Isabella Eckerle

Nipah virus fact sheet WHO fact sheet on Nipah virus, including information on transmission, signs and symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, prevention and WHO's work in this area.

WHO Nipah virus fact sheet

www.who.int/news-room/fa...

And my group at the Centre for Emerging Viral Diseases is also hiring: We are looking for a postdoc for our work on mucosal immunity and respiratory viruses!

jobs.unige.ch/www/wd_porta...

Professor position & Head of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University Hospital of Geneva!

Exciting opportunity for an ID specialist & research opportunities in virology, bacteriology, immunology, public/global health, vaccinology, international Geneva...

jobs.unige.ch/www/wd_porta...

Professor position in Global Health at the University of Geneva, Institute of Global Health!

This is really an exciting opportunity with lots of possibilities for collaborations, e.g. with our Centre, in the field of infectious diseases, international Geneva, WHO...

jobs.unige.ch/www/wd_porta...

Prof. Gisa Gerold @geroldlab.bsky.social
Prof. Melanie Brinkmann @brinkmann-melanie.bsky.social
Prof. Nicole Fischer
Prof. Florian Klein
Prof. Ulrike Protzer @ulrike-protzer.bsky.social

Wer mehr über unsere Fachgesellschaft erfahren möchte:
g-f-v.org

Beirat (auch hier allen ganz herzlichen Glückwunsch!):

PD Hanna-Mari Baldauf @baldauflab.bsky.social
Prof. Martin Beer
Prof. Klaus Überall @klausueberla.bsky.social
Prof. Friedemann Weber @friedemann.bsky.social
Prof. Isabella Eckerle @eckerleisabella.bsky.social

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Die GfV hat gewählt– neuer Vorstand und Beirat ab März '26!

Vorstand:

Präsidentin: @ciesek.bsky.social
1. Vizepräsident: @cdrosten.bsky.social
2. Vizepräsident: Prof. Jörg Timm
Schriftführerin: Prof. Eva Herker
Schatzmeister: Prof. Thomas Pietschmann

Herzlichen Glückwunsch 💐!

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I think the number of downloads is not a good measure, because often I just quickly check something in the tree, I look for a certain mutation, a certain time and variant circulation, or take a screenshot of a tree for a talk. This was, and still is such an important resource!!

Nextstrain: Interruption to GISAID-based SARS-CoV-2 sequence analyses Nextstrain blog post from 2025-11-06; author(s): Trevor Bedford, Richard Neher and the Nextstrain team

Important read on challenges of continued SARS-CoV-2 surveillance provided by tools like Nextstrain, using GISAID data. Just one comment as someone who is using Nextstrain for my research, for keeping up to date and for scientific talks:
nextstrain.org/blog/2025-11...

I don't think so, we would see these in the genomic data. So far, they all seem to be independent zoonotic spillovers (luckily).

I want to spell this out in case the implications aren't clear:

This means all public tools/webapps of GISAID data (all the ones you've been used to seeing thru the pandemic, as far as we can tell) are prohibited.

The file allowed this. Cut that - cut off all tools the public & others were using.

On the plus side, management of viral hemorrhagic fever outbreaks have become much more efficient and rapid in recent years.

Not great news to see Marburg spreading across the borders of the previously endemic areas. I was so happy to see that Ebola outbreak in the DRC over and now this...I hope the country will be able to get it under control soon.

Ecology and spread of the North American H5N1 epizootic - Nature The panzootic of highly pathogenic H5N1 since 2021 was driven by around nine introductions into the Atlantic and Pacific flyways, followed by rapid dissemination through wild migratory birds, primaril...

Our lab's paper describing the North American H5N1 epizootic is out now in Nature! So thrilled to have this out, and congratulations to @lambod50.bsky.social for all the fantastic work on this: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Review of literature tidentified 10 reports of 18 cases of asymptomatic infection of humans with H5N1, including 2 cases with molecular and serologic confirmation and 16 cases with molecular confirmation alone. prospective surveillance studies required.
👉 jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Klimakrise: Erde steuert auf 2,8 Grad Erwärmung zu, Daten des Uno-Umweltprogramms Der weltweite Klimaschutz reicht den Vereinten Nationen zufolge nicht aus, um die Erderwärmung entscheidend zu bremsen, trotz kleiner Fortschritte. Uno-Generalsekretär António Guterres warnt vor einem »Klimakollaps«.

Klimakrise: Erde steuert auf 2,8 Grad Erwärmung zu, Daten des Uno-Umweltprogramms: Der weltweite Klimaschutz reicht den Vereinten Nationen zufolge nicht aus, um die Erderwärmung entscheidend zu bremsen, trotz kleiner Fortschritte. Uno-Generalsekretär António Guterres warnt vor einem »Klimakollaps«.

Interesting mention of LinkedIn. I used to find it very boring but now it seems to become more interesting for scientists and I use it more than before. As there are no anonymous accounts and exchange is really work-related, it is much more serious than other social media.

Did the same very recently. It was difficult to let go a large number of followers & the outreach possibilities that came with it (especially towards journalists), but then also a relief. It has become meaningless for scientific exchange and I did not want to see any of that bs on X anymore.

@eddieholmes.bsky.social : Is the genome available?

That would have been big news a few years ago, unfortunately the great science that gives important understanding in coronaviruses is now back to the small circle of scientists. Anyway: A fully functional furin cleavage site in a bat betacorarnavirus! Congrats to the authors!

A divergent betacoronavirus with a functional furin cleavage site in South American bats Bats are natural reservoirs for a wide range of RNA viruses. Members of the genus Betacoronavirus, including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome...

We’ve identified a highly divergent betacoronavirus from South American bat that encodes a functional furin cleavage site.
Another fascinating reminder of how diverse coronavirus evolution is in wildlife reservoirs.
#Virology #VirusEvolution #Bats #Coronavirus

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Danke! Das freut mich zu hören!

Parliament pushes for ‘veggie burger’ ban | Euractiv Lawmakers back stricter labelling for meat alternatives

EU Parliament pushes for ‘veggie burger’ ban
Unbelievable we are in a climate crisis where meat production is a huge driver of carbon emissions and deforestation
And instead of promoting meat alternatives - they are trying to ban them

www.euractiv.com/news/parliam...

Would never ever be possible today and I am quite pessimistic that we will eradicate another human disease in the years (decades?) to come.

Costa Rica: Fledermäuse beim Umarmen gesichtet Wissenschaftler haben eine Fledermausfamilie in Costa Rica per Videokamera beobachtet. Die Tiere wiesen ein reges Sozialverhalten auf, inklusive Begrüßungsritual.

Wissenschaftler haben eine Fledermausfamilie in Costa Rica per Videokamera beobachtet. Die Tiere wiesen ein reges Sozialverhalten auf, inklusive Begrüßungsritual.

Also a good reminder that our discussions about measures in schools should not be black or white - it is much more complex! Our findings will not change anything for SARS-CoV-2 anymore - but they will be useful for the next pandemic and the very complex and difficult decisions around schools!

We need dynamic viro-epidemiological studies during outbreaks to address the evolving epidemiological landscape shaped by pathogen characteristics and evolution, shifting public health policies, and changes in human behavior.

This was due to strong increases in community-acquired infections in successive periods of viral variants, ultimately undermining the potential impact of school-based interventions in reducing infection rates in the school-aged population. Bottom line?

We have longitudinally studied SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks in schools with child-friendly sampling methods during Alpha, Delta and Omicron circulation. Through integrated modeling of epidemiological and genetic data and scenario simulations, we could show transmission dynamics in schools changed markedly

Evolving infectious disease dynamics shape school-based intervention effectiveness - Nature Communications School-based non-pharmaceutical interventions were widely used for COVID-19 control. Here, the authors use simulations to investigate how the potential effectiveness of these interventions can vary de...

Our Paper "Evolving infectious disease dynamics shape school-based intervention effectiveness" is finally out in Nature Communications.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This work was a great and intensive collaboration and I am incredibly proud of it - what did we do and what did we find?