Virus on a boat – a belated graphic

Remember when we all died from the pandemic that started on a cruise ship, caused by a passenger acquiring and spreading Orthohantavirus andesense? Me neither. That’s because we didn’t. And Read More ...

Well, the day had to come. “Bird flu” flies into Australia on a feathered wing.

Lock up the chooks! According to Australia’s national broadcaster, Western Australia (WA) is the site for the first importation to the Australian mainland – via a bird – of an Read More ...

Looks like Flu has reset in Australia

The COVID-19 pandemic introduced a brand-new respiratory virus, SARS-CoV-2. With that introduction, as suspected, lots of things were thrown into disarray. One of those was the circulation of other respiratory Read More ...

A/H5N1 strain of avian influenza A virus (“bird flu”) confirmed in two dead birds in Australia

Australia’s Minister for Agriculture has notified Australians that overnight laboratory testing confirmed the presence of A/H5N1 in one sick bird and an H5 virus in another, both found in the same region of Read More ...

VDU has been in the Spider-Verse this whole time

Posted onMarch 11, 2019March 11, 20191 Comment

13 posts. Nearly 3 months of blogging about viruses. 1 central theme. The musical wall-crawling Spider-Verse. Most of my posts this year (2019) have been chosen not by the desire Read More …

Home. It’s where the viruses spread.

Posted onMarch 10, 2019March 11, 2019

Some see a mild illness, or no obvious illness at all, after infection by Ebola virus as almost heretical. But new evidence adds to that which already exists – it Read More …

Elevate the Flu baseline

Posted onMarch 5, 2019June 11, 2019

Summer has technically ended in Australia (sure – go look at a temperature prediction!) and Flu spent all of it being abnormally active. The 2018 Flu season peaked in September Read More …

Scared of the Dark risks

Posted onMarch 2, 2019March 3, 20192 Comments

Gain-of-function research of concern (GOFROC) virus research has returned to the news.[1] With it come fears of dark risks; we will either die from influenza without this research or die Read More …

Will violence Let Go of the DRC long enough to kick out Ebola virus?

Posted onFebruary 28, 2019March 4, 2019

The 2018/19 outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was showing some promising signs of control earlier this week. Then the latest attacks Read More …

Flu vaccines can Save The Day

Posted onFebruary 26, 2019March 1, 2019

There is a strong relationship between heart failure and respiratory illness due to infection.[1] It makes good sense that if a safe way to prevent infection from developing into illness Read More …

Memories

Posted onFebruary 25, 2019July 1, 2025

Dug these up from the old blog after a chat with a collaborator who recalled one of them fondly. I regret nothing!!! IMPORTED POSTS* You’re the virus I got… To Read More …

Hide: it’s easy when no-one’s looking

Posted onFebruary 25, 2019February 25, 2019

Saffold cardiovirus (SAFV) was first described in 2007,[from a 1981 human sample; 10] and since then has been found to consist of 11 genotypes (SAFV-1 to SAFV-11; [13] ) of Read More …

What does a positive PCR result mean…or not mean?

Posted onFebruary 19, 2019August 4, 20207 Comments

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has remained a hugely important laboratory tool for decades. Subtle changes to the enzymes and drastic changes to the detection of a result have occurred Read More …

Starting a riot

Posted onFebruary 17, 2019March 1, 20191 Comment

Among last year’s many stories about influenza (Flu) deaths during the 1918 pandemic, we often heard about the secondary impact of bacteria; they complicate Flu virus infections, causing pneumonia and Read More …

Invincible: viruses are always out there, take EV-D68 for example

Posted onFebruary 15, 2019February 16, 20191 Comment

Enterovirus species D genotype 68 (EV-D68) will be back in our media streams in 2020 as the biennial peak likely returns to cause more cases of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) Read More …

Familia figures

Posted onFebruary 12, 2019February 16, 2019

Science communication can come in many shapes and sizes. But a picture still tells a thousand words. And in this case, there are about 6,000 words worth of mosquito communication Read More …

Way up…

Posted onFebruary 9, 2019February 10, 20192 Comments

Australia has had a big summer of flu with numbers way up from what we’re used to. As my recent posts here and here flagged, it’s hard to know whether Read More …

SunFluwer…

Posted onJanuary 21, 2019January 22, 2019

Just for fun, I thought I’d check in on Australia’s influenza tally again. I posted my last tally 3 days ago (Jan 18) and upon looking today (Jan 21), it’s Read More …

What’s up d̵a̵n̵g̵e̵r̵ Flu?

Posted onJanuary 18, 2019January 22, 20192 Comments

Influenza is still hammering Australia with unseasonable disrespect. Is this just more testing for flu viruses, or is it a new variant virus? January in Australia is continuing 2018’s out-of-character 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.

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