I previously discussed the idea that new human virus infections will continue to emerge from animal hosts. Stephen Morse, my colleague here at Columbia, has called this collection of viruses the ‘zoonotic pool’. How many viruses are in this pool? Here are Dr. Morse’s calculations: assume that there are 50,000 vertebrates on earth, each of …
I just heard President Obama, in his inaugural address, say the words “We will restore science to its rightful place”. What does he mean by this? In “The Audacity of Hope”, the book President Obama wrote in 2006 to set forth his thoughts on “reclaiming the American dream”, he suggests that we will need to …
The oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV), which has been used to eradicate poliomyelitis in much of the world, was developed by Dr. Albert Sabin during the 1940s and 1950s. This live virus vaccine was produced by passing the three poliovirus serotypes in various cell cultures and searching for variants with reduced neurovirulence. In the days before …
Vincent and Jeremy recorded TWiV #16 in Saanen, Switzerland, at the 19th Challenge in Virology. They review the meeting, and discuss implications of a new HIV-1 sequence from 1960 for the origin of AIDS. Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #16
Dick is back from India, and joins Vincent and Alan on episode #15 of This Week in Virology. The trio discuss hantavirus spread by large deer mice, why the 1918 influenza virus replicates in the lower respiratory tract, measles in Europe, and the growing resistance of influenza virus to antivirals. Click the arrow above to play, …
TWiV #15: Deer mice, Spanish flu, measles, antiviral resistance Read More »
Yesterday the New York Times ran an article on the resistance to Tamiflu of current influenza H1N1 strains circulating in the US. I wrote a post about this issue on 22 December 2008, so I’m happy to see the Times following my lead. But there is an issue with the Times article that I’d like …
