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Showing posts from December, 2019

Science Songs #3: Jon Hopkins - Immunity

Jon Hopkins' ambient, relaxing titular track from his album, Immunity.

Measles Virus and B-cell memory

The re-emergence of diseases that were thought to be part of our history, defeated by immunisation, and hoped to be found only in category 4 labs deep underground and textbooks, are now increasingly common in headlines covering new epidemics. Of current popular concern is Measles, the virus not to be confused with German Measles nor Rubella, which prior to a vaccintation program beginning in 1963, killed 2.6M people annually [1]. In 2018 more than 140,000 people died from the virus [1], an incredible decrease since the 1960s but this number has been increasing. Image: Measles Virus Micrograph The reason for the rise in measles cases is not only because of the recent fall-off in immunisation program uptake, thanks to baseless claims linking autism with the combination vaccine, MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella), but also because of the virulence of the virus. Measles is the most infectious virus known to the human race, and before vaccination programs were in effect, infect