When the 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza virus emerged earlier this year, I began re-reading John Barry's The Great Influenza. I came across the sentences that I had underlined during my first read identifying errors in basic virology. Because this is a very popular book, it's important to identify the mistakes ...

We've had several discussions on the value of personal protective equipment (PPE) in preventing influenza infection. CIDRAP has an excellent summary of an Institute of Medicine meeting on this subject. The IOM has been asked to make recommendations about how to protect healthcare workers against swine-origin H1N1 influenza. An unpublished ...

A new class is starting at virology blog: Virology 101. I began this blog in 2004, to give back what I've learned from studying viruses for 30+ years. I've written many posts on basic virology, but they tend to disappear with time. To remedy this problem, I've collected all these ...

Although many viruses are classified into individual families based on a variety of physical and biological criteria, they may also be placed in groups according to the type of genome in the virion. Over 30 years ago virologist David Baltimore devised an alternative classification scheme that takes into account the ...

Recently while driving north on the New York State Thruway I passed the exit for the town of Coxsackie, NY (population 8,884). I grabbed my camera and photographed the exit sign, and reminded myself to write about the virus named after this small town. In the summer of 1947 there ...