Author: Claudinne Miller
First polar bear to die of bird flu – what are the implications?
Gavi Avian influenza has killed a polar bear and may have infected other bears. Climate change is a threat to polar bear’s survival. Now they have a new deadly challenge facing them: bird flu. It was recently confirmed that a polar bear from northern Alaska has died from the disease. The current strain of H5N1 influenza has […]
Jan 16, 2024
What if every germ hit you at the exact same time? An immunologist explains
The Conversation When I was younger, I would watch “Batman” on my black-and-white television after school. Usually, Batman would face either the Joker, the Penguin, the Puzzler, Catwoman or any one of his usual opponents. However, on some occasions, Batman would have to face them all at the same time. What would happen if, like […]
Jan 16, 2024
RSV, flu and COVID: demystifying the triple epidemic of respiratory viruses
The Conversation Since 2022, a triple epidemic of respiratory viruses — RSV, influenza and SARS-CoV-2 — has been disrupting our daily lives. In addition, the media constantly reminds us of how this is straining emergency departments. How does the present respiratory virus season differ from seasons during the pre-COVID era? As a specialist in virus-host […]
Jan 16, 2024
Scientists Launch First Human Vaccine Trials For Deadly Nipah Virus
Forbes The University of Oxford announcedThursday that it had launched human trials for a vaccine to protect against the deadly Nipah virus, offering early hope against the dangerous pathogen that experts believe could seed a new pandemic, has no approved vaccines or treatments and kills as many as three in four of the people it infects. The […]
Jan 16, 2024
How Covid-19’s symptoms have changed with each new variant
BBC With a new variant of the Sars-CoV-2 virus causing a spike in cases, it is demonstrating just how much the disease has changed since the pandemic began – and what happened to “Covid toe”. “For almost four years, I’ve managed to dodge Covid-19,” TV broadcaster Mehdi Hasan tweeted a fortnight ago. “But it finally got […]
Jan 16, 2024
Why Don’t Covid Tests Seem to Work as Well as They Used To?
Bloomberg With Covid outbreaks being whipped up for a fifth year, testing has emerged as a source of frustration once again. Whereas obtaining a test was often difficult in early 2020, now the abundance of cheaper rapid kits in grocery stores and home medicine cabinets has led to a new concern — they don’t seem […]
Jan 16, 2024
Low Vaccine Take-Up Blamed for Covid Deaths and Hospitalizations
Bloomberg The UK could have averted more than 7,000 Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths over a four-month period in 2022 if people had received the recommended number of vaccines. The first British study of its kind, published Monday in the medical journal The Lancet, found that 44% of the population hadn’t gotten enough protective shots by June of […]
Jan 16, 2024
Major Measles Outbreak Erupts In England As Vaccine Hesitancy Increases
Forbes In England, the Birmingham Children’s Hospital is currently grappling with a major outbreak of measles. More than 50 children have been hospitalized in the past month. Vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles and polio remain a public health threat. And with childhood vaccine hesitancy—or simply outright refusal—on the rise in the U.K., U.S. and Europe, […]
Jan 16, 2024
The Dangers of Exercise Therapy to Treat Long Covid Patients
Bloomberg The research compared responses to 8-12 minutes of high-intensity cycling in a group of long Covid patients and a group of healthy people. All 46 of the volunteers had blood and muscle biopsies taken before and after for analysis. All of the long Covid patients experienced a bout of debilitating fatigue known as post-exertional malaise. […]
Jan 16, 2024
Should I take Paxlovid if I get covid? Here’s what to know.
Washington Post Paxlovid lowers risk of serious illness and hospitalization, and may help prevent long covid, yet many patients don’t use the drug. The antiviral drug Paxlovid can significantly reduce symptoms of covid-19 and dramatically lower the risk of severe illness or dying of the disease. Yet many eligible people aren’t using it, and some […]
Jan 16, 2024
