Reporting flu – tell the story don’t create fear…
“Flu cases jump by 256% in just five years” screams a newspaper headline from the Daily Mercury, a paywalled News Corp publication. It sure seems like scary stuff doesn’t it? Read More …
Author: Ian M Mackay, PhD (EIC)
Ebola virus disease and the game-changing vaccine….
As the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) looks to be under control, how much the vaccine has helped remains an unanswered question. But Read More …
Flu vaccination and effective communication…
A brief article about influenza (flu) vaccination appeared in The Conversation on Tuesday night. The piece, entitled “The flu vaccine is being oversold – it’s not that effective“, states that Read More …
The forgotten benefits of the flu vaccine…
A…surprising…article about influenza (flu) vaccination appeared in the Conversation today. The piece, entitled “The flu vaccine is being oversold – it’s not that effective”, tells us that we are being Read More …
Suspected cases of Ebola virus disease rise and fall while confirmed cases add up but slow down….
Those closely watching the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak – or any outbreak – will have noticed that some of the daily numbers go up and down very quickly. This Read More …
SNAPDATE: Ebola virus disease numbers to 24MAY2018
The latest numbers from the Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are in. They show a small rise in cases and in confirmed infections. This week Read More …
HTLV-1 in Australia: Don’t test, don’t find, can’t understand
UPDATES: #1 The presence of HTLV-1 in Australian Aboriginal people is not new and it has not been hidden from those best suited to do something constructive to contain its Read More …
What’s new Influ2day…?
Annoying things I read in the Australian online news media today… Not too late to get the flu shot. No. It sure isn’t. I was…surprised to read this since the flu Read More …
Mapping Ebola in the hobbyist zone…
One of the most important parts of an early understanding of the risks attached to an infectious disease outbreak is knowing where it is. Which country? What part of the Read More …
New Ebola virus disease case confirmed in a third DRC health zone
UPDATEÂ #1 The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Ministry of Health (MOH) today announced that 1 of 2 suspected EVD cases in the Wangata Health Zone has tested positive for Read More …
Human T-Lymphotropic Virus type 1 (HTLV-1): a primer
What is HTLV-1? HTLV-1 is a human delta retrovirus assigned to the genus Deltaretrovirus, species Primate T-lymphotropic virus 1 [5]. It was first described in 1980.[10] Soon thereafter Japanese researchers identified endemic virus, Read More …
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 …
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 …