After infection with poliovirus, only about 1% of individuals develop paralysis. I have always wondered whether genetic polymorphisms underlie the rarity of this disease outcome. The results of study carried out in Denmark provide the first insights. The study group consisted of 17 individuals who developed poliomyelitis in the pre-vaccine ...

From the 16th Smögen Summer Symposium on Virology, Vincent speaks with Erling Norrby about how he has used archival material to provide insight into early Nobel Prizes for research on viruses. Click arrow to play Download TWiV 564 (45 MB .mp3, 74 min) Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiV! Show notes at microbe.tv/twiv

by Gertrud U. Rey The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is currently experiencing its worst outbreak of Ebola virus disease in history. More than 3,000 people have been infected with the virus, and nearly 1,900 have died since the outbreak began in 2018. The causative virus is "Ebola virus," ...

The TWiVologists consider whether to receive an influenza vaccine in August (in the northern hemisphere), and mice implanted with human lung fragments for studying microbial pathogens. Click arrow to play Download TWiV 563 (55 MB .mp3, 91 min) Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiV! Show notes at microbe.tv/twiv

Mice are important animal models for studying human pathogens, but they have limitations: not all human viruses replicate in mice and often these animals do not reproduce aspects of disease and immune responses. Mice implanted with human bone marrow, liver, and thymus (BLT mice) develop human immune systems, but most ...