Publications by authors named "G Beards"

Dengue fever, also known as breakbone fever, is a mosquito-borne infectious tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash that is similar to measles. In a small proportion of cases, the disease develops into life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever, which results in bleeding, thrombocytopenia, and leakage of blood plasma, or into dengue shock syndrome, in which dangerously low blood pressure occurs.

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The Internet has become an important health information resource for patients and the general public. Wikipedia, a collaboratively written Web-based encyclopedia, has become the dominant online reference work. It is usually among the top results of search engine queries, including when medical information is sought.

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Small round structured viruses (SRSVs, Norwalk-like viruses, NLVs) are the most common cause of outbreaks of gastro-enteritis in hospitals and also cause outbreaks in other settings such as schools, hotels, nursing homes and cruise ships. Hospital outbreaks often lead to ward closure and major disruption in hospital activity. Outbreaks usually affect both patients and staff, sometimes with attack rates in excess of 50%.

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This report describes nucleotide sequence analysis of part of the polymerase gene of hepatitis B virus (HBV) during the development of lamivudine-resistant HBV in five patients who received lamivudine treatment in conjunction with liver transplantation. Samples from patients were analysed before, during and after drug treatment in conjunction with serum HBV quantification by PCR. Lamivudine resistance was found to be associated with L526M and M550V changes in two patients and M550I change in three patients.

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Objectives: The long term effectiveness of combination therapy at reducing viral loads in seminal fluid and blood plasma obtained from HIV-1 infected men who had undergone previous antiretroviral therapy was assessed.

Methods: Samples of semen and blood were obtained from a cohort of 12 nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor experienced men before and during 25-68 weeks of combination therapy, which included the protease inhibitor indinavir. HIV-1 RNA titres present in the cell free blood and seminal plasma samples were determined using the nucleic acid sequence based amplification (NASBA)/Nuclisens assay system.

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