virology blog
About viruses and viral disease
Dick is back from India, and joins Vincent and Alan on episode #15 of This Week in Virology. The trio discuss hantavirus spread by large deer mice, why the 1918 influenza virus replicates in the lower respiratory tract, measles in Europe, and the growing resistance of  influenza virus to antivirals.
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The third edition of Principles of Virology has just been published by ASM Press. Written by  S. J. Flint, L. W. Enquist, V. R. Racaniello, and A. M. Skalka, it is now two volumes to make it easier to handle and carry in backpacks, bags, and briefcases. Of course, the textbook is also completely revised and updated to reflect important advances in the field. The textbook continues to fill the gap between introductory texts and advanced reviews of major virus families. These two volumes provide upper-level undergraduates, graduate students, and medical students with a state-of-the-art introduction to all aspects of virology.Â
On This Week in Virology episode 14, Vincent and Alan discuss a personal experience with viral upper respiratory tract infection (common cold), determinants of transmission of H5N1 influenza virus, the death of an HIV denialist, and the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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On This Week in Virology #13, Vincent and Alan talk about President-elect Obama’s choices for his science advisors, SARS sensationalism, a new enteric picornavirus, and the top 10 virology stories of 2008.
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TWiV’s top 10 virology stories of 2008:
1. Nobel Prize in Medicine to Montagnier, Barré-Sinoussi, and zur Hausen
2. AIDS elite controllers partly explained
3. Cancellation of PAVE HIV-1 vaccine trial
4. Gut homing receptor for HIV-1
5. New Ebola strain
6. New mosquito virus
7. How mosquitoes survive virus infection
8. Mouse model for Chikungunya
9. Genome sequences of 150 avian influenza virus strains
10. Â Understanding the RS virus vaccine failure
This Week in Virology #12 has been posted at twiv.tv.
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In this episode, Vincent, Alan, and Angela discuss Kuru, prions in milk, ancient lentiviruses found in the chromosomes of lemurs, a respiratory syncytial virus vaccine failure in the 1960s, and recent outbreaks of H5N1 influenza in chickens.
This Week in Virology #11 has been posted at www.microbe.tv/twiv.
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In this episode,  Vincent, Alan, and guest Jeremy Luban discuss why certain AIDS patients, called ‘elite controllers’ or ‘long-term non-progressors’, do not develop disease, why mosquitoes infected with Sindbis virus remain healthy, and the continuing outbreaks of norovirus gastroenteritis.