Guan Yi, an expert on H5N1 influenza virus, is quoted in China Daily as saying that “The virus is definitely mutating”. Yi’s comments were in reference to the continuing pandemic of H5N1 influenza in poultry farms. He indicates that some farms are using a vaccine against an American H5N2 strain, which is not likely to …
H5N1 expert says ‘The virus is definitely mutating’ Read More »
Virologist D. Carleton Gajdusek, who was awarded the 1976 Nobel Prize in medicine for unraveling the nature of the prion disease Kuru, has died, as reported by the New York Times. Gajdusek’s work on Kuru, a fatal encephalopathy found in the Fore people of New Guinea, proved that human transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) could be …
My co-host for the netcast This Week in Virology, Dick Despommier, is featured in a Time magazine article entitled “Vertical Farming”. As listeners of TWiV may know, Dick has developed the idea of constructing hydroponic farms in multistory urban buildings as a way of avoiding the food crunch that will likely occur in 50 years. …
This Week in Virology #11 has been posted at www.microbe.tv/twiv. [powerpress url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/twiv/TWiV011.mp3″] Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #11 In this episode, Vincent, Alan, and guest Jeremy Luban discuss why certain AIDS patients, called ‘elite controllers’ or ‘long-term non-progressors’, do not develop disease, why mosquitoes infected with Sindbis virus remain …
TWiV #11 – Elite controllers, mosquitoes, and winter vomiting Read More »
The term emerging virus was coined by scientists in the 1990s to describe the agent of a new or previously unrecognized infection. The term implies that emerging viruses are new; however this assumption is incorrect. New virus infections have been emerging for thousands of years, at least since the rise of agriculture 11,000 years ago. …
A few days ago I wrote about my particular reasons for maintaining a science blog. This issue resonates among scientists, as I received many comments from my colleagues, and discovered their writings on the topic. But those who read science blogs have a view too, and I came across a particularly illuminating one today, from …
