This year in the United States, 14 people have tested positive for avian influenza, or bird flu. Nine of those became infected after coming into contact with poultry, and four got the virus from exposure to dairy cows. The source of the remaining, most recent case remains a mystery. The Centers for Disease Control and … Read more
Why are most cases of polio vaccine-derived variants? Most cases of paralytic polio are now vaccine-derived due to the success of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. OPV has been instrumental in the near-eradication of wild polioviruses around the world. However, in areas where vaccination rates drop and enough people are susceptible to infection, the weakened … Read more
The disease is spread by two types of mosquito. The first is a species called Culiseta melanura, or the black-tailed mosquito. This mosquito tends to live in hardwood bogs and feeds on birds like robins, herons, and wrens, spreading the virus among them. But the melanura mosquito doesn’t often bite mammals. A different mosquito species, … Read more
Travellers jetting off abroad are being advised to be vigilant for certain health symptoms that might signal a widespread infectious disease. Guidance issued on the Canada.ca website, cautions travellers that lack of vaccination could pose health risks to fellow holidaymakers and local individuals. It warns: “Measles cases and outbreaks still happen in Canada. Cases usually … Read more
Ongoing outbreaks of avian influenza have decimated poultry flocks and wild birds across the United States and worldwide. The virus, known as H5N1, is also increasingly adapting to mammals and has been found in cats, goats, and raccoons. In the US, it has spread to at least 170 dairy herds across 13 states. And in … Read more
Every time the Olympics come around, it seems there’s a different disease stalking the event. At Rio 2016 it was Zika. At the postponed Tokyo games it was Covid. And at the 2024 Paris Olympics this summer? Take your pick. Authorities have been working to contain both dengue and measles, which have been on the … Read more
Is there any indication that if Trump is reelected, he would handle a subsequent public health crisis any better? I hope he would have learned lessons, but nothing indicates to me that he would change. Each of us has our own fundamental personality. He’s 78. So I would be surprised if he did anything different. … Read more
The US government will pay Moderna $176 million to develop an mRNA vaccine against a pandemic influenza—an award given as the highly pathogenic bird flu virus H5N1 continues to spread widely among US dairy cattle. The funding flows through BARDA, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, as part of a new Rapid Response Partnership … Read more
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. As flowers bloom and temperatures climb, many are eager to get back outside. But while the sun may be shining, there is a dark side that can make the great outdoors not so great. Gangs of germs are lurking in the woods, in … Read more
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Ever since viruses came to light in the late 1800s, scientists have set them apart from the rest of life. Viruses were far smaller than cells, and inside their protein shells they carried little more than genes. They could not grow, copy their own genes, … Read more
