Tagged: Influenza

It always pays to check before you share - BioBlog

Alison Campbell • Nov 19, 2020 •

• COVID-19,
• Fauci,
• Influenza,
• masks

Back in 2008, Dr Anthony Fauci (yes, that Dr Fauci) co-authored a paper that examined the interplay between influenza infection and secondary bacterial … Read More

Remember the value of our older community members - COVID-19

Guest Author • Apr 15, 2020 •

• 1918 pandemic,
• coronavirus,
• COVID-19,
• elderly,
• Influenza,
• older adults

Professor Christine Stephens I was somewhat alarmed to find myself, as a 70-year-old, suddenly categorised as a member of a particularly vulnerable group.  This is a group of people based only on the number of years that they have lived who have been singled out as needing to be extra careful and isolated earlier than others during the Covid-19 pandemic. Read More

100 years ago today a Death Ship from NZ Arrived in Samoa: A Reminder of NZ’s Responsibilities to its South Pacific Neighbours - Public Health Expert

Public Health Expert • Nov 07, 2018 •

• 1918,
• Influenza,
• Samoa,
• spanish flu

Prof Nick Wilson, Prof Michael Baker, Dr Jennifer Summers, Dr Matt Boyd, Dr Ramona Tiatia Today is the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the SS Talune in Western Samoa. This single ship spread the influenza pandemic from NZ to Western Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji. Thanks to the Rt Hon Helen Clark, there has been an official apology to Samoa … Read More

Flu plane: are we really ready for a global pandemic? - Guest Work

Guest Author • Sep 10, 2018 •

• Influenza,
• Pandemic

Mark Eccleston-Turner, Keele University An Emirates airliner was quarantined at John F Kennedy International Airport on September 5 after several passengers reported flu-like symptoms. Oxiris Barbot, New York City’s acting health commissioner, said the cause of the illness was “probably influenza”. The following day, two more flights, arriving from the Middle East were quarantined at … Read More

How long should you stay away when you have a cold or the flu? - Guest Work

Guest Author • Jul 25, 2018 •

• cold,
• germs,
• illness,
• Influenza

Nadia Charania, Auckland University of Technology Most adults get around two to three colds a year, and children get even more. In terms of the flu, there are around 3-5 million severe cases of influenza worldwide each year and 290,000 to 650,000 deaths. The symptoms of a cold and the flu are similar, so it’s hard … Read More

A century of health inequalities in NZ – new data - Public Health Expert

Public Health Expert • Mar 26, 2018 •

• cohorts,
• deprivation,
• Dunedin,
• education,
• electoral roll,
• female,
• Health,
• Influenza,
• life expectancy,
• lifespan,
• male,
• Maori,
• nutrition,
• socioeconomic,
• WW1,
• WW2

Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Matt Boyd, Dr Andrea Teng, Prof Tony Blakely Everyone knows that socio-economic inequalities in health exist – in recent times. But one thing we do not know is whether they have always been there. We have just published a study that looks at two historical datasets – with one of these suggesting life span differences by … Read More

The ‘greatest pandemic in history’ was 100 years ago – but many of us still get the basic facts wrong - Guest Work

Guest Author • Jan 16, 2018 •

• Influenza,
• military,
• Pneumonia,
• spanish flu,
• supervirus,
• urban

Richard Gunderman, Indiana University This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the great influenza pandemic of 1918. Between 50 and 100 million people are thought to have died, representing as much as 5 percent of the world’s population. Half a billion people were … Read More

Attitudes and antibiotics - BioBlog

Alison Campbell • Nov 20, 2017 •

• antibiotic,
• antibiotic resistance,
• antimicrobial resistance,
• comments,
• Facebook,
• Influenza,
• natural selection,
• Social media,
• spanish flu

A recent FB post from Stuff discussed the rising concerns about the evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. (This is something that Siouxsie Wiles has often written about: here and here, for example; her excellent book on the subject is reviewed here.) Fairly predictably, it didn’t take long for the proponents of essential oils to turn up, soon to be joined by the … Read More

A Statue of Merit: Dr Margaret Cruickshank and the 1918 influenza pandemic - Public Health Expert

Public Health Expert • Sep 12, 2017 •

• History,
• Influenza,
• Margaret Cruickshank,
• Medicine,
• public health,
• statues

Nick Wilson, Ben Schrader, Geoff Rice, Christine Clement, George Thomson, Catharine Ferguson, Michael Baker Some statues are getting bad press at present – and rightly so for the Confederate military statues which represent the racist history of the Southern United States. But in this blog we briefly look at a particular New Zealand statue that we think characterises some of … Read More

Why are only some viruses transmissible by blood and how are they actually spread? - Guest Work

Guest Author • Jul 28, 2017 •

• Blood,
• Hepatitis B,
• hepatitis C,
• HIV/AIDS,
• immune system,
• Influenza,
• T Cells,
• Viruses

David Griffin, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and Thomas Schulz, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity Since the 1980s, most of us have been aware we need to be careful when coming into contact with the blood of others, because some viruses can be transmitted in this way. But why is … Read More