MERS & the Hajj – watch out for the Flu!
The Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus (CoV) has now been known of for 6 consecutive Hajj mass gatherings (see the bar graphs). To date there has not been a Read More …
Author: Ian M Mackay, PhD (EIC)
Talking Flu to a wider audience: some measures of impact
We keyboard warriors love to talk into our echo chambers, shill our bigPharma ideas to pay the rent on our Bell 429WLG and generally hear ourselves think out loud. So Read More …
Flu outbreak and concurrent deaths in Tasmania…
Okay I don’t want to follow up the last post with another to try and paint a picture that the sky is falling. Influenza (Flu) can kill. That’s my point. Read More …
Flu-associated deaths in Victoria…
I’m not joking around when I say vaccines have been created to reduce the worst of the diseases caused by some infectious nasties. We all know about the success of Read More …
VDU is moving house…..no Utes required
Virology Down Under has lived over on Google’s Blogger platform since its first post back in March 2013. After much umm’ing and ahh’ing, I’ve taken the plunge and moved VDU Read More …
This little MERS-CoV infected piggy had RNA, but that little piggy with indirect contact had none…
Back in April, a Spanish/Dutch collaborative study came out looking at whether pigs deliberately infected with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) might be able to transmit that virus to Read More …
900 words on some general stuff about viruses and those other bugs…
We (Dr @kat_arden and I) were invited to contribute one part to a four-part series in The Conversation this week – and after a lot of no…yes/no/yes from yours truly (I do that Read More …
Ebola virus disease over in the DRC….
Another year, another outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) overcome in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with the help of a mix of expert local skill and knowledge, isolation Read More …
Editor’s Note #27: Anakin Fencewalker joins the Force…
After 19 years, our furry family member had to leave us this Wednesday. His quality of life was decreasing and he had stopped eating – he made the call and Read More …
Climate and science denial….
I’m in a reading-and-watching phase at the moment – not much time for writing. Two videos I recently came across are so good that I’ve embedded them below; they are Read More …
H7N9 numbers….no-one agrees…
#H7N9 number mess. @WHO 22FEB:1223 FAO 22FEB: 1230 CHP 21FEB: 1227 FT: 967+ #VirolDU: no bloody idea Yeeeeup. *Old link – deleted when my account was deleted: https://twitter.com/MackayIM/status/834888299747520512 *Imported Post
H7N9 virus in humans in China: just how big is this?
…I don’t really know, but a lot bigger than I thought when I was tinkering with the numbers for the last post (which has since been updated by the way). As Read More …
Science needs to talk more but I know many scientists who don’t…
A comment I replied to on LinkedIn which I thought was worth expanding on here – a rare moment of clarity pre-coffee. Scientists don’t engage the community while wearing their scientist hat Read More …
Happy Festive Season to all who read this….
..whatever your shape, colour, gender, sex, size, beliefs, weight or disposition, I wish you a happy festive season. May 2017 be a better year for those of us who wish Read More …
Human parechovirus (HPeV) may be spread with the help of well kids…
The first human parechoviruses (HPeVs) were initially called Human echovirus 22 (HPeV-1) and Human echovirus 23 (HPeV-2).[11,12] These guys were discovered in the summer of 1956, but they weren’t officially Read More …