New research shows common local mosquitoes aren’t able to spread Zika. This means Australia is unlikely to see a major outbreak of the disease. But a risk remains in northern Queensland.
Most cases of Zika are asymptomatic.
Airman Magazine/U.S. Air Force Photo/Tech. Sgt. Brandon Shapiro/Flickr
A computer model suggests that while more cases of Zika can be expected in the continental U.S. outbreaks will probably be small and are not projected to spread.
Your child will receive a meningococcus vaccine, but it doesn’t cover all the subtypes.
from www.shutterstock.com.au
Stories of meningococcal outbreaks tell us it’s that season again. But what is meningococcal, why does it occur in seasons, and why does it strike fear into the hearts of so many?
Aedes aegypti mosquitoes at the Laboratory of Entomology and Ecology of the Dengue Branch of the CDC in San Juan.
Alvin Baez/Reuters
While no one likes getting bitten by mosquitoes, you might be surprised (and even a little fascinated) at the complex adaptions mosquitoes have developed to locate their favorite food sources.
With more birth abnormalities linked to Zika, effects of the virus may be more sinister than we thought.
BMJ 2016
Physicians like me are learning about Zika along with our patients. This takes a dose of humility on our part and an understanding from our patients that we learn something new every single day.
Personal ‘hygiene sticks’ used in toilets on the Silk Road.
Hui-Yuan Yeh. Reproduced from the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
Worldwide, around 30 million people enter and leave prison each year. Of these people, around 4.5 million have hepatitis C, almost 1 million have HIV and 1.5 million have hepatitis B infections.
Cases of AIDS are so few they are no longer recorded on public health registers.
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The world’s scientific community is focused on how to improve detection and responses to emerging diseases such as Zika virus and Ebola. So what can we learn from the most recent large-scale outbreaks?
Patients and companions at the Cholera Treatment Center in Haiti, April 2015.
Andres Martinez Casares
Models based on where the mosquitoes that transmit Zika are found and human travel patterns to and from infected areas are key to predicting where the virus will spread.
Municipal workers wait before spraying insecticide to prevent the spread of Aedes aegypti mosquito at Sambodrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, January 26, 2016.
Pilar Olivares/Reuters
Zika was discovered almost 70 years ago, but wasn’t associated with outbreaks until 2007. So how did this formerly obscure virus wind up causing so much trouble in Brazil?
Early necrotising fasciitis is easily missed because the symptoms – fever, pain, swelling and tenderness at the affected site – may be non-specific or confused with a mild, superficial infection.
Zurijeta/Shutterstock
Missing links make a good story, but not good science. Outdated metaphors don’t help us understand the rapid evolution of infectious diseases such as flu and malaria.
Kent Brantly at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, August 21 2014.
Tami Chappell/Reuters
A year ago, Dr Kent Brantly became the first person treated for Ebola in the US. The director of Emory University’s Serious Communicable Disease Unit looks back at we have – and haven’t – learned.