Aethlon to test Hemopurifier technology with India's NIV

San Diego, USA-based Aethlon Medical says that it has agreed to collaborate with researchers at the National Institute of Virology to initiate testing its Hemopurifier technology as a potential treatment for Dengue hemorrhagic fever. The NIV is a leading infectious disease research center in India, and is designated as a collaborating laboratory of the World Health Organization. It was established in 1952 under the auspices of the Indian Counsel of Medical Research and the Rockefeller Foundation in the USA.

Under the collaboration, initial testing of the Hemopurifier will focus on in vitro studies that document the removal rate of Dengue virus and related toxins from blood. Dengue virus and virulent hemorrhagic fever represent an international health issue that remains untreatable with traditional antiviral drug and vaccine therapy. The global prevalence of dengue has grown dramatically in recent decades. The disease is now endemic in more than 100 countries and, according to the WHO, as many as 50 million cases of dengue infection occur each year. Initial manufacturing and shipping of Hemopurifier devices to the NIV is expected to occur in the first quarter of 2007.