Annual flu vaccines are in a constant race against a rapidly mutating virus that may one day cause the next pandemic. A one-time vaccine protecting against all variants could give humanity a leg up.
A vaccine for bees may evoke images of teeny hypodermic needles, but this product works in a sophisticated way that reflects the social structure of honeybee colonies.
Andrew Bubak, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus; Diego Restrepo, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, and Maria Nagel, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Inflammation and damage to the olfactory system from shingles, COVID-19 and herpes infections may contribute to Alzheimer’s disease.
Andrew Bubak, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
People with an active case of shingles have up to an 80% higher risk of stroke than those without. The increased risk is highest for patients under 40.
Amphibians have been devastated by a chytrid fungus pandemic. Researchers immunized California red-legged frogs in Yosemite to give them a fighting chance at survival, with surprising results.
An effective nasal vaccine could stop the virus that causes COVID-19 right at its point of entry. But devising one that works has been a challenge for researchers.
Strict lockdowns, quarantines and testing have prevented many people in China from catching COVID-19. With concerns over Chinese vaccine efficacy and uptake, China may be facing a looming COVID-19 surge.
Systemic social issues affect vaccine access and acceptability. Yet, the term ‘vaccine hesitancy’ overlooks this, reducing the multiple factors that affect vaccine uptake to individual-level choices.
LGBT+ people have been eligible to receive COVID vaccines, but lack of ID cards, discrimination, accessibility issues and misinformation have emerged as challenges to do so.
Using a Nobel Prize-winning technique called cryo-EM, researchers were able to identify potential areas on the hepatitis C virus that a vaccine could target.
Adding COVID-19 to a list of ‘designated diseases’ will not make vaccination mandatory for school entry. But it may help increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake among children.
On World Rabies Day – which is also the anniversary of French microbiologist Louis Pasteur’s death – a virologist reflects on the achievements of this visionary scientist.
The pandemic has disrupted national immunisation programmes. As a result, the African continent is seeing more outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases.
Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand