More than a quarter million cases of chikungunya virus have surfaced in South America this year. The virus can cause debilitating joint pain. Now the U.S. FDA has approved a new vaccine.
Chikungunya fever, a mosquito-borne disease, can spread directly from cell to cell, scientists have discovered. They found the virus can hijack the proteins that support cells and maintain their shape, causing the infected cell to reach out, make contact with and infect its neighbours. Symptoms can persist for months or years.
Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have found that the virus responsible for chikungunya fever can spread directly from cell to cell-;perhaps solving the longstanding mystery of how the virus, now emerging as a major health threat, can manage to escape antibodies circulating in the bloodstream.
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