A flurry of reports about the genetics of the bird flu currently infecting U.S. cattle are offering insight into how the virus has and continues to spread. Since it first emerged in late 2020, this particular type of bird flu has infected a dizzying array of bird species, about 20 mammal species and some people (SN: 3/6/23; SN: 4/3/24). But transmission from cow to cow and from cow to person and other animals is new.
Now researchers tracing
Pregnant women were today urged to get vaccinated against whooping cough amid a worrying surge in cases that has already killed five babies.
As a few as a quarter of expectant mothers have had the pertussis jab – offered between 16 and 32 weeks — in parts of London.
Similarly low levels are seen in other parts of the capital and Birmingham.
Experts today warned the outbreak could be the biggest ‘of the last 40 years’.
Almost 3,000 cases have
News that bird flu has been spreading between cows for months and that fragments of the virus are even showing up in milk on U.S. grocery store shelves have fueled new worries about the risk the virus poses to people. Among the questions: Is the virus, known as highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1, adapting to better infect mammals? And can people get bird flu from drinking that milk?
Science News went to the experts to find answers to those questions.
A strain of avian influenza that has likely sickened and killed millions of birds around the globe has popped up in an unexpected species: Cows.
On April 1, the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed that cattle on a farm in New Mexico had tested positive for a strain of bird flu called H5N1. The news followed a March 25 announcement that officials had detected the virus on two dairy farms in Kansas and two Texas farms. The virus was also
The toddler who fell of his bike and scraped his knee. The woman with a common bowel disease injury. And the man with Strep throat.
All are victims of a minor, treatable problems that turned deadly in a matter of seconds. Thankfully, all four survived – but left with life-changing injuries, including legs so destroyed they had to be amputated.
The culprit is a terrifying condition that occurs in response to a minor infection, and affects one American every 20-seconds:
A mother-of-two controversially won’t give her children the MMR vaccine because she fears the jab would do ‘more harm than good’.
Stacey Victoria, from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, claims the vaccine — proven to be extremely safe and credited with saving the lives of tens of thousands of kids — was made too quickly.
‘Forcing’ her daughters Emily (nine) and Isabella (six) to get jabbed is ‘not fair’, she added. Neither have had any NHS-approved vaccines.
The 36-year-old, who herself hasn’t
Bird flu viruses may pack a little taste of home to help them adapt to life in new hosts.
Viruses usually infect only certain types of hosts. For instance, many viruses that infect humans don’t infect other animals. But influenza viruses often seem to jump from birds to other species. In 2009, the H1N1 “swine flu” made the leap from birds to pigs and then into people, setting off a pandemic (SN: 12/18/09). Even now, an outbreak of
Sitting next to someone with a hacking cough on a crowded plane or train, hearing the friend you had a drink with last night has since tested positive for Covid, or your child’s schoolfriend has thrown up in the classroom, most of us fear the worst and wonder if, or simply just when, we’ll come down with the same lurgy.
With the winter flu and vomiting bug seasons well underway, Covid infections still circling — and now news of measles
As I step among poop-covered rocks toward the plateau of a small island in the Galápagos, a part of me rejoices. Not only am I about to see the archipelago’s famed blue-footed boobies for the first time, but the sight of guano everywhere, and birds to make fresh batches, serves as a reminder: The ongoing avian influenza outbreak has not yet ravaged this picturesque place.
Ghostly, leafless Palo Santo trees and saltbushes sprinkle the island, surrounded by boulders in varying
Fears of an impending measles resurgence today sparked a national ‘call to action’ by health chiefs who are alarmed over vaccination rates slumping to a 10-year low.
As few as half of children have had both measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) jabs in parts of London.
Similarly low levels are also seen in Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham.
Dame Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UKHSA, begged parents to check their child’s immunisation status, warning that the public had ‘forgotten what
