Last week we discussed the case of polio in Venezuela that turned out not to be polio. Unfortunately the same cannot be concluded about a bona fide case of polio in Papua New Guinea. Surveillance for acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) revealed a 6 year old boy in Papua New Guinea with lower limb weakness on …
In early June it was widely reported that the first case of poliomyelitis in 30 years had been identified in Venezuela (see this Tech Times report as an example). Fortunately these reports were incorrect, and Venezuela remains free of polio. Let€™s unpack exactly what happened.
By Gertrud U. Rey Zika virus (ZIKV) infection causes microcephaly in newborns and is causally associated with Guillian-Barré syndrome in adults. To date, there are no drugs available to prevent or treat ZIKV infection. ZIKV vaccine research is challenging because adult immunocompetent mice are resistant to ZIKV infection and disease.
The common cold is an infection of the upper respiratory tract that may be caused by many different viruses, but most frequently by rhinoviruses. A compound that inhibits a cell enzyme and blocks rhinovirus replication has the potential to be developed into an antiviral drug (link to paper).
By Gertrud U. Rey There is currently no vaccine to prevent infection with herpes simplex virus type 1 or type 2 (HSV-1 or HSV-2). Infection with either of these viruses results in life-long viral latency. Sporadic reactivation and viral shedding may lead to painful oral and genital disease and an increased risk of HIV transmission.
How difficult would it be to study the virome of living whales? You might think that sampling would be the hard part, but not if you used a drone. A drone was used to collect the breath (‘blow’) from 19 humpback whales near Sydney, Australia. The video below show how a sampling chamber carried by …
