Australia and New Zealand have well and truly ‘flattened the curve’, and there is now a real chance we could eliminate coronavirus in both countries. But what does elimination actually mean?
A simple, low-tech way to get rid of germs.
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A Hungarian obstetrician was the first to nail down the importance of handwashing to stop the spread of infectious disease.
Passengers waiting at the ferry terminal in Dartmouth, N.S. on March 16, 2020. The number of passengers has been limited as part of the effort to control the spread of COVID-19 in Nova Scotia.
(Andrew Vaughan/THE CANADIAN PRESS)
Best-case estimates suggest 40 million American adults may come down with COVID-19. But an epidemiologist explains why now is not the time to just give up.
Camp beds set up for travelers returning to Germany from China, who will be isolated for two weeks to make sure they don’t have coronavirus.
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Genetic analysis shows that urban rats prefer to stay near their relatives; however, some of them migrate. Knowing this could help with pest control efforts.
There is no cure for polio, and the vaccine remains the most effective way to combat the disease.
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South Africa must adopt traceability systems to effectively control foot and mouth disease.
More than 3.9 billion people live in regions where the Aedes aegypti mosquito is present. This species transmits Zika, dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever.
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For several billion people mosquitoes are more than a nuisance – they transmit deadly diseases. Now genetic modification may prove the most effective defense against the mosquito, preventing disease.
Most immunisation campaigns continue to primarily focus on infants and children, but almost 4 million Australian adults are not vaccinated against preventable diseases.
A typical elephant shark from the Melbourne Aquarium.
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Some things that develop as normal in elephant sharks and other marine life can mimic things we see in human disease. That makes these ‘mutants’ ideal for study to find out why things go wrong in humans.
Kent Brantly at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, August 21 2014.
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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.
Two women walk in front of a billboard, which says “Ebola must go. Stopping Ebola is Everybody’s Business” in Monrovia, Liberia, January 15 2015.
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Along with better strategies to respond to outbreaks in human populations, we need a stronger focus on surveillance in animals to identify infectious diseases before they pose a risk to human health.
Director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections, and Professor of Neurology, University of Liverpool