The World Health Organization, whose duties include directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system, will soon be writing science textbooks. That statement isn't true, of course. But it was my reaction to reading the latest announcement from Geneva: Bowing to pressure, the World Health Organization announced Friday that it ...

Does previous exposure to influenza H1N1 viruses, either by infection or vaccination, provide any protection against infection with the new H1N1 influenza virus strains? The answer to this question might provide insight as to why over 60% of confirmed cases of influenza caused by the swine-like H1N1 viruses in the ...

Now that we have a rudimentary understanding of influenza virus replication, we can begin to consider how the virus causes disease - a field of study called viral pathogenesis. The first step in this process is virus entry into the body. The human body is covered with skin, which has ...

The recent series of posts on polymerase error rates and viral evolution has elicited many excellent and thought provoking comments from readers of virology blog. Here is one that I had not thought of before, and which I'll use on an exam in my virology course: Here's a tough question. ...

Our discussion of influenza virus replication has so far brought us to the stage of viral RNA synthesis. Last time we discussed the formation of viral RNAs, an event which takes place in the cell nucleus. Now we'll consider how these RNAs participate in the assembly of new infectious viral ...