Year: 2024
H5N1: Gauging the Current Threat
Brown Univ On 26 April at 12:00 PM ET the Pandemic Center will host a webinar titled H5N1: Gauging the Current Threat. On 10 April, the CDC put out a Health Advisory Network message noting a human case in the United States of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N1), which had already reached US livestock, infecting cows in […]
Apr 24, 2024
World’s chocolate supply threatened by devastating virus
Science Daily A rapidly spreading virus threatens the health of the cacao tree and the dried seeds from which chocolate is made, jeopardizing the global supply of the world’s most popular treat. Researchers have developed a new strategy: using mathematical data to determine how far apart farmers can plant vaccinated trees to prevent mealybugs from […]
Apr 24, 2024
Highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) virus in a common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) in Florida
Nature Since late 2021, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses of A/goose/Guangdong/1/1996 (H5N1) lineage have caused widespread mortality in wild birds and poultry in the United States. Concomitant with the spread of HPAI viruses in birds are increasing numbers of mammalian infections, including wild and captive mesocarnivores and carnivores with central nervous system involvement. Here […]
Apr 24, 2024
The Evolving Danger of the New Bird Flu
NYT Podcast An unusual outbreak of the disease has spread to dairy herds in multiple U.S. states. TRANSCRIPT: From “The New York Times,” I’m Sabrina Tavernise, and this is “The Daily.” [MUSIC PLAYING] The outbreak of bird flu that is tearing through the nation’s poultry farms is the worst in US history. But scientists say […]
Apr 24, 2024
Why the WHO’s chief scientist is concerned about bird flu
Washington Post The World Health Organization’s chief scientist called the bird flu an “enormous concern,” citing critical questions over how the virus is transmitted. Jeremy Farrar singled out the recent outbreak in dairy cows in the United States — the first time the country’s dairy cattle have been infected with the highly pathogenic avian influenza. With H5N1 […]
Apr 24, 2024
Bird flu hits turkey flock in Newaygo County as virus spreads in Michigan
BridgeMI The bird flu continues to impact poultry flocks in Michigan as wild birds make their migration from the south. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported last week that highly pathogenic avian influenza had been detected in a commercial flock of turkeys being raised for meat in Newaygo County. News of the outbreak, which affected more than […]
Apr 24, 2024
USDA assesses vaccine to protect cattle from bird flu virus
Successful Farming Authorities say bird flu poses a low risk to human health, although it has only recently been found in U.S. cattle. The Agriculture Department said its research agency “has begun to assess the potential to develop an effective vaccine” against the H5N1 bird flu virus in cattle, although it warned that it is […]
Apr 24, 2024
COVID Shot Boosts Mucosal Immunity in Previously Infected People
MedPageToday Only “traces” of spike-specific salivary antibodies found in vaccinated SARS-CoV-2-naive people. COVID-19 mRNA vaccines stimulated mucosal immunity in people previously infected with SARS-CoV-2, but generated only a tiny amount of immunity in people who had never been infected, according to a cohort study using data from the French CoviCompare trials. Among trial participants who […]
Apr 24, 2024
Long COVID Taste Loss May Not Involve Taste Buds
Med Page Today Study attempts to untangle taste and olfactory dysfunction 1 year after infection. Taste dysfunction was gone 1 year after exposure to COVID-19, but smell loss remained for some people, a national cross-sectional study showed. Empirically measured taste function didn’t differ between individuals who had acute SARS-CoV-2 infection a year earlier and uninfected […]
Apr 24, 2024
W.H.O. Broadens Definition of Airborne Diseases
NYT After a drawn-out global controversy over the coronavirus, the W.H.O. has updated its classification of how pathogens spread through the air. In the early days of the Covid pandemic, a team of scientists called on the World Health Organization to acknowledge that the disease could spread through the air. Initially, the agency rebuffed them, despite growing […]
Apr 24, 2024