infectious disease

Umbilical cord blood may be a good alternative to bone marrow transplants for treating HIV in patients with HIV and cancer.

Scientists linked hamsters in a Hong Kong pet shop to 50 cases of the Delta variant in what appears to be the second documented occurrence of animals infecting people with SARS-CoV-2.

Only half of volunteers deliberately exposed to SARS-CoV-2 developed an infection. None developed serious symptoms, paving the way for further challenge trials.

Data from mouse models for mild coronavirus infections and human tissue samples offer further evidence that it doesn’t take a severe infection—or even infection of brain cells at all—to cause long-term neurological symptoms.

This strain of SARS-CoV-2 is causing new outbreaks in Europe and Asia and may spread slightly faster than the better-known BA.1 Omicron subvariant, although it’s too early to say for sure.

An independent lab fails to replicate results suggesting mammals exposed to pathogens could pass on immunological protections through epigenetic mechanisms.

Experts say new research provides strong evidence that a common herpesvirus can trigger the chronic inflammatory disease.

Dozens of researchers, including myself, worked for years to uncover that swine flu had leapt to humans from a pig in Mexico in 2009. We learned a lot about influenza evolution, pig farming, and outbreak risk along the way.

Seven years of surveillance and research revealed the complex history of the H1N1 virus that leapt from pigs to humans and sparked the global swine flu outbreak.

As the year draws to a close, we look back on researchers we bid farewell to, and the contributions they made to their respective fields.

Unlike studies of antibody-rich transfusions in hospitalized patients, which overall have not found clear benefits, a new randomized trial finds that early convalescent plasma treatment cuts hospitalizations in half.

Preliminary data suggest that the newly dubbed Omicron variant may be more infectious than previous versions of the virus, but it will take time to obtain the reliable data needed to answer pressing questions about its biology.

While the weather isn’t currently the dominant factor driving SARS-CoV-2 transmission, experts say that in the future COVID-19 may become a disease of winter.

Using a novel lab technique, researchers identified a mutation that allows the virus to insert more genetic material into host cells.