Virology

Person to person Zika virus transmission

The title of a Eurosurveillance article, "An autochthonous case of Zika due to possible sexual transmission, Florence, Italy, 2014" was written to make the headlines. The title should be "An autochthonous case of Zika due to person to person contact, Florence, Italy, 2014." An Italian man returns from a 10 day holiday in Thailand and ...

Zika virus and the fetus

An epidemic of Zika virus infection began in Brazil in April 2015, and six months later there was a surge in the number of infants born with microcephaly. Confirming that Zika virus causes microcephaly will require much more information than is currently available. So far there have been few isolations of Zika virus ...

TWiV 377: Chicken with a side of Zika

On episode #377 of the science show This Week in Virology, the TWiVniks review the past week's findings on Zika virus and microcephaly, and reveal a chicken protein that provides insight on the restriction of transmission of avian influenza viruses to humans. You can find TWiV #377 at microbe.tv/twiv, or you can listen ...

TWiEVO 5: Looking at straw colored fruit bats through a straw

On episode #5 of the science show This Week in Evolution, Sara Sawyer and Kartik Chandran join Nels and Vincent to talk about how the filovirus receptor NPC1 regulates Ebolavirus susceptibility in bats. You can find TWiEVO #5 at microbe.tv/twievo, or you can listen below. [powerpress url="http://traffic.libsyn.com/twievo/TWiEVO005.mp3"] Click arrow to play Download TWiEVO 5 (73 MB ...

Rubella virus and birth defects

Amidst the fear surrounding Zika virus, remember that there are over 100,000 children born each year with birth defects caused by infection with rubella virus. The virus Rubella virus is a member of the Togaviridae family, which also includes chikungunya virus. The genome is a 9.7 kilobase, positive strand RNA enclosed in a capsid ...
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