Tag: transmission

New data from Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge suggests that a single dose of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine can reduce by four-fold the number of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections. This implies that the vaccine could significantly reduce the risk of transmission of the virus from people who are asymptomatic, as well as protecting others from getting ill.

There is some onward transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) from household contacts released from quarantine after seven or 10 days, according to research published in the Jan. 1 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Melissa A. Rolfes, Ph.D., from the CDC COVID-19

Another day, another announcement about a COVID-19 vaccine. Whether that’s talk of results from clinical trials, emergency approval or plans for countries to prioritize certain groups for vaccination. But we still don’t know if current vaccines prevent disease and also prevent people transmitting the virus to others. This not only has implications for vaccines we’ve

At the weekend, Victorian Premier Dan Andrews announced all the state’s primary school kids would return to school for Term 4. This is an update from the previously planned staggered return to primary school, which would begin only with students in the early years—prep (first year) to Year 2. The change was informed by our

Credit: CC0 Public Domain A German man who contracted the novel strain of coronavirus was infected by a colleague visiting from China, officials said on Tuesday, in what appeared to be the first human-to-human transmission in Europe. Other confirmed cases in Europe of the viral outbreak have so far involved patients who had recently been

Riley Tedrow, Ph.D., a medical entomologist at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, has uncovered new findings about malaria transmission in Madagascar. In a recent study published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, he also describes real-world application of an effective mosquito surveillance strategy using low cost traps and a recently reported tool that simultaneously

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a life-threatening disease transmitted by the bite of a sand fly. Between 3,700 to 7,400 people in Ethiopia are infected annually, particularly in the northern, agricultural regions with favorable climate and environment to sand fly vectors. A study published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases by Rebecca Coulborn from Epicentre, France, and

Among the most serious consequences of the opioid epidemic is the spread of hepatitis C among injecting drug users. A major new study shows that if a hepatitis C vaccine were successfully developed, it would dramatically reduce transmission of hepatitis C among drug users—even though it’s unlikely such a vaccine would provide complete immunity. The

People showing virtually no symptoms are likely the primary source of dengue fever, according to new research published in PLOS Pathogens. Nearly 400 million people each year are infected with dengue virus, which is transmitted through mosquitoes. The study estimates that more than 80 percent of dengue virus infections are attributable to individuals with mild

Scientists at the University of Waterloo have developed a new tool to protect women from HIV infection. The tool, a vaginal implant, decreases the number of cells that the HIV virus can target in a woman’s genital tract. Unlike conventional methods of HIV prevention, such as condoms or anti-HIV drugs, the implant takes advantage of