2008 Woodie Awards
On the virus beat
Zhi Xiong - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 10/16/07 Section: Metro
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Currently, Type 14 is active in Seattle and parts of Texas. Yale University is experiencing an influx of type 3 infections, he said.
Yale officials could not be reached for comment Monday evening.
While it is unclear why certain types cause more severe illness, U.S. researchers have developed a faster way to determine which of the 51 strains is responsible for the infection, paring a two-week process down to two days using genetic sequencing and identifying two specific surface proteins.
The new method could hasten treatment decision-making and prevent the viruses' spread, he said. And researchers are looking for ways to further slash processing time - down to two hours.
"It's useful if you have a sick child and you want to start antivirals, or if there is an outbreak," Gray said. "It's a tool that helps get a quick answer."
The new test can also detect cases of substrains, recombinations, or mixed strains, which were found in samples in Gray's study.
Gray predicted the technology may never become widespread due to expensive materials and training.
"If you don't have that many infections, you're better off sending it away to be processed," he said.
He and his colleagues received more than 3,000 samples between 2004 and 2006, and continue to receive weekly requests for processing.
E-mail DI reporter Zhi Xiong at:
zhi-xiong@uiowa.edu
Yale officials could not be reached for comment Monday evening.
While it is unclear why certain types cause more severe illness, U.S. researchers have developed a faster way to determine which of the 51 strains is responsible for the infection, paring a two-week process down to two days using genetic sequencing and identifying two specific surface proteins.
The new method could hasten treatment decision-making and prevent the viruses' spread, he said. And researchers are looking for ways to further slash processing time - down to two hours.
"It's useful if you have a sick child and you want to start antivirals, or if there is an outbreak," Gray said. "It's a tool that helps get a quick answer."
The new test can also detect cases of substrains, recombinations, or mixed strains, which were found in samples in Gray's study.
Gray predicted the technology may never become widespread due to expensive materials and training.
"If you don't have that many infections, you're better off sending it away to be processed," he said.
He and his colleagues received more than 3,000 samples between 2004 and 2006, and continue to receive weekly requests for processing.
E-mail DI reporter Zhi Xiong at:
zhi-xiong@uiowa.edu
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