H5N1 News and Research

Latest H5N1 News and Research

Research suggests St. John's Wort and Echinacea could protect against COVID-19

Researchers in Saudi Arabia have conducted a study demonstrating the antiviral effects of two medicinal herbs against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – the agent that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

17 Jan 2021

Many US health experts underestimated the coronavirus … until it was too late

A year ago, while many Americans were finishing their holiday shopping and finalizing travel plans, doctors in Wuhan, China, were battling a mysterious outbreak of pneumonia with no known cause.

21 Dec 2020

Scientists detect a sarbecovirus phylogenetically related to SARS-CoV-2 from bats in Japan

A team of researchers at the University of Tokyo in Japan have detected a sarbecovirus, called Rc-o319, which is phylogenetically positioned in the same clade as SARS-CoV-2 in Rhinolophus cornutus bats in Japan.

2 Dec 2020

SARS-CoV-2 causes a unique cytokine storm, study finds

A new study published on the preprint server medRxiv* in November 2020 reports some of the unique elements of COVID-19-induced CRS and how understanding these distinctive characteristics of the disease could help in formulating specific interventions and therapies.

18 Nov 2020

Hydrogen therapy may help severely ill COVID-19 patients

Researchers from the Department of Critical Care Medicine, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, Chengdu in China, have explored the possibility of using hydrogen therapy on severely ill COVID-19 patients. The team published their study's findings, titled "Hydrogen: A Potential New Adjuvant Therapy for COVID-19 Patients," in the latest issue of the journal Frontiers in Pharmacology.

17 Nov 2020

Will COVID-19 become a seasonal virus?

In this interview, Dr. Hadi Yassine and Dr. Hassan Zaraket speak about their research into whether COVID-19 will become a seasonal virus.

5 Oct 2020

Potential sea animal reservoirs for coronaviruses?

The COVID-19 pandemic has focused, yet again, intense research interest on coronaviruses, due to the high toll the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has taken on human life, health, economic well-being, and social activity. A recent paper published on the server Preprints in September 2020 reviews what is known about this viral infection in water life.

13 Sep 2020

SARS-CoV-2-RNA viremia is a robust marker of critical illness in COVID-19

A new study by a large team of Spanish researchers and published on the preprint server medRxiv* in August 2020 reports that the presence of viral RNA in the blood is a useful marker of impending acute disease and can help triage COVID-19 disease patients who will require hospital care.

1 Sep 2020

Study: Drinking honeysuckle decoction accelerates the negative conversion of COVID-19 patients

In a new study in Cell Discovery, Chen-Yu Zhang's group at Nanjing University and two other groups from Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Second Hospital of Nanjing present a novel finding that absorbed miRNA MIR2911 in honeysuckle decoction (HD) can directly target SARS-CoV-2 genes and inhibit viral replication. Drinking of HD accelerate the negative conversion of COVID-19 patients.

7 Aug 2020

Findings show promise for developing vaccines against multiple strains of flu, including SARS-CoV-2

A vaccine additive known as an adjuvant can enhance responses to a vaccine containing the exotic avian flu virus H5N1, so that both rookie and veteran elements of the immune response are strengthened, according to results from an Emory Vaccine Center study.

17 Jul 2020

Could the next pandemic be 100 times worse than COVID-19?

As the world tries to cope with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Dr. Michael Herschel Greger has claimed that worse could be yet to come. The American nutrition expert has claimed in his latest book that the next pandemic could be due to virus emanating from poultry farms.

2 Jun 2020

Study looks into COVID‐19 preparedness in Michigan nursing homes

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit some nursing homes especially hard - including in the hotspot state of Michigan. Hundreds of deaths of residents in homes from Seattle to Boston have raised concerns about how well facilities are protecting the 1.3 million older Americans who live in them.

24 Apr 2020

Blood centers will collect plasma from COVID-19 survivors in bid for treatment

Blood donation centers across the U.S. are ramping up efforts to collect plasma from people who have recovered from COVID-19 in hopes it could be used to save the lives of others infected with the pandemic disease.

1 Apr 2020

NIH launches new website with educational resources for COVID-19 workers

Today, the National Institutes of Health will launch a new website with important educational resources for Coronavirus workers dealing with the spread of COVID-19.

23 Mar 2020

Former federal virus hunter says U.S. needs to act before new germs ‘kick your door in’

When the federal government decided to investigate the threat viruses in animals posed to humans, Dennis Carroll helped lead the charge.

16 Mar 2020

Research reveals new pathogenic mechanism for influenza NS1 protein

Influenza is a deadly virus, with about 290,000 to 650,000 deaths worldwide each year. When pandemics hit, the toll can soar: The Spanish flu of 1918 caused 40 million to 50 million deaths, the Asian flu of 1957 caused 2 million deaths, and the Hong Kong flu of 1968 caused 1 million deaths.

16 Feb 2020

China reports H5N1 bird flu in Hunan amid coronavirus crisis

China has reported an outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu in Hunan, which borders the province of Hubei, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

3 Feb 2020

Infectious disease expert explains about Wuhan coronavirus

A new coronavirus virus, likely first transmitted to people from animals at a market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, is making international headlines as disease detectives work to uncover what it is, how it's transmitted, and how deadly the virus actually is.

24 Jan 2020

Super fast novel device catches and identifies viruses

A new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on December 23, 2019, describes a novel device developed by a team of researchers at Penn State and New York University. Not only can this instrument capture different types of virus, it can tell what kind they are.

23 Dec 2019

Researchers find another piece of puzzle relating to bird flu viruses

Normally, bird flu viruses do not spread easily from person to person. But if this does happen, it could trigger a pandemic. Researchers from the MDC and RKI have now explained in the journal Nature Communications what makes the leap from animals to humans less likely.

10 Dec 2019