Common Science

During a conversation with friends I realised I needed a better understanding of seasonal flu viruses, and how or if Swine Flu and Bird Flu are seasonal, whether there are other seasonal influenza viruses, and what protection the flu vaccine provides, as, we were all just guessing answers to these points! I couldn't readily find all of the answers online in one place, so I've pieced together information from various sources and created some comparison tables covering the more widely discussed swine, avian and seasonal influenza viruses. This post is by no means supposed to be a comprehensive review of each virus, but an overview to give readers a better understanding of seasonal flu, the viruses that cause it, and the flu vaccine. Feel free to comment with any questions or corrections, all pertinent information is referenced, the majority of which came from various pages of the World Health Organisation’s and CDC's website, alongside data from several recent publicati...

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...