Patients who later test positive for COVID-19 are reporting early loss of smell and taste. Researchers are now trying to understand if this could be an early sign of the disease.
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.
The “common cold” is common, most of us will have at least one or two per year. Despite this, there’s a lack of good research looking into it, and ways to prevent and treat it.
There’s no doubt chronic alcohol abuse changes the body’s infection-defence system. But here’s what the research says on whether a binge-drinking weekend can make people more susceptible to illness.
Antibiotics can prevent serious harm and stop infections becoming fatal. But they won’t kill common cold and flu viruses, and careless overprescribing by doctors can do more harm than good.
You wake up and feel under the weather. If you’re vomiting or have a fever, the decision to stay at home is probably clear cut. But what if you generally feel unwell but are torn about missing work?
As we move into winter, the cold mornings, dark evenings and rain tend to bring out the best excuses to miss a session at the gym or run around the park.
If you’ve never heard of coronaviruses before, you may know about some of the illnesses different types of they can cause, like SARS, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome and the common cold.
Antibiotic resistance is a major threat to public health. Resistance makes it harder for physicians to treat infections and can increase the chance patients will die from an infection. What is more, the…
When people say they have “the flu”, what they’re experiencing most of the time is the common cold, which is not caused by the influenza virus at all. But the term “flu season”, which Australia is in the…
Consultant Microbiologist, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, Ireland and Professor and Head of Department, Clinical Microbiology, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences