pandemics
milhayser | February 8, 2016On The Pump Handle, Liz Borkowski reports on a "public health nightmare" in Brazil that threatens to become more common around the world. The culprit is a virus called Zika, known to cause mild infections since 1947 but now "linked to nearly 4,000 cases of microcephaly – infants born with abnormally small brains and heads." On Aetiology, Tara C. Smith writes that the link between Zika and microcephaly is not conclusive, and explains how scientists will search for a definite relationship. In the meantime, officials in Brazil and other South American countries are telling women to postpone…
mpendergrast | June 21, 2010Mark Pendergrast writes: To kick off this book club discussion of Inside the Outbreaks, I thought I would explain briefly how I came to write the book and then suggest some possible topics for discussion.
The origin of the book goes back to an email I got in 2004 from my old high school and college friend, Andy Vernon, who wrote that I should consider writing the history of the EIS. I emailed back to say that I was honored, but what was the EIS? I had never heard of it. I knew Andy worked on tuberculosis at the CDC, but I didn't know that he had been a state-based EIS officer from 1978…
ddobbs | July 2, 2009Helen Branswell delivers some sobering news:Swine flu viruses are missing at least two key features seen in all flu viruses present and past that transmit well among people and yet the viruses are spreading quite efficiently, two new studies suggest.
The research groups which produced the work differ slightly in their views of the degree to which the novel H1N1 virus is spreading, with one finding transmission isn't yet as efficient as with human flu viruses while the other finding transmission rates are in lockstep with those of seasonal flu cousins.
There is no disputing the evidence,…
grrlscientist | May 28, 2009tags: TEDTalks, virology, epidemiology, Nathan Wolfe, SARS, Influenza, streaming video
I am very lucky to be attending a New York Academy of Science (NYAS) conference about H1N1 Influenza today, so I thought I'd share this TEDTalk video about viral outbreaks, a talk presented by virus hunter Nathan Wolfe. His goal? Outwitting the next pandemic by staying two steps ahead: discovering new, deadly viruses where they first emerge -- passing from animals to humans among poor subsistence hunters in Africa -- and stopping them before they claim millions of lives. [13:05]