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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.

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Measles takes your immune memories

Measles takes your immune memories

Acute measles virus (MeV) infection can be serious You may have heard that the United States is having a multistate outbreak of MeV infections, mainly causing its worst outcomes among Read More ...

A measles infographic: virus, symptoms and white blood cells

A measles infographic: virus, symptoms and white blood cells

Here’s a measles infographic prepared using a range of sources and some feedback from the public. It aims to present measles symptoms and the levels of the virus and white Read More ...

The US 2024-2025 flu season and the vaccine

The United States has been having one of its biggest influenza (flu) years. Let’s look at how this season’s northern hemisphere flu vaccine, which most Americans most likely didn’t seek Read More ...

What if Harvard loses?

What if Harvard loses?

The prestigious Ivy League private university has taken a stand against the Trump administration’s demands. Briefly (see the link above for full details), these set out a list that aims Read More ...

MERS-CoV detection but not disease…

Posted onSeptember 18, 2017January 2, 2019

Infection but not sickness Asymptomatic infections are those where we can detect the virus using reliable laboratory methods, but the infected person doesn’t show any signs or symptoms of a Read More …

CategoriesMERS-CoVTagsantibody, asymptomatic, MERS, MERS-CoV, serology, transmission

The found113….

Posted onSeptember 10, 2017

Back in May of 2016 I received a surprise set of deidentified Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) data. It was a list of the “found113”. This is a very delayed Read More …

CategoriesUncategorizedTagsepidemic, epidemiology, found113, MERS, public data

MERS snapdate…

Posted onSeptember 5, 2017September 5, 2017

CategoriesUncategorizedTagsMERS, MERS-CoV, snapdate

MERS & the Hajj – watch out for the Flu!

Posted onSeptember 5, 2017September 5, 2017

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 …

CategoriesUncategorized

Talking Flu to a wider audience: some measures of impact

Posted onSeptember 2, 2017June 6, 2018

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 …

CategoriesInfluenzaTagscommunity engagement, flu season, influenza, influenza virus, metrics, quantitation, science communication, social media, SoMe

Flu outbreak and concurrent deaths in Tasmania…

Posted onSeptember 2, 2017September 6, 20174 Comments

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 …

CategoriesUncategorized

Flu-associated deaths in Victoria…

Posted onSeptember 1, 2017October 30, 20172 Comments

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 …

CategoriesUncategorizedTagsAustralia, flu season, H3N2, hMPV, influenza, Long term care facility, LTCF, Victoria

VDU is moving house…..no Utes required

Posted onAugust 23, 2017September 1, 2017

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 …

CategoriesUncategorizedTagsEditor's Note, VDU

This little MERS-CoV infected piggy had RNA, but that little piggy with indirect contact had none…

Posted onAugust 16, 2017July 17, 20221 Comment

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 …

CategoriesMERS-CoV, TransmissionTagsMERS-CoV, pig, transmission

900 words on some general stuff about viruses and those other bugs…

Posted onJuly 15, 2017July 12, 2019

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 …

CategoriesCommunicationTagsSciComm, science communication, Viruses

Ebola virus disease over in the DRC….

Posted onJuly 9, 2017August 30, 2017

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 …

CategoriesUncategorizedTagsDemocratic Republic of the Congo, DRC, Ebola virus, Ebola virus disease

Editor’s Note #27: Anakin Fencewalker joins the Force…

Posted onJuly 2, 2017September 1, 2017

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 …

CategoriesUncategorizedTagsAnakinFencewalker, Editor's Note

Climate and science denial….

Posted onJune 18, 2017July 12, 2019

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 …

CategoriesCommunicationTagsClimate change, SciComm, Science denial, TWADAL

H7N9 numbers….no-one agrees…

Posted onFebruary 24, 2017January 31, 2025

#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

CategoriesH7N9, InfluenzaTagsavian influenza, epidemiology

H7N9 virus in humans in China: just how big is this?

Posted onFebruary 22, 2017July 12, 2019

…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 …

CategoriesInfluenzaTagsChina, H7N9

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Recent Posts

  • What if Harvard loses? April 19, 2025
  • Measles takes your immune memories April 9, 2025
  • 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
  • No new A/H7N8 chook farms hit in Victoria so far February 17, 2025
  • The US 2024-2025 flu season and the vaccine February 13, 2025
  • A good news RSV vaccine story for adults February 5, 2025
  • Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) in Australia – a 2022 study and the current state January 29, 2025
  • Not the “Chinese flu” label thing again…please January 6, 2025
  • SNAPDATE: MPOX cases in Australia, 14.09.2024 September 14, 2024
  • In Australia, COVID-19 deaths may have stopped decreasing September 6, 2024
  • It takes a while to gather death data September 5, 2024
  • Update on Monkeypox virus (MPXV) transmission in Australia August 6, 2024
  • More PCR cycles don’t mean magic results August 5, 2024
  • Stop Hijacking Definitions To Farm Anger And Clicks! December 29, 2023

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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Regular reads…

  • FluTrackers-everything infectious, before it happens
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  • Crawford Kilian’s infectious disease blog
  • Pathogen perspectives: Ebola and more
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  • HealthMap
  • STAT News
  • CIDRAP-timely infectious disease reporting
  • Maia Majumder’s blog
  • Kai Kupferschmidt
  • Martin Enserink
  • EpiRamblings

 

Recent Posts

  • What if Harvard loses?
  • Measles takes your immune memories
  • A measles infographic: virus, symptoms and white blood cells
  • United States influenza: biggest season in 15 years of data
  • No new A/H7N8 chook farms hit in Victoria so far

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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Twitter: @mackayim

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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.

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