Influenza News and Research

Latest Influenza News and Research

Novel sensor may be able to test for COVID-19 and influenza simultaneously

The novel coronavirus has been compared to the flu almost from the moment it emerged in late 2019. They share a variety of symptoms, and in many cases, an influenza test is part of the process for diagnosing COVID-19.

25 Jun 2020

Far-UVC light can efficiently and safely kill airborne coronaviruses

More than 99.9% of seasonal coronaviruses present in airborne droplets were killed when exposed to a particular wavelength of ultraviolet light that is safe to use around humans, a new study at Columbia University Irving Medical Center has found.

24 Jun 2020

USA riddled with SARS-CoV-2 - 80% undetected

The coronavirus pandemic is actively spreading across the globe, affecting 188 countries and territories. The United States remains the country with the highest number of infections. The official tally reveals that the U.S. has more than 2.347 million people infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

24 Jun 2020

Study highlights the challenges involved in designing universal flu vaccine

Some common strains of influenza have the potential to mutate to evade broad-acting antibodies that could be elicited by a universal flu vaccine, according to a study led by scientists at Scripps Research.

23 Jun 2020

COVID-19 mortality higher in Spring in the USA

Now, a new study by researchers at the University of Louisville and Babson College and published on the preprint server medRxiv in June 2020 describes the increased risk of COVID-19 deaths in spring, in the USA.

23 Jun 2020

Is a second wave of coronavirus coming?

As Americans continue to grapple with the novel coronavirus, one question is on a lot of people's minds: Are we already seeing, or will we eventually see, a second wave of the virus?

23 Jun 2020

Prior infection provides protection against SARS-CoV-2 virus in hamsters

In an animal model for COVID-19 that shares important features of human disease, scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the University of Tokyo and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai show that prior infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus provides protection against reinfection, and treatment with convalescent serum limits virus replication in their lungs.

22 Jun 2020

Early COVID-19 cases may be 80 times greater than originally reported

Many epidemiologists believe that the initial COVID-19 infection rate was undercounted due to testing issues, asymptomatic and alternatively symptomatic individuals, and a failure to identify early cases.

22 Jun 2020

Favipiravir has weak effect on SARS-CoV-2 and Hydroxychloroquine none at all in hamster model

A new study from Belgian researchers shows that antiviral drug Favipiravir could have a weak effect against the dreaded novel coronavirus or severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) as seen in hamster models. However, the study also finds there is no efficacy of the much-touted drug Hydroxychloroquine.

22 Jun 2020

Reassuring news on the Oxford vaccine (AZD1222) against SARS-CoV-2

A new paper from the UK vaccine research group, currently available on the bioRxiv preprint server, reveals that a single dose of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AZD1222) can induce antigen-specific antibody and T cells responses against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and a booster shot additionally enhances antibody production with an increase in neutralizing titers – particularly in pigs.

22 Jun 2020

Homeless patients with respiratory infections more likely to be treated with ventilators than non-homeless

Researchers from UCLA, Harvard Medical School, and the University of Tokyo found that during a recent six-year period, homeless people in New York state were more likely to hospitalized and treated with mechanical ventilators for respiratory infections than people who are not homeless.

22 Jun 2020

How weather affects COVID-19 in India

With India now having endured six months of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, there are now over 410,000 official cases in and more than 13,000 deaths recorded. Almost all these deaths have occurred in the last three months, April to June, with 100 deaths on April 4, 2020, increasing almost 16-fold by May 4, and 63-fold by June 4, 2020.

21 Jun 2020

New adjuvant helps induce long-lasting immunity against HIV

Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and the Emory Vaccine Center (EVC) are first to show a new adjuvant, 3M-052, helps induce long-lasting immunity against HIV.

20 Jun 2020

Viruses can steal genetic signals from hosts to expand their own genomes

Like a scene out of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," a virus infects a host and converts it into a factory for making more copies of itself.

19 Jun 2020

Nanosponges attract coronavirus away from lung cells, study shows

Imagine if scientists could stop the coronavirus infection in its tracks simply by diverting its attention away from living lung cells? A new therapeutic countermeasure, announced in a Nano Letters study by researchers from Boston University's National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories and the University of California San Diego, appears to do just that in experiments that were carried out at the NEIDL in Boston.

18 Jun 2020

Staffing levels and quality linked to COVID-19 toll in nursing homes

A new study shows that residents of long-term care facilities with lower nurse staffing levels, poorer quality scores, and higher concentrations of disadvantaged residents suffer from higher rates of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths.

18 Jun 2020

Financial hardships are associated with more ER visits, shows ACS study

A new American Cancer Society study finds higher medical and nonmedical financial hardships are independently associated with more emergency department visits, lower receipt of some preventive services, and worse self-rated health in cancer survivors.

18 Jun 2020

Impact Biomedical's COVID-19 research published in peer-reviewed scientific journal

SGX-listed Singapore eDevelopment Limited's wholly owned subsidiary Impact Biomedical Inc. announced today that their COVID-19 research with Global Research and Discovery Group Sciences, conducted in collaboration with Harvard Medical School and Vilotos Pharmaceutical, Inc., was published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Molecules on June 11, 2020.

18 Jun 2020

Researchers take actions to reduce hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19

Infectious disease experts from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and UW Medicine are advocating for earlier actions to reduce hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19.

17 Jun 2020

Mapping RNA sequences of therapeutic value in the SARS-CoV-2 genome

Now, in new research published on the preprint server bioRxiv European scientists have performed RNA structure probing to obtain a single-base resolution secondary structure map of the full SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus genome.

17 Jun 2020