Category: Science and Tech
NIH releases H5N1 influenza research agenda
Eureka Alert The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has released its plan for advancing H5N1 influenza basic research and translating those findings into strategies and interventions that can benefit people. The research agenda focuses on four key objectives: increasing understanding of the biology of H5N1 […]
Jun 5, 2024
A new discovery about carbon dioxide is challenging decades-old ventilation doctrine
STAT Carbon dioxide monitors have been around for decades. But in 2020, they became, almost overnight, a hot commodity. All of a sudden, people wanted them to help assess the safety of indoor spaces — to gauge the likelihood of breathing in coronavirus-laced particles that until very recently had been in someone else’s lungs. No […]
Jun 4, 2024
Technical Update: Summary Analysis of the Genetic Sequence of a Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H5N1) Virus Identified in a Human in Michigan
CDC CDC has sequenced the influenza virus genome identified in a conjunctival specimen collected from the person in Michigan who was identified to be infected with HPAI A(H5N1) virus and compared each gene segment with HPAI A(H5N1) sequences from cows, wild birds and poultry and the first human case in Texas. The virus HA was […]
May 29, 2024
New study launches following the discovery of a second case of avian influenza spreading from cows to humans
Medical Express Vaccination remains the most effective strategy for avian influenza prevention and control in humans, despite varying vaccine efficacy across strains. That’s according to the authors of a new review which delves into existing research into bird flu vaccines for humans. Published in the journal Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, the results of the paper are […]
May 29, 2024
Bird flu in U.S. cows caught scientists by surprise. Canadian research has seen it coming since 1953
CBC Older lab studies showed flu viruses like H5N1 can spread through unusual routes, but may have been overlooked. When U.S. dairy cows began falling ill with a dangerous form of bird flu, many scientists were struck by an unusual pattern: The virus kept showing up in cows’ udders, of all places. Influenza is usually […]
May 28, 2024
Body lice may have spread plague more than thought, science suggests
NBC News Lab experiments support the possibility that the blood-sucking bugs may have played a role in the rapid spread of the plague in the Middle Ages. Scientists have long debated whether human body lice might have helped drive the rapid spread of the bacteria responsible for the deadly plague in the Middle Ages, known as […]
May 21, 2024
Virome Sequencing Identifies H5N1 Avian Influenza in Wastewater from Nine Cities
Preprint server Avian influenza (serotype H5N1) is a highly pathogenic virus that emerged in domestic waterfowl in 1996. Over the past decade, zoonotic transmission to mammals, including humans, has been reported. Although human to human transmission is rare, infection has been fatal in nearly half of patients who have contracted the virus in past outbreaks. […]
May 14, 2024
Future pandemics will have the same human causes as ancient outbreaks − lessons from anthropology can help prevent them
The Conversation The last pandemic was bad, but COVID-19 is only one of many infectious diseases that emerged since the turn of this century. Since 2000, the world has experienced 15 novel Ebola epidemics, the global spread of a 1918-like influenza strain and major outbreaks of three new and unusually deadly coronavirus infections: SARS, MERS and, of course, COVID-19. Every year, researchers […]
May 7, 2024
White House overhauls rules for risky pathogen studies
Science New policies for gain-of-function and “dual-use” research will cover broader swath of experiments. The White House is tightening federal oversight of so-called gain-of-function (GOF) studies that could enhance risky viruses in ways that increase their ability to cause a pandemic. It is also overhauling rules for a broader category of federally funded research on […]
May 7, 2024
Chinese scientist who first published COVID sequence stages protest after being locked out of lab
AP The first scientist to publish a sequence of the COVID-19 virus in China staged a sit-in protest outside his lab after authorities locked him out of the facility — a sign of Beijing’s continuing pressure on scientists conducting research on the coronavirus. Zhang Yongzhen wrote in an online post Monday that he and his team had […]
May 1, 2024