Nobel Laureates Say Cross Infections With Animals Challenge Humanimmune System
Posted on: Thursday, 21 April 2005, 09:00 CDT
Nobel laureates say cross infections with animals challenge human immune system
HANGZHOU, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Two Nobel medicine prize winners said on Monday that cross infections with animals are challenging the human immune system and worldwide immunologists are taking steps towards tackling infectious diseases and enhancing human immunity.
The human immune system is being challenged by AIDS and flu viruses as well as cross infections with animals, said Peter Doherty at the ongoing third congress of the Federation of Immunological Societies of Asia-Oceania (FIMSA) held in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province.
He said worldwide immunologists are trying hard to unravel the pathogenesis of, and to prevent, various infectious diseases in order to enhance the human immune system.
Doherty, an Australian immunologist, shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Swiss immunologist Rolf Zinkernagel for the discovery of how the immune system recognizes infected cells.
Zinkernagel is also present at the congress, which is being attended by 1,000 immunologists from 19 countries and regions.
"Vaccination is undoubtedly the most effective way to prevent infectious diseases," said Zinkernagel, adding that worldwide scientists worked out many vaccinations in the 20th century. These vaccinations have saved innumerable lives and helped the human race to fight and prevent many serious diseases, he said.
Besides vaccinations, experts at the conference said good eating habits, healthy sex life, enough exercises and timely medication in time of diseases are crucial to enhancing the immune system.
They said healthcare medications can only be taken under physicians' instruction because laboratory tests have found very few such medications really improve the immune system, though their advertisements say just the opposite.
Immunology, a front-line discipline in life sciences, is playing a vital role on major issues relating to population and health. Of all the research findings that won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine during the past century, 16 were in this field.
The rise of genome researches, biological information and other interdisciplinary studies in the 21st century have helped worldwide immunologists find out the pathogenesis of many immunological diseases and provided new evidences to the treatment and prevention of various infectious diseases, cancer, allergies and rejections of transplanted organs and tissues.
The third FIMSA congress opened on Monday and will last until Friday. Its first two congresses were held in Adelaide of Australia in 1996 and Bangkok of Thailand in 2000.
Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS
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