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Catching cancer: The riveting quest for a killer virus

posted onApril 2, 2014
by l33tdawg

FEW words have the power to induce terror: cancer is one, virus another. Imagine, then, the awful potency of something that merges the two.

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a curiosity, as well as a killer. Around 95 per cent of us are infected with it, but it rarely has symptoms. When it does, the virus manifests in many guises. The childhood cancer of the blood Burkitt's lymphoma, glandular fever (infectious mononucleosis) and MS have all been associated with Epstein-Barr.

Cancer Virus tells its story through the scientists who worked on it. It reads like a thriller, starting with the mystery of the African children with swollen faces – caused by Burkitt's lymphoma – and the controversial idea that a virus might be behind it. The book moves on to the revelation that the same virus was implicated in seemingly unrelated diseases, and finally to ways to destroy it.

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