Low levels of important nutrients
like selenium can turn a benign
virus into its virulent form, claim
American scientists.
Researchers Melinda Beck and
her colleagues at the University of
North Carolina in Chapel Hill, say
that Keshan disease - a fatal virusinduced disease that causes inflammation of the heart muscles - is endemic to China, where the grain is
deficient in selenium (New Scientis4
Vol 146, No 1978).
The researchers are speculating
if the emergence of HIV could also
have a selenium link. The clue lies in
that the virus is thought to have
originated in Zaire, where the people have been found to have low levels of selenium in their blood.
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