UCLA scientists have discovered how the deadly Nipah virus infiltrates human cells to cause encephalitis. Designated as a potential bioterrorism agent by the National Biodefense Research Agenda, the virus exploits a protein essential to embryonic development to enter cells and launch its attack. The online edition of Nature reports the findings July 6.

The way aquatic plants respond to plant disease and climate change may have applications for managing land-based agriculture, say plant pathologists with The American Phytopathological Society (APS).

The new surgical assistant at the University of North Carolina Hospitals arrived in February sporting three arms, a computerized brain and a glowing track record in helping to repair heart valves, remove cancerous prostates, bypass blocked coronary arteries and perform gastric bypass operations for morbid obesity.

The United States Preventive Services Task Force, updating its 1996 guidelines, now recommends HIV screening for all pregnant women. The Task Force continues to recommend screening all adolescents and adults at risk for HIV.

The new recommendations are published in the July 5, 2005, issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, along with two background papers on which the recommendations are based.

Under the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) "Consumer Health for Better Nutrition Initiative," the Agency is announcing the results of a review of qualified health claims that green tea may reduce the risk of certain types of cancer.

A region made impassable by civil war in recent decades will be cleared of landmines to allow huge elephant herds to resume their normal spread in southern Africa, Roots of Peace (RoP) and Conservation International (CI) announced today.

According to a study by the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, controlling the movements of wildlife in markets is a cost-effective means of keeping potential deadly pandemics such as SARS and influenza from occurring. The study appears in the July edition of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. The cost of controlling the spread of diseases afflicting both human and animal populations has reached hundreds of billions of dollars globally.