Llamas may hold the key to a long-lasting flu vaccine, research suggests.  Laboratory tests showed a protein produced by the fluffy animals, as well as camels, fought off the virus in mice.  Rodents were even protected against 60 strains of flu, which cause fever, headache and fatigue in humans, for more than nine months.  Currently, flu jabs protect against a maximum of four strains - meaning people can still be struck down by strains that were not predicted to be active.  The Belgian study has even raised hopes of a flu nasal spray, after the mice were equally protected when the vaccine w

Norovirus earned its name as the "perfect pathogen"because it spreads faster and farther than most viruses, infecting 20 million people in the United States every year and killing 200,000 worldwide. Although the virus - the leading cause of gastrointestinal illness - survives typical disinfectants and is constantly changing, researchers at Vanderbilt University have taken a step toward developing a vaccine and toward improving diagnosis and treatment.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and their colleagues are a step closer to developing a broadly effective antibody treatment against the three major Ebola viruses that cause lethal disease in humans. Reporting July 17 in the journal Immunity, they describe the isolation of two potent monoclonal antibodies from human survivors of Ebola virus disease that, in cell culture studies, efficiently neutralized the Zaire, Sudan and Bundibugyo ebolaviruses.

Finally, anti-bodies to three major Ebola viruses have now been developed. Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center are a step closer to developing a broadly effective antibody treatment against these viruses that cause the lethal disease in humans. Researchers found that the isolation of two potent monoclonal antibodies from human survivors of Ebola virus disease in cell culture studies efficiently neutralized the Zaire, Sudan and Bundibugyo Ebola viruses.