CoronaVirus

Jun 10th, 2025 - !DOCTYPE html> A new Covid variant is being kept under surveillance by the World Health Organization (WHO) as its emergence has led to an increase in infections in several regions of the world. First identified at the end of January, the variant—called NB.1.8.1 but known informally as "Nimbus"—is a descendant of the Omicron family of Covid sublineages, and has become increasingly prevalent throughout the spring in Europe, the Americas, and the Western Pacific. The virus has ... [Read More]

Jan 6th, 2025 - Bird flu has claimed its first human death in the US. AD A Louisiana patient died from a severe case of the H5N1 avian influenza , state health officials reported on Monday. The patient, who was over 65 and had underlying conditions, is the only human case of H5N1 in Louisiana. AD There is still no sign that the H5N1 virus can spread between people. The Louisiana patient contracted the virus after exposure to wild birds and a non-commercial backyard flock, officials reported. The bird flu's ... [Read More]

Jul 25th, 2024 - A woman who died in eastern China earlier this month was infected with H5N6 bird flu and two more poultry workers in Colorado have tested positive for H5N1, according to local officials. A UN agency is calling for urgent action. In China, the latest case is a 70-year-old woman who went to a live poultry market in Hefei, Anhui Province before she developed symptoms on June 17. She was hospitalized two days later and died on July 8, according to Chinese officials. The Chinese government often ... [Read More]

Jun 6th, 2024 - A particular type of bird flu has now killed its first human. On Wednesday, Mexican health officials and the World Health Organization announced a confirmed case of H5N2 avian influenza in a 59-year-old man, who subsequently died from complications of the infection. The incident is the first lab-confirmed case and death tied to H5N2, but WHO officials say that the risk to the general public from this virus is low. According to the WHO, the man first developed symptoms of the infection on April ... [Read More]

Jun 6th, 2024 - THURSDAY, June 6, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- A 59-year-old person in Mexico is the first human in the world known to be infected with the H5N2 strain of avian flu, and the patient died of complications linked to the illness, the World Health Organization reported Wednesday. H5N1 and H5N2 strains of avian flu have long circulated among birds, and H5N1 has infected about 900 humans worldwide who've had extended close contact with infected birds or animals. But this is the first human case of H5N2 ... [Read More]

May 25th, 2024 - We've now been living with COVID for well over four years. Although there's still much to learn about SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID) at least one thing seems clear: it's here to stay. From the original Wuhan variant, to delta, to omicron, and several others in between, the virus has continued to evolve. New variants have driven repeated waves of infection and challenged doctors and scientists seeking to understand this changing virus' behavior. Now, we are faced with a new group of ... [Read More]

May 24th, 2024 - New research from scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) suggests people who received COVID-19 vaccines and then experienced "breakthrough" infections are especially well armed against future SARS-CoV-2 infections. By analyzing blood samples from study volunteers, the LJI researchers discovered that people who experienced symptomatic breakthrough infections develop T cells that are better at recognizing and targeting SARS-CoV-2, including the omicron and delta variants. The ... [Read More]

May 18th, 2024 - Scientists have warned of a "summer wave" of COVID-19 infections after a highly transmissible new group of omicron subvariants was detected in the U.S. But will our vaccines stand up to these new strains? Nicknamed FLiRT, the new class of COVID subvariants has quickly spread through the U.S., with one strain, KP.2, becoming the dominant strain of coronavirus in the U.S. as of May 11, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Their nickname, FLiRT, derives from the ... [Read More]

May 11th, 2024 - On Wednesday, May 8, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed an April outbreak of a coronavirus similar to SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19. Four new infections of a coronavirus known as Middle East respiratory syndrome ( MERS-CoV ) have been reported in Saudi Arabia , according to health officials in that country. At least one of those cases resulted in death. Because at least two of the MERS-CoV infections involved human-to-human transmission, some researchers are concerned that the ... [Read More]

May 10th, 2024 - More than a third of cases in the U.S. are now estimated to be from a new, fast-growing member of a group of so-called "FLiRT" variants, nicknamed for their small but distinctive changes relative to the JN.1 strain. JN.1 was the variant behind this past winter wave of infections. The largest among them, called KP.2 by scientists, has quickly multiplied in recent weeks to become the now-dominant new COVID-19 strain.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's ... [Read More]

May 9th, 2024 - Saudi Arabia has reported four new cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), a coronavirus which first emerged about 12 years ago, according to health officials. Two of them were caused by human-to-human transmission. According to a statement from the World Health Organization on Thursday, three of the cases were found in Riyadh between April 10 and April 17. The index case, a 56-year-old school teacher, had no clear history of exposure to MERS risk factors. The teacher first developed ... [Read More]

Apr 29th, 2024 - T he COVID-19 lull in the U.S. may soon come to an end, as a new family of SARS-CoV-2 variants—nicknamed "FLiRT" variants—begins to spread nationwide. These variants are distant Omicron relatives that spun out from JN.1, the variant behind the surge in cases this past winter . They've been dubbed "FLiRT" variants based on the technical names for their mutations, one of which includes the letters "F" and "L," and another of which includes the letters "R" and "T." Within the FLiRT ... [Read More]

Mar 19th, 2024 - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday issued an advisory addressed to clinicians and public health officials to note a recorded increase in global and U.S. measles cases since the start of the year, and repeat its call for vaccinations against the disease. The public health agency urged Americans to make sure children over the age of 1 are up-to-date on their measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccinations to prevent infections and reduce the risk of community transmission of the ... [Read More]

Mar 14th, 2024 - A new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania shows that antibody responses to new SARS-CoV-2 variant infections and vaccinations are powerfully shaped by prior exposures to earlier SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. In the study published in Immunity , the researchers analyzed antibody responses in people infected with or vaccinated against the relatively new SARS-CoV-2 variants BA.5 and XBB. They found that even though BA.5 and XBB are very different from the original ... [Read More]

Feb 27th, 2024 - The currently recommended five-day course of molnupiravir, an antiviral treatment, may not be long enough to treat COVID-19, according to a new paper involving UCL researchers. The study, published in Nature Communications , was conducted as part of PANORAMIC, an ongoing clinical trial evaluating potential treatments for COVID-19. In this virology sub-study, the researchers analyzed viral samples provided by 577 trial participants from across the U.K. who were randomly assigned to receive ... [Read More]

Jan 10th, 2024 - Case numbers were higher in the fortnight ending 6 January than during the 2023 winter peak, NSW Health data shows Covid-19 infections in the greater Sydney area are approaching levels not seen since December 2022 as the JN.1 variant continues to drive cases throughout Australia, but hospital presentations and admissions have reduced since late 2023. The latest New South Wales Covid surveillance data published on Thursday shows that in the fortnight ending 6 January, community transmission of ... [Read More]