The first episode of our new science podcast, “This Week in Parasitism“, is now available. This Week in Parasitism (TWiP) is a podcast about eukaryotic parasites hosted by Vincent Racaniello and Dick Despommier. Following in the path of their podcast ‘This Week in Virology’ (TWiV), they strive for an informal yet informative conversation about parasites …
Influenza virus may be transmitted among humans in three ways: by direct contact with infected individuals; by contact with contaminated objects (called fomites, such as toys, doorknobs); and by inhalation of virus-laden aerosols. The contribution of each mode to overall transmission of influenza is not known. But something that most of us touch on a …
Influenza virus is infectious for days on banknotes Read More »
Host: Vincent Racaniello On episode #57 of the podcast “This Week in Virology”, Vincent visited Scotch Plains – Fanwood High School and talked about viruses with high school biology students. [powerpress url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/twiv/TWiV057.mp3″] Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #57 (68 MB .mp3, 94 minutes) Subscribe to TWiV in iTunes, by …
The suggestion that yearly immunization against influenza might make children more susceptible to serious disease during a pandemic has generated some controversy. Does this idea have merit? If you have read Being older is a good defense against 2009 H1N1 influenza, you are familiar with the concept of ‘heterosubtypic immunity’. After natural infection with influenza …
Is yearly influenza vaccination of children a bad idea? Read More »
The title of this post should not come as a surprise to readers of virology blog – it was shown in 1974 that zinc could interfere with replication of rhinoviruses (see “Zinc and the common cold“). I am referring to the result of my first experiment to study the mechanism of zinc inhibition – something …
Why is the incidence of infection with 2009 H1N1 influenza highest among 5-24 year olds, and lowest in those over 65 years of age? Were the oldsters previously infected with a related influenza virus, or is there another explanation? The sera of individuals born in the early part of the 20th century have antibodies that …
Being older is a good defense against 2009 H1N1 influenza virus Read More »
