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KABC San Francisco
Ending moratorium on genetically engineered H5N1 bird flu

Cell
Virus Hunters: Catching Bugs in the Field

InsideScience.Org
To stop epidemics, acting locally more important than globally

Nature.Com
Respiratory virus jumps from monkeys to humans

A novel virus that spread through a California New World titi monkey colony in late 2009 has been shown to have also infected a human researcher and a household family member, in a verified example of an adenovirus “jumping” from one species to another and remaining contagious after the jump.  Researchers at the UCSF Viral Diagnostics and Discovery Center, led by Dr. Charles Chiu,  confirmed that the virus was the same in the New World monkeys and humans, and that the virus is highly unusual in both populations.  Their findings appear July 14th in the Open Access journal PLoS Pathogens.

Adenoviruses are known to cause a wide range of clinical illnesses in humans, from cold-like symptoms to diarrhea and pneumonia. Unlike influenza or coronaviruses, adenoviruses had previously not been known to spread from one species to another. “Now adenoviruses can be added to the list of pathogens that have the ability to cross species,” said Charles Chiu, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine at UCSF and director of the viral diagnostics center. Read more...