virology blog
About viruses and viral disease
TWiV reviews the FDA decision to update COVID-19 vaccine boosters in the fall, the meaning of fatigue with respect to long COVID, and a skin volatile induced by flavivirus reproduction that attracts mosquitoes to the infected host.
Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condit, Kathy Spindler, and Brianne Barker
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Download TWiV 919 (61 MB .mp3, 102 min)
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Show notes at microbe.tv/twiv
From the authors of Paul Has Measles and Paul Stays Home comes Paul and the Mosquitos, an illustrated book for children about mosquito-borne diseases.
In his camp, Paul and his friends discuss which is the most dangerous animal of all. They would never have imagined it would be the mosquito. Why are they dangerous and what can we do to prevent the diseases transmitted by them?
Paul and the Mosquitoes is written by Susana López, Selene Zárate, and Martha Yocupicio, with illustrations by Eva Lobatón.
A pdf of Paul and the Mosquitos can be downloaded free of charge here.
Vincent speaks with virologists at the University of Nevada at Reno about their careers and their work on herpesviruses, arboviruses, and the development of diagnostics for infectious diseases.
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Download TWiV 579 (61 MB .mp3, 101 min)
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Show notes at microbe.tv/twiv
The TWiV pro-vaxxers reveal viruses that infect endangered wild salmon, and how iron in host serum modulates dengue virus acquisition by mosquitoes.
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Download TWiV 569 (67 MB .mp3, 110 min)
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Show notes at microbe.tv/twiv
The gut tracts of many animals are inhabited by a microbial community composed of bacteria, archaea, fungi, and viruses. The interplay among these inhabitants can have an impact on health and disease. Mosquitoes are no exception – replication of dengue virus in the gut tract is modulated by a fungus and a bacterium.
[Read more…] about Inter-kingdom interactions in the mosquito gut
Imagine that we could change all the mosquitoes in the world so that they would no longer take a blood meal, and then consider the impact on transmission of viruses and parasites. Before you say impossible, you should know that Nature has already done it – not all mosquitoes take blood meals.
[Read more…] about Mosquito blood feeding is not a free lunch