Several sites in the US are releasing bacteria-infected mosquitoes as a way to fight mosquito-borne viruses that threaten people. What’s the science – and how well will it work?
Many in the Western Front contracted haemorrhagic dysentery.
Wellcome Library, London
When commemorating our troops, doctors and nurses this Anzac Day, consider also tipping your hat to the discovery of bacteriophages. In the post-antibiotic era, our health might just depend on them.
Aedes aegypti, the Zika-carrying mosquito.
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We can prevent congenital deafness and intellectual disability due to cytomegalovirus by simple hygiene measures. So, why don’t pregnant women know about this?
Health centre in Sainte Dominique, Dakar, Senegal.
Jean-Jacques Lemasson/IRD
Antibiotics are wrongly being prescribed for infections where they won’t work and cutting this down could help combat resistance. But change isn’t as easy as just providing the means.
Flu virus mutates so quickly that one year’s vaccine won’t work on the next year’s common strains. But a new way to create vaccines, called ‘rational design,’ might pave the way for more lasting solutions.
In us, on us and all around us.
Microbes image via www.shutterstock.com.
Can some people’s immune systems defeat Ebola virus before it has a chance to cause disease?
How will the downgrade of Zika’s emergency status affect women like this 23-year-old Vietnamese woman and her baby born with microcephaly?
Vietnam News Agency/AAP
From November 1, the shingles (herpes zoster) vaccine will be available for free to people aged 70 to 79 years. So how and why do you get shingles, and who should be vaccinated?
Do we contain the most elaborate set of instructions?
Genome image via www.shutterstock.com.
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.
Director, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, The University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital and Consultant Physician, Department of Infectious Diseases, Alfred Hospital and Monash University, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity