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Virology Down Under

Facts, data, info, expert opinion and a reasonable, occasionally grumpy, voice on viruses: what they are, how they tick and the illnesses they may cause.

Category: Influenza

Flu down under is a July thing

Posted onJune 16, 2025June 16, 2025Leave a comment

This is a graph I didn’t know I wanted to make. But now I have, I needed to make it! It shows the influenza virus detections reported to laboratories in Read More …

CategoriesEpidemic, Influenza, Pandemic

United States influenza: biggest season in 15 years of data

Posted onFebruary 18, 2025February 25, 2025

The United States has been suffering from many influenza virus infections. And it looks like those are translating into a “flunami” of hospitalisations, which has resulted in the US CDC Read More …

CategoriesInfluenzaTagsflunami

eggs in rows in carton container

No new A/H7N8 chook farms hit in Victoria so far

Posted onFebruary 17, 2025February 17, 2025

Two poultry farms in the southern Australian State of Victoria have been quarantined for high pathogenicity avian influenza A/H7N8 infections, but spread to additional farms has not been observed so Read More …

CategoriesInfluenza, Outbreak

Excess deaths align with COVID-19

Posted onMay 7, 2023May 7, 20232 Comments

There are minimisers who spread misinformation, like butter on hot toast. And yes, it can sink in and spread further. One of these piles of melted fat ridiculously claims that Read More …

CategoriesCOVID-19, Epidemic, Influenza

person holding injection

The 2023 southern hemisphere influenza vaccine

Posted onApril 29, 2023July 13, 2023

Each year we get a new vaccine for each hemisphere. The design gets settled six months out, and sometimes a lot can change in that time. So how does the Read More …

CategoriesInfluenza, Vaccines & vaccination

young annoyed female freelancer using laptop at home

‘Endemic’ covers a lot of biology, but we’re probably not there yet for COVID-19

Posted onJanuary 2, 2023January 2, 2023

Right up front, I’m going to repeat myself by saying that I think COVID-19 will become a disease that has endemic as well as epidemic states at some point in Read More …

CategoriesCommunication, COVID-19, Endemic, Influenza, Picornavirus, Transmission, VariantsTagsCOVID-19, disease, endemic, influenza, pandemic

An early & big flu rise in Australia

Posted onJune 7, 2022June 8, 2022

Influenza (flu) cases have been rising rapidly in Australia this year. Some see this as a result of waning immunity during our border closures. Some see this as the harbinger Read More …

CategoriesInfluenza

Thank goodness we did all the work

Posted onJanuary 29, 2022July 16, 20226 Comments

Thank goodness we didn’t hold off on opening up to see what Omicron was capable of. We had to have Christmas. And there were national cabinet agreements. Anyway, how could Read More …

CategoriesAerosols, Communication, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Editorial, Enterovirus, Influenza, Parechovirus, Rhinovirus, SARS-CoV-2, Transmission

An early look at influenza in the US highlights that the south does not predict the north

Posted onNovember 24, 2019November 24, 20191 Comment

Influenza (flu) hit Australia earlier in 2019 than it had for many years. It reached a very high peak of cases and the flu season lasted for longer than usual. Read More …

CategoriesInfluenzaTagsepidemiology, United States of America

H3N2 is 50 years old and still going strong

Posted onNovember 19, 2019November 19, 20191 Comment

The highly variable H3N2 influenza viruses which seem to cause us the most trouble, heartache and headlines have only been with us since 1968. These tiny droplets of dread emerged Read More …

CategoriesInfluenza, Vaccines & vaccinationTagsA/H3N2, drift, Immunology, Imprinting

Flu B viruses: why not H-something-N-something?

Posted onOctober 1, 2019October 1, 2019

The world of influenza (Flu) is filled with many strange things. One of these is why we label the influenza A (FluA) viruses with an “H” (short for the name Read More …

CategoriesInfluenzaTagsFluB, FluC, FLUCV, FLUDV, IFDV, influenza D virus

Flu in a ScienceWeek flash 🏃

Posted onSeptember 11, 2019September 17, 2019

I was asked to present a talk for science week 2019. I thought an explanation of the unprecedented 2019 influenza (flu) season (nicknamed flunami) would be a good talk. But Read More …

CategoriesInfluenzaTagsEiC

The 2019 Flunami was more than just increased testing

Posted onAugust 15, 2019August 16, 2019

The Flunami (see a definition here before you decide upon your own dear reader) has been a rising tide of influenza cases. It was more than just increased testing though. Read More …

CategoriesInfluenza, Laboratory methodsTags131K, A/H3N2, Australia, flu season, flunami, H1N1, H1N1pdmo09, H3N2, phylogeny

Flu, genes, clades and H3N2

Posted onJuly 9, 2019July 20, 2019

We’ve talked earlier about clades; a term which relates to how we can put influenza (flu) viruses that sit under the broad title, “A/H3N2”, into subgroupings. Clades are a way Read More …

CategoriesInfluenzaTagsA/H3N2, alignment, clade, Flu, nucleotide sequencing, seasonal influenza, sequencing

H3N2 in Australia – Australia’s unseasonal flu season rolls on

Posted onJune 28, 2019June 29, 20191 Comment

Australia’s unseasonal flu season is still with us, albeit a little quieter than it was. Some jurisdictions have already had a peak and have returned to almost normal numbers of Read More …

CategoriesInfluenzaTagsFluA, H3N2, molecular epidemiology, Recombination, Whole genome sequencing

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Recent Posts

  • Flu down under is a July thing June 16, 2025
  • Q fever – an old zoonosis with a better diagnosis June 9, 2025
  • What if Harvard loses? April 19, 2025
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  • A measles infographic: virus, symptoms and white blood cells March 27, 2025
  • United States influenza: biggest season in 15 years of data February 18, 2025
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All opinions are my own and do not represent medical advice or the views of any institution.

All graphics made by me are free-to-use. Please just cite the particular page, blog and me. A heads-up would be nice, but that can happen later.

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Recent Posts

  • Flu down under is a July thing
  • Q fever – an old zoonosis with a better diagnosis
  • What if Harvard loses?
  • Measles takes your immune memories
  • A measles infographic: virus, symptoms and white blood cells

All opinions are my own and do not represent medical advice or the views of any institution.

All graphics made by me are free-to-use. Please just cite the particular page, blog and me. A heads-up would be nice too but that can happen later.

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