ORF Virus Treatment

Presumed ocular histoplasmosis syndrome (POHS) is an eye disorder that doctors believe is a complication of a fungal infection with the Histoplasma species. Although this has yet to be proven, this is why the diagnosis is "presumed." An infection with Histoplasma (histoplasmosis) typically affects the lungs. However, it can cause long-term complications or spread to other organs in some people. Very rarely, it can lead to problems within the eye. Early treatment for POHS is very important since it can prevent eye scarring and vision loss. Read on to learn more about presumed ocular histoplasmosis. Histoplasmosis occurs due to an infection with a fungus called Histoplasma capsulatum. The infection can move away from the lungs and to the eyes. The fungus travels in the bloodstream to reach the choroidal vessel, causing eye problems, such as POHS. Many people may be unaware that they have histoplasmosis and most experience no symptoms. POHS can cause scarring at the back of the...

MEDIA RELEASE BOLIVIA, N.C. – Brunswick County Social Services is sharing a big thank you to residents and organizations that donated a combined 3,100 gifts for local children and adults through the department's 2022 Angel Tree initiative. "Every year we are overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of our community members," Social Services Director Cathy Lytch said. "We are so thankful for the support and want donators to know they truly make the holiday bright for so many people in our county." This year, gifts were distributed to 493 children and 49 adults who are served in some way by Brunswick County Social Services. This year's donations included 65 bicycles and 6 tricycles. Staff work to collect wish lists for each individual, which are then created into a tag placed on Angel Trees at the Walmarts in Shallotte, Southport, and Leland. Members of the public are invited to visit one of these Walmart locations to select a wish list, which they must...

Vanessa Grimaldi welcomed her son, Winston, in September. (Photo via Instagram/@vanessagrimaldi30) Vanessa Grimaldi is getting candid about early motherhood struggles. On Wednesday, the 35-year-old "Bachelor" season 21 winner shared an Instagram Reel of herself retiring her breast pump paired with an emotional message about the pressures of breastfeeding and the "guilt" mothers face for choosing to formula feed. The Canadian reality star welcomed her son, Winston, on Sept. 29 with her husband, Joshua Wolfe. In the video, Grimaldi recorded herself tearing up as she packed her breast pump away in a box. "This morning I woke up feeling good, finally," the on-screen text read. "I'm ready to retire my pump," she penned before explaining that her son "wasn't latching," and she was "barely" pumping 90ml per day. Grimaldi revealed that she was recently diagnosed with mastitis, taking antibiotics, as well as feeling "emoti...

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have your newborn children taken from you at birth?  That feeling will become a reality for expecting parents Joanna Ferris and Adam Warburton, as their unborn son has been diagnosed with a very rare congenital heart defect called transposition of the great arteries.   That means that immediately after birth Ferris and the baby will be air-lifted by a helicopter or private plane from the Jim Pattison Children's Hospital in Saskatoon to the Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton.   "It's definitely been the hardest thing that I've ever had to go through and I just imagine it's going to get worst as it happens, to see your baby, go through open-heart surgery a few days into their life," says Ferris.   "You want to be in the room to support the baby but you also don't want to see the baby in the state of having tubes shove...

Humans and chimpanzees split from a common ancestor roughly 6 million years ago, when we set off down separate branches on the evolutionary tree of life. Humans continued to birth completely new genes after that split, some of which arose from regions of the genome long thought to be "junk," a new study highlights.   In the new research, which was published Tuesday (Dec. 20) in the journal Cell Reports (opens in new tab) , scientists scoured the human genome for evidence of brand-new genes being "born." Specifically, they looked for so-called de novo genes that don't arise through the usual process, in which genes pick up letter changes, or mutations, as cells make copies of their DNA . This modified DNA gives rise to different versions of the proteins than was made from the original version of the gene.  In contrast, de novo genes spontaneously arise from snippets of DNA that don't code for proteins but may code for molecules t...

Many labs are using genome-sequencing equipment acquired during the pandemic to track other diseases. Credit: T. Narayan/Bloomberg via Getty When a three-year old boy in Cambodia came down with avian influenza last year, researchers at the Pasteur Institute of Cambodia in Phnom Penh used genome-sequencing technology bought during the COVID-19 pandemic to sequence samples from the boy in a single day. They confirmed that he had H9N2, a common virus found in birds. Later, they sequenced samples of the virus from a chicken living in the boy's house, suggesting that that was how he was infected and that the virus was unlikely to spread to other people. Before the pandemic, samples would have been sent abroad for sequencing and such information would typically have taken weeks or months to arrive. The lab is one of many across Asia and Africa that increased its sequencing capacity during the pandemic and is now looking beyond COVID-19 to study other diseases...

The Alongshan virus was discovered in China only five years ago. Now researchers at the University of Zurich have found the novel virus for the first time in Swiss ticks. It appears to be at least as widespread as the tickborne encephalitis virus and causes similar symptoms. The UZH team is working on a diagnostic test to assess the epidemiological situation. Ticks can transmit many different pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, and parasites. Of particular concern are the tickborne encephalitis virus (TBEV), which can cause inflammation of the brain and of the linings of the brain and spinal cord, and bacteria leading to the infectious Lyme disease (borreliosis). The list of pathogens transmitted by ticks continues to increase, also in Switzerland: researchers from the Institute of Virology at the University of Zurich (UZH) have now detected the Alongshan virus (ALSV) for the first time in ticks in Switzerland. Alongshan virus found in numerous tick samples The ALS virus, first ...