Later this month (May 2014) the World Health Assembly will decide whether to destroy the remaining stocks of variola virus – the agent of smallpox – or to allow continued research on the virus at WHO-approved laboratories. After the eradication of smallpox in 1980, the World Health Organization called for destruction of known remaining stocks …
Should variola virus, the agent of smallpox, be destroyed? Read More »
On episode #284 of the science show This Week in Virology, the TWiV team discusses how skin scarification promotes a nonspecific immune response, and whether remaining stocks of smallpox virus should be destroyed. You can find TWiV #284 at www.microbe.tv/twiv.
This week’s question comes from a graduate student studying virology, who writes: My professor recently said that really, the MOI doesn’t matter in a culture, it is the concentration of viral particles in the media that matters. Ie: if you have 10 million cells or one cell, but you are infecting the plate with 5mL …
On episode #283 of the science show This Week in Virology, Jens Kuhn speaks with the TWiV team about filoviruses, including the recent Ebola virus outbreak in Guinea. You can find TWiV #283 at www.microbe.tv/twiv.
The 1918 influenza pandemic was particularly lethal, not only for the very young and the very old (as observed for typical influenza), but unexpectedly also for young adults, 20 to 40 years of age (pictured). It has been suggested that the increased lethality in young adults occurred because they lacked protective immunity that would be conferred …
Unusual mortality pattern of 1918 influenza A virus Read More »
