🤯🤯🤯 De novo gene synthesis by an antiviral reverse transcriptase | bioRxiv biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

nature.com/articles/s4159… from WHO on importance of integrated surveillance linked with understanding pathogen biology

An exciting day!

1. The UK 5-year action plan for antimicrobial resistance 2024 to 2029 (tinyurl.com/52tx58ss) has been published today. I am pleased to see that #phage therapy has been named as one of the key solutions for antimicrobial resistance ( #AMR ) in the report,

Today, we are formally launching the CoCentre for Climate + Biodiversity + Water.

This CoCentre involves 60+ researchers exploring solutions for climate, biodiversity & water issues on islands of Ireland & GB.

Co-Directors: Yvonne Buckley & Mark Emmerson
Deputy Director: Ed Hawkins

New review article

Probable extinction of #influenza B/Yamagata and its public health implications: a systematic literature review and assessment of global surveillance databases

thelancet.com/journals/lanmi…

#OpenAccess #OA

Important day for anyone interested in how NI (and by extension Ireland and UK) can be better prepared for next pandemic or epidemic disease.

🔍Weekly #EventBasedSurveillance | India

Hospitals across the country are reporting a surge in #mumps cases. In #Delhi alone, 5 to 6 complications were reported in last two months, particularly among #children aged 6-7 & young adults aged 18-25.

While in #Noida and #Ghaziabad ,…

Marc Johnson Yep. As we had shown in our pre-print last year (soon to be published), “meta” WGS of IAV is not only possible, but it’s surprising what you can find circulating in the wastewater ie avian and human.
medrxiv.org/content/10.110…

Wastewater tracking by sequencing of flu and other things needs much more support globally. This is not straightforward to do. So far only one study that shows how WW sequencing can characterise human and non-human strains medrxiv.org/content/10.110…

Interested in mRNA-protein complex (mRNP) formation during viral infection? Read our paper on the RNA-protein-binding repertoire of influenza virus mRNAs: academic.oup.com/nar/advance-ar…

Useful update on global preparedness for avian flu (H5N1) ⤵️

Come and work with us!
Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1- Hosting offer for a MSCA Post-doctoral fellowship candidate in Virology/ Study of respiratory coinfections | EURAXESS euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/hosting/u…

'.. it is essential to define a comprehensive genomic and serological surveillance strategy for this outbreak and future ones. Such a strategy would (i) incorporate samples from mammals, birds and people, including for example milk and wastewater;... 'virological.org/t/preliminary-…

The challenging thing about communicating the risk of #flu pandemics is the risk is low — until it isn't. Then things happen really quickly. I talked to the head of the CDC 's flu division about that & the US response to #H5N1 #birdflu in cows. statnews.com/2024/05/03/bir…

NEJM article on human case of #H5N1 in dairy worker, Texas, late March. No cattle samples were taken from that farm. The lineage and reservoir origin of this case is still unclear, imo.

nejm.org/doi/full/10.10…

Seems like H5N1 is a good test for idea that countries should use cross-species approach ‘to identify and address’ emergence.

In particular, if pathogen has potential risk to humans, control shouldn’t be left just to those with outlook (and interests) focused on animals.

Connor G. G. Bamford, Ph.D Criminal act!

It’s incredible (and suggests why it’s so hard to control) that in some cases the time between exposure and shedding could be as short as 6hrs!

Modelling the transmission dynamics of H9N2 avian influenza viruses in a live bird market | Nature Comms nature.com/articles/s4146…

Great to see this paper out from our TRACK project. Contamination on surfaces is low but increases with prevalence and does support transport in the air (on HVAC vents) and from contaminated hands (on grab surfaces). Ventilation and surface/hand hygiene are both a good idea.

Connor G. G. Bamford, Ph.D And clean indoor air for public spaces.