SNAPDATE: Ebola virus numbers
Ebola virus disease (EVD) case numbers are very mobile at this stage. But working with what we have, we can see from the graph below that there has been a Read More …
Author: Ian M Mackay, PhD (EIC)
Ebola numbers rise a little…
According to a new Situation Report from the World Health Organisation,[6] the case numbers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo outbreak are now…. Total suspected+probable+confirmed: 39 This includes: 2 Read More …
Early in an outbreak, everything is questions…
Nothing is clear during the early days of an outbreak of Ebola virus. Nothing is usually clear in the early days of an outbreak of any infectious disease. Numbers, the source of Read More …
Ebola virus: wild and domestic animals, plants and insects…
IMPORTED POST* Initial Ebola virus (EBOV) infection of humans is a rare zoonotic spillover event. Hypsignathus monstrosus, Epomops franqueti and Myonycteris torquatebats, all fruit-eating megabats of the family Pteropodidae, are considered to be important reservoir hosts, Read More …
Zooming in on the latest Ebola virus disease (EVD) hotzone…
UPDATE #1., #2 The image to the side is freely available to download from here or from figshare (CC BT 4.0 license and a DOI) alongside with yesterday’s images gets us a little Read More …
Behind the naming of an ebolavirus…
What’s in an ebolavirus name? IMPORTED POST* Virus taxonomy is the classification of viruses into groups based on similarities. Today classification is supported by viral gene and genome sequence information. Read More …
Ebola virus disease outbreak in the DRC
UPDATE #1, #2 The World Health Organization has reported that the Democratic Republic of the Congo (f. Zaire) has declared a new outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD). The announcement follows laboratory Read More …
A pile of TWADALs…
IMPORTED POST* During my time engaging with a gaggle of hardcore vaccine denialists, I developed a term and acronym…TWADAL TWADAL stands for “Those Who Are Decided Against Learning“. It came Read More …
Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)…a primer for virus detection
The reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is a cyclical enzyme-driven amplification technique for copying a chain of DNA into billions of new copies. IMPORTED POST* What it does well The Read More …
HTLV-1 primers: a list of some that have been published in the scientific literature
In recent weeks there has been a surge in media interest about a virus called human T-lymphotropic virus I (HTLV-1) that is present among the Indigenous Australians living in communities Read More …
HTLV-I is not new to Australia but a proper strategic response to it would be
Recent news stories from the Gaurdian and elsewhere have highlighted the serious issue of Aboriginal Australians living in Central Australia (the generalised region, not a State or Territory of Australia) Read More …
What’s new Influ2day…?
Annoying things I read in the Australian online news media today… ‘Super vaccines’ For those confused – and from what I’ve seen on FaceBook, confusion about this season’s influenza (flu) vaccine Read More …
Commonwealth games virus and parasite tally!
This is based on numbers reported by the media. Gold is awarded for a confirmed case, silver for a probable and bronze for a suspected case.
Is increased testing at the root of Australia’s biggest ever first quarter of Flu cases…?
I’ve seen some media reporting an “early start to the flu season”. Is this true? The short answer is – I don’t know. Let’s explore why I can’t answer my Read More …
Lassa virus: what’s in a name?
UPDATED Just a little post to share some stuff I’ve learned while writing things about stuff. Lassa virus. It can be written in shorthand as LASV. The virus causes Lassa Read More …