Brian Dawes

This is really cool but also a cautionary tale about zooanthroponotic transmission at the interface between human and animals. Without surveillance, viruses can hop back and forth and evolve in unpredictable ways

Tania attends to a patient in the dengue ward at Mugda Hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on 20 September 2023.

Dengue, Zika, chikungunya & yellow fever are on the rise, putting 5.6B+ people at risk.

Once limited to tropical & subtropical climates, Aedes mosquitoes are spreading to new regions, increasing the risk of outbreaks.

New WHO guidelines covering all four mosquito-borne diseases 🔗 bit.ly/3Tu6BnJ

Seroprevalence of Dengue, Zika, and Chikungunya Viruses in Humans and Co-located Macaques in Thailand and Cambodia Arboviruses—short for "arthropod-borne viruses"—are transmitted to humans and animals by infected arthropods.

Seroprevalence of Dengue, Zika, and Chikungunya Viruses in Humans and Co-located Macaques in Thailand and Cambodia

✅ Just Accepted
#IDSky

SA universities face funding crisis as US federal agencies freeze research grants | News24 An investigation into the impact of the US aid freeze on research funding to South African universities has found that 44 programmes worth R2.5 billion were affected.

A not very happy Friday. CERI had 6 NIH grants canceled, which will impact operations, surveillance and response to epidemics. We are working to try to minimize disturbance but not easy with 6 grants terminated at the same moment. A crisis is unfolding in SA www.news24.com/southafrica/...

The spread of Mpox in Sierra Leone is unlike anything we have ever seen - and we have been keeping an eye on this bug in the region for >15 years.

Given geographical spread, 50/50 men vs women, this is no "sexual network".

This could be the next one.

clt.npha.gov.sl/outbreak.aspx

Trump freezes ‘gain of function’ pathogen research ― threatening all US virology, critics say An executive order suspends the use of federal funds for certain experiments on pathogens with pandemic potential. Critics say low-risk science could be affected too.

“This is what I was expecting — an executive order banning gain-of-function research but defined in such a way that it bans all virology research,” says @ggronvall.bsky.social.

Yup.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

🧵1/N New study published in @jama.com on re-emergence of vaccine-eliminated infectious diseases under declining vaccination in the US. We model long-term risk and conditions for return to endemicity for measles, rubella, polio, & diphtheria. Collab w/ @Mathewkiang.com jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Researcher of 1918 flu virus takes over NIAID Jeffery Taubenberger becomes acting director of NIH’s second largest institute

Credit where it’s due, Jeff Taubenberger is a great choice for the head of NIAID. He’s been at NIAID for years & is a terrific scientist who has done pivotal work on influenza virus, most notably reconstructing 1918.

www.science.org/content/arti...

The spatiotemporal ecology of Oropouche virus across Latin America: a multidisciplinary, laboratory-based, modelling study Our data suggest that climatic factors are major drivers of OROV spread and were potentially exacerbated during 2024 by extreme weather events. OROV glycoprotein reassortants, but not individual OROV ...

Oropouche seropositivity much higher than thought, up 30% in some populations. Reasons for increased recent spread multifactorial, climate events important predictors. Huge collaborative project led by Jan Felix Drexler.

Now online @thelancetinfdis.bsky.social

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Novel human coronavirus in an infant patient with pneumonia, Republic of Korea Coronaviruses (CoVs) pose a significant threat to public health, causing a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations and outcomes. Beyond precipitating global outbreaks, Human CoVs (HCoVs) are frequ...

Another zoonotic (alpha) coronavirus. Closely related to the rodent virus AcCoV-JC34 that contains a putative furin cleavage site. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Hantavirus Claims Three Lives in Mammoth Lakes, California | ALT 98.7 | LA Local News Three people in Mammoth Lakes, California, have died from hantavirus, a rare virus spread by deer mice. The illness also claimed the life of Betsy Arakawa, Gene Hackman's wife. Fewer than 100 cases ha...

Hantavirus claims 3 more lives in Mammoth Lakes, Mono County, California. The rare, rodent-borne illness has gained attention after the death of Betsy Arakawa, wife of actor Gene Hackman, in New Mexico.
alt987fm.iheart.com/featured/la-...

Trump cuts damage global efforts to track diseases, prevent outbreaks Disease surveillance programs worldwide are suddenly in limbo

"A project to track and contain menacing animal viruses across seven countries, from avian influenza in poultry to Lassa virus in rodents, ended with a single email."
www.science.org/content/arti...

Trump administration to end funding for child vaccines in developing countries, New York Times reports U.S. President Donald Trump's administration plans to end American financial support for Gavi, an organization that helps buy vaccines for children in developing countries and scale back efforts to combat malaria, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

Gavi has helped vaccinate over 1.1 billion children, saving 17 million lives. Every $1 the U.S. invests returns $54 in health & economic gains. These vaccines stop outbreaks before they reach our shores. Without them, Kansas is just as vulnerable as Kinshasa.
www.reuters.com/business/hea...

graph of NIH basisfor new drugs

A pie graph worth keeping in mind as the NIH budget plummets jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... for 356 new FDA drugs approved

Opinion | Musk Said No One Has Died Since Aid Was Cut. That Isn’t True. (Gift Article) A journey through the front lines of global poverty shows that when the world’s richest men slash aid for the world’s poorest children, the result is sickness, starvation and death.

Elon Musk says that no one has died because he slashed humanitarian aid. I went to South Sudan to check if that's true. It's not. Meet Peter, Achol and Evan, ages 10, 8 and 5. The reckless actions of the world's richest men are killing the world's poorest kids www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

A Dark Day for Our Country I'm not going to sugarcoat it. Today was a bad day for our country – and for the Democratic Party.

I'm not going to sugarcoat it.

Today was a bad day for our country – and for the Democratic Party.

Let's talk about it.

open.substack.com/pub/schiffno...

New bat paper from our lab. Small changes in bats' diet can decrease influenza shedding and alter cytokine expression. doi.org/10.1098/rspb... #bats #influenza #iav photo credit: José Gabriel Martínez-Fonseca

Here’s how to share sensitive leaks with the press Thinking about securely leaking information to news organizations? This guide will show you how.

Sharing these resources for no particular reason.

1. Here’s how to share sensitive leaks with the press via @freedom.press: freedom.press/digisec/blog...
2. Become a whistleblower via @wbaidlaw.bsky.social: whistlebloweraid.org/become-a-whi...

Stay safe out there.

A Q&A of our recent work on Rift Valley Fever virus stability in milk. Main take home is this is a potential threat in endemic regions and that (super unsurprisingly) pasteurization remains critically important to public health!

Here we boiled for 1 minute. Typical pasteurization protocols use lower temps, (60C for 30 minutes or 72C for 15 seconds which we also showed inactivated RVFV), so I imagine shorter boiling would work. We just didn't do shorter times to conclusively show that.

Understanding the Resurgence of Yellow Fever: New Insights from Brazil's Largest Outbreak - Global Health A new study published in Frontiers in Medicine sheds further light on the risk factors associated with severe yellow fever and in-hospital mortality during this critical period. The LaBeaud Lab at Sta...

New publication studies Brazil's 2016-2018 #YellowFever outbreak, the largest in the country's history, identifying risk factors for severe disease, & underscores the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration in confronting infectious disease threats. globalhealth.stanford.edu/research/und...

The next step in trying to dismantle Infectious Diseases research - dismantle @niaidnews.bsky.social - should surprise no one that this a R-led proposal.

An unmitigated disaster for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of pathogens that affect everyone in the US

www.congress.gov/bill/119th-c...

Rift Valley fever virus remains infectious in milk stored in a wide range of temperatures Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is a zoonotic arbovirus widely distributed across Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, which causes devastating epidemics affecting humans as well as ruminant livestock. The epidemiology of RVFV is difficult to disentangle, as it is transmitted to humans via mosquitos or direct contact with infected animals. Among these direct exposures are milking ruminants and drinking fresh milk, which have been firmly established as risk factors for RVFV exposure. However, no studies to date have addressed the stability of infectious RVFV in milk.

Rift Valley fever virus remains infectious in milk stored in a wide range of temperatures

✅ Just Accepted
#IDSky

Photo of the United States with a color code for states that have rallies confirmed, in progress, needing a leader, or no leader.

🚨 WANT TO HELP US STAND UP FOR SCIENCE? 🚨

Here's a little update on where we're currently at with the planning process!

Is your state red or grey & you want to see an event happen? Fill out our volunteer form or share with a friend! airtable.com/app4h5wUssMG...

#standupforscience2025

Climate Change and Coccidioidomycosis This JAMA Insights discusses the increased risk of coccidioidomycosis due to climate change and the importance of clinicians, patients, and health systems being educated about the disease to ensure accurate identification and optimal care for patients.

Out today: a brief piece in @jama.com, targeted primarily toward raising awareness among clinicians, on rising incidence of #coccidioidomycosis ("valley fever" illness caused by Coccidioides fungus) in western U.S. amid a warming #climate. jamanetwork.com/jour...

At @science.org today, an important new way we can make major headway into immunologic and infectious diseases. Sequencing the lymphocyte B and T cell receptors and A.I. to accurately make the diagnosis!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adp2407
A seminal study by @anshulkundaje.bsky.social et al

On Friday night, HHS ordered CDC to take down all flu vaccine campaign materials from its website. Materials are starting to come down.
For example, a campaign explaining that flu shot can reduce flu severity from "wild to mild" is now offline. Left image is from Friday, right is now

Meanwhile...

Office desk without any personal items or decor

Today, along with 2,000 other NIH employees, I had to clear out my office 😭

It was truly the honor of my life to work with such incredibly passionate people focused on improving human health. I’ve never experienced a more positive culture where *everyone* cared about their job and serving others.

CDC: 3 veterinarians had recent #H5N1 infections but didn't know they had been exposed

The findings suggest that cases in people and animals in other states have yet to be identified, the authors say.

www.cidrap.umn.edu/a...

Agree, role of antimicrobial peptides in inactivation here is unknown.

Titers in milk from infected animals is still unknown other than older studies from the 1970s that just mention "high titers". The inoculated titer is comparable to viremia/tissue levels in infected animals.