natural reservoir of the virus, have also been detected in Europe and Asia. Ebola virus infection has also been reported in domestic pigs in Southeast Asia.
The high lethality of the disease, combined with its short incubation period and the lack of vaccines or effective treatments, makes Ebola virus a significant public health threat as well as a potentially devastating biological weapon.
Efforts to develop a vaccine against Ebola virus have met with limited success, and it is likely that the virus employs complex immune evasion mechanisms that present unique challenges for vaccine design. Understanding these evasion mechanisms is a critical first step in developing an effective vaccine.
Read More: http://news.emory.edu/stories/
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The Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center of Emory University is an academic health science and service center focused on missions of teaching, research, health care and public service.
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For advertising and promotion on www.HealthNewsDigest.com contact Mike McCurdy at: [email protected] or call 877-634-9180. We are syndicated worldwide and read in 164 countries. We also have over 7,000 journalists as subscribers who may use our content for their own media!