Whooping cough in 2024 was huge in Australia, but is declining in 2025 and 2026

Posted onFebruary 19, 2026February 19, 2026

The risks of declining childhood vaccination include a resurgence of dangerous infectious diseases driven by airborne pathogens such as Bordetella pertussis, the bacterium that causes whooping cough (also called pertussis). A Read More …

Pathology lab PCR is not research lab PCR

Posted onJanuary 27, 2026February 16, 2026

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) use in the pathology lab differs from research-based PCR in two fundamental ways, namely quality and clinical expertise. These are essential to producing a clinical diagnosis supported by Read More …

Is there more flu in Australia and New Zealand than normal for Christmas? Hell Yes!

Posted onDecember 27, 2025April 17, 2026

Happy FluMas, ya filthy animals! With a new flu variant – subclade K – dominant, Australia and New Zealand are seeing a very unusual bout of seasonal influenza (flu) as Read More …

Catch them all? There are three different influenza viruses and they can co-circulate each season

Posted onAugust 22, 2025August 22, 2025

We tend to say we “caught the flu” this season. But there’s more than one flu virus. Because mild and asymptomatic infections can occur with influenza viruses, and because the Read More …

The “Infection Pause”: because it’s about fewer infections, not an immune debt to repay

Posted onJuly 31, 2025February 17, 2026

There was a real, measurable shift in the peak season for several endemic human pathogens as well as a rebound in infections, coinfections, and disease severity among them after the Read More …

A Flunami in July

Posted onJuly 27, 2025July 27, 20252 Comments

Australia has recorded its largest number of laboratory-confirmed influenza virus detections among sick people for any July on record. While the numbers may be slowing, there is no way of Read More …

COVID-19 is a Pandemic: What if it was a Pandemic Emergency? And what are they anyway?

Posted onJuly 24, 2025July 25, 2025

Words carry intent and meaning. Their misuse causes harm. The word “pandemic” has a range of definitions, and it’s used regularly by experts associated with the World Health Organization (WHO). Read More …

In Australia, COVID-19 deaths did decrease between 2023 and 2024, but it’s still a major killer.

Posted onJuly 2, 2025August 1, 2025

At the prompting of a Tweep (thanks Michael), I’ve revisited my September 2024 post “In Australia, COVID-19 deaths may have stopped decreasing” to see the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics Read More …

Flu down under is a July thing

Posted onJune 16, 2025August 8, 2025

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 …

Q fever – an old zoonosis with a better diagnosis

Posted onJune 9, 2025June 16, 2025

Q fever or ‘query fever’ is a vaccine-preventable zoonosis first described in Australia in 19377. The causative agent8 for this disease is the obligate intracellular coccobacillus Coxiella burnetii. The bacterium Read More …

19th April Harvard webpage landing page snippet

What if Harvard loses?

Posted onApril 19, 2025April 23, 2025

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 …

Measles takes your immune memories

Posted onApril 9, 2025April 9, 2025

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

Posted onMarch 27, 2025April 3, 2025

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

Latest posts...

Context to headlines, even when the harms are there for all to see

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