- Infectious disease ×
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Life after a pandemic: What we can learn from the Spanish flu?
July 30, 2020
With the slow return to a new ‘normality’, it is hard to know what life will be like out of lockdown. A direct comparison to the current situation with SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) is the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918. Spanish flu affected a staggering one-third of the world’s population and killed 50 million. As much as the two viruses are very different, the societal reactions during both pandemics are similar, and our way of coping with COVID-19 can be understood by reflecting on the measures used 100 years ago.
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FIS 2019: Improving the dialogue between health-related professionals and career scientists
December 19, 2019
Over 600 delegates attended the Federation of Infection Societies (FIS) 2019 in November this year. The meeting, hosted by the Microbiology Society, was held in Edinburgh and provided a unique interface for delegates from diverse backgrounds, all with an interest in infection, to interact.
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To notify, or not to notify – that is the question
October 23, 2019
In this blog, Professor Garry Blakely, from the University of Edinburgh's School of Biological Sciences, discusses carbapenemase-producing bacteria and the importance of surveillance. In August 2019, Professor Blakely attended a Public Health England (PHE) steering group with a number of clinicians and diagnostic staff to discuss the limitations and effects that reporting infections from carbapenemase-producing bacteria could have on healthcare systems.
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Rabies virus: can we treat the untreatable?
June 25, 2019
Every year, an estimated 59,000 people die from rabies. Usually contracted following a bite from an infected animal, rabies is almost always fatal in people who have not been vaccinated. Once symptoms of appear, there is little-to-no hope for the infected individual, with no treatment options currently available.
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Using insect larvae to study disease
May 22, 2019
Researchers from Maynooth University have been using larvae as a model to examine the progress of Staphylococcus aureus infection. Here, PhD student Gerard Sheehan discusses his research which has recently been published in the journal Microbiology.
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JMM Editor's Choice: Developing vaccines against Staphylococcus epidermidis
May 7, 2019
The Journal of Medical Microbiology (JMM) is a journal published by the Microbiology Society, focused on providing a comprehensive coverage of medical, dental and veterinary microbiology and infectious diseases, including bacteriology, virology, mycology and parasitology. This month, Dr Kim Hardie has selected an outstanding paper from the May issue to highlight as Editor's Choice. The paper, titled 'Synthesis of conjugated PIA-rSesC and immunological evaluation against biofilm-forming Staphylococcus epidermidis' discusses strategies researchers are using to develop a conjugate vaccine against S. epidermidis.
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World TB Day: A Q&A with Professor Tanya Parish
March 22, 2019
Sunday 24 March marks World Tuberculosis Day. On this day in 1882, Robert Koch announced he had discovered the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), which was a major development in understanding the disease and working towards finding treatment options. In this post, we discuss TB research with Professor Tanya Parrish, Editor-in-Chief of the Society's flagship journal, Microbiology, and Head of the TB Discovery Research Group at the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI) in the US.
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New antibiotics needed: Haemophilus influenzae
March 14, 2019
In 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) published the ’12 Priority Pathogens’: a list of twelve microbes that are becoming increasingly resistant to current antimicrobials. These twelve pathogens are thought by WHO to pose the greatest threat to human health.
