MicrobeWorld

World health officials have raised the level of alert about a possible swine flu pandemic, since the virus seems to be spreading regularly from person to person. ""It's a significant step towards pandemic influenza, but it is a phase that says we are not there yet," said Keiji Fukada of the WHO.... Read More

At a speech to the National Academy of Sciences, President Obama vowed to increase total US spending on research and development by government and industry to 3% of GDP – up from the current figure of around 2.6%.
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New details of the composition and structure of a needlelike protein complex on the surface of certain bacteria may help scientists develop new strategies to thwart infection. Read More

The Infectious Disease Association of California has issued guidelines for clinicians to help them identify possible patients suffering from this strain of swine flu.
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Emily Lurie, a student at The University of Western Australia in Perth, has a nice blog called Adopt-a-Microbe in which she illustrates a particular microbe and provides some general information about it. Her work is very attractive and cute, and is ideal for teaching young people about the role... Read More

The American Public Health Association is providing and has collected many resources about the ongoing Swine Flu outbreak and influenza in general on their website www.getreadyforflu.org. Read More

An influenza vaccine that protects against death and serious complications from different strains of flu is a little closer to reality, Saint Louis University vaccine researchers have found.

"This is a significant first step in developing a universal vaccine to help protect against pandemic i... Read More

Mark O. Martin, guest blogger on Small Things Considered, has written an interesting piece on Chlorochromatium aggregatum. "With apologies to the old Turtle’s song (which knocked the Beatle’s “Penny Lane” off the Billboard charts in the spring of 1967), there are many ways that microbes interact... Read More

Researcher Jo Handelsman (recently interviewed for Meet The Scientist) runs microbial observatories in Wisconsin and Alaska and studies underground microbes detrimental to healthy soil. Microbial Observatory is a segment from CSREES' Partners Video Magazine's 19th episode, The Soil Explorers. To... Read More

This is a clip from the best show on TV, Flight of the Conchords. They continue to prove why they are so brilliant...mold farm? Classic. Read More

It seems that Bacteria has its own theme song and here it is. Bacteria rock video. Read More

Picture of Couple Kissing in Mexico City with Surgical masks on During Swine Flu Outbreak. From The Guardian UK. Article link here http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/26/swine-flu-outbreak-mexico-pandemic. Photo by Alfredo Estrella/AFP/Getty Images Read More

Autoimmune diseases have long been regarded as illnesses in which the immune system creates autoantibodies to attack the body itself. But, researchers at the California non-profit Autoimmunity Research Foundation (ARF) explain that the antibodies observed in autoimmune disease actually result fr... Read More

Common sense information from the CDC on how you can prevent flu transmission and prevent getting sick yourself. Read More

This document provides interim planning guidance for state, territorial, tribal, and local communities that focuses on several nonpharmaceutical measures that might be useful during this outbreak of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus aimed at reducing disease transmission and associated morbidity an... Read More

Good basic info on Swine Flu in humans and pigs. Read More

Swine Influenza (swine flu) is a respiratory disease of pigs caused by type A influenza viruses that causes regular outbreaks in pigs. People do not normally get swine flu, but human infections can and do happen. Swine flu viruses have been reported to spread from person-to-person, but in the pa... Read More

Journalist and blogger Daniel Hernandez talks about the mindset of people in Mexico City during the swine flu outbreak. Often scientists and researchers skip over the psychological impact of infectious disease. It's an important factor in my opinion and I think this piece highlights the conseque... Read More

For decades, microbiologists assumed that macrophages, immune cells that can engulf and poison bacteria and other pathogens, killed microbes by damaging their DNA. A new study from the University of Illinois disproves that.

The study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, shows that macrophages ... Read More

Mexico canceled school nationwide Monday and warned the death toll from a swine flu epidemic believed to have killed 149 people would keep rising before it can be contained.

Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said 20 of the deaths have been confirmed to be from swine flu and the government w... Read More