Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

New approach to a wastewater system speeds up detection and tracing of COVID-19

Math continues to be a powerful force against COVID-19. Its latest contribution is a sophisticated algorithm, using municipal wastewater systems, for determining key locations in the detection and tracing of COVID-19 back to its human source, which may be a newly infected person or a hot spot of infected people.

5 Jun 2021

Missing antibody molecule may predict disease severity in secondary dengue infection

A first encounter with the dengue virus typically causes very mild symptoms; however, a subsequent infection is a different story.

5 Jun 2021

Georgia State professor receives federal grant to study seasonal and universal vaccination in elderly populations

Dr. Sang-Moo Kang, professor in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University, has received a five-year, $2.7 million federal grant to study seasonal and universal vaccination in elderly populations with pre-existing immunity to influenza viruses.

5 Jun 2021

Shorter treatment regimen found to be effective for treating TB

Tuberculosis (TB) is a deadly infection that occurs in every part of the world. The standard treatment for TB, a six-month multidrug regimen, has not changed in more than 40 years. Patients can find it difficult to complete the lengthy regimen, making it more likely that treatment resistance will develop.

5 Jun 2021

Gene offers some level of protection from severe Covid

The first evidence of a genetic link explaining why some people who catch Covid-19 don't become sick has been discovered.

5 Jun 2021

Mason researchers examine the potential anti-coronavirus activities of an over-the-counter drink

Could an over-the-counter health "shot" help fight COVID-19? George Mason University researchers think it just might.

5 Jun 2021

First human case of H10N3 influenza reported in Jiangsu, China

As the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic continues to spread and wreak havoc globally, another health threat emerged in China. The country has reported its first confirmed case of the rare H10N3 bird flu in a patient admitted to the hospital in April 2021 in Zhenjiang, China.

4 Jun 2021

Maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection imprints immune response in the newborn

A new bioRxiv* preprint reports the immunological footprint in the newborn left by maternal infection with SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy.

4 Jun 2021

Risk of SARS-CoV-2 spread to bats

A recent bioRxiv* preprint offers a powerful risk assessment approach to estimate the risk of bat exposure to SARS-CoV-2 from humans during their interactions in the wild.

4 Jun 2021

SARS-CoV-2 evades neutralizing antibodies and rapidly spreads by cell fusion, finds study

In a new study by researchers in the UK, Germany and South Africa, this process is visualized using time-lapse microscopy of a human cell lung line, demonstrating that SARS-CoV-2 can induce cell-to-cell fusion within 6 hours post-infection. Further, the application of neutralizing monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma was unable to prevent the spread of the virus by this mechanism, suggesting that removing SARS-CoV-2 from cells permissive of cell membrane fusion could be more difficult than other types of cell.

4 Jun 2021

In Missouri and other states, flawed data makes it hard to track vaccine equity

Throughout the covid-19 vaccination effort, public health officials and politicians have insisted that providing shots equitably across racial and ethnic groups is a top priority.

4 Jun 2021

Analysis: Mounting pressure on China about Covid ‘lab leak’ could backfire

President Joe Biden has ordered U.S. intelligence agencies to determine whether the Covid virus, or a near ancestor, emerged from a cave, a live-animal market, a farm — or a secretive Chinese laboratory.

4 Jun 2021

Post-COVID-19 assessment shows long-lasting consequences for many non-hospitalized individuals

Complications following COVID-19 infection require quick identification and management to help plan policy and health system responses. Researchers in the UK recently described the 12-month experience of the first dedicated post-COVID clinical service in the UK to include both hospitalized and non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients. This study has been released on the medRxiv* the preprint server.

4 Jun 2021

Waters launches new RUO LC-MS test method to advance infectious disease research

Waters Corporation today introduced a new RUO LC-MS test method to advance critical infectious disease research.

4 Jun 2021

Researchers report how the tobacco and e-cigarette industry capitalized on COVID-19 to promote smoking

Scientific papers suggesting that smokers are less likely to fall ill with covid-19 are being discredited as links to the tobacco industry, reveals an investigation by The BMJ today.

4 Jun 2021

Novel insights can open doors to combating clotting-related problems in COVID-19

Researchers scour what is known to come up with a hypothesis of why blood clots can be a major problem in COVID-19

4 Jun 2021

Study brings to light the role of a cellular protein in COVID-19 infections

Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), a protein found on the surface of lung cells, facilitates the entry of the novel coronavirus into host cells.

4 Jun 2021

Clinical trial evaluating mixed COVID-19 vaccine schedules begins at NIH

Vaccination efforts against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus behind the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, are well underway in many countries. Over 2 billion vaccines have been administered to date, and campaigns continue to encourage more people to get vaccinated.

4 Jun 2021

World Health Organization simplifies names of SARS-CoV-2 variants

Now, the World Health Organization (WHO) has assigned simple and easy-to-say labels for key variants of SARS-CoV-2 using letters of the Greek alphabet. The health agency selected these labels after a thorough review of many potential naming systems.

4 Jun 2021

New strategy for developing universal flu vaccine

A new study from the University of Chicago and Scripps Research Institute shows that during the last great pandemic--2009's H1N1 influenza pandemic--people developed strong, effective immune responses to stable, conserved parts of the virus.

4 Jun 2021