Four people in Oregon and 23 in Washington are being monitored for the Ebola virus after returning to the US from West Africa, the Oregon Health Authority said on Thursday. The individuals had returned from Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where small outbreaks of Ebola have been recorded. The state health authority said … Read more
Scientists who handle some of the most deadly substances in the world have described the ‘trepidation’ they felt when starting to research coronavirus. The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) at the secretive Porton Down, near Salisbury, has been helping in the fight against the disease ever since the pandemic began. Founded in 1916, the … Read more
Vaccines? The Chinese got there first… Charles Kenny details a history of mankind’s battles with infectious disease Infectious disease has always been with us and arguably always will be Charles Kenny’s book is a lively survey of our millennia-long struggle to defeat it He looks back at the plagues that have gone before including the Black … Read more
Climate change may have driven the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, a new study claims. UK researchers say global greenhouse gas emissions over the last century have driven growth of forest habitat favoured by bats. This has made southern China, in particular the Chinese Yunnan province, a ‘global hotspot’ for bat-borne coronaviruses like SARS-CoV-2. … Read more
Convalescent plasma has been used to treat infections for at least a century, dating back to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. It was also trialed during the 2009-2010 H1N1 influenza virus pandemic, 2003 SARS epidemic, and the 2012 MERS epidemic. Convalescent plasma was used as a last resort to improve the survival rate of patients … Read more
Doctor who discovered Ebola warns that world could be hit by new deadly ‘Disease X’ that is as fast-spreading as Covid and as deadly as the African virus Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe Tamfum helped discover Ebola virus in 1976 He said new potentially fatal viruses emerge from Africa’s tropical rainforests ‘Disease X’, which stands for unexpected, … Read more
Russia ‘is researching how to weaponise deadly Ebola virus as part of a catastrophic doomsday project’, experts fear Unit of the FSB spy agency is believed to be researching Ebola and Marburg virus Diseases lead to organ failure and internal bleeding and have caused outbreaks Ex-intelligence insider fears Moscow could be going beyond studying diseases … Read more
‘Unsustainable agricultural practices and the climate crisis’ are to blame for the coronavirus emerging, says Kate Bingham, head of the UK vaccine task force. Writing in a report on the task force’s vaccine strategy, goals and achievements, Bingham said these practices mean we will likely face new pandemics in the future. Zoonotic diseases – such as … Read more
Congo declares end to Ebola outbreak that killed 55 people since emerging in June Ebola outbreak infected at least 130 people after coming to light in early June It came just as Congo was bringing an end to another outbreak that killed 2,000 Congo has also seen more than 11,000 cases of coronavirus and 320 … Read more
Saving tropical swamps could help prevent future pandemics by reducing the likelihood of diseases jumping from animals to humans, study finds Peatlands are high in biodiversity are suffering severe habitat loss currently Researchers say these factors create a perfect storm for zoonotic transmission This describes the ability of a pathogen to jump from one species … Read more