Dengue in Florida update – CDC researchers presented results of a serological survey conducted in the Keyes at the Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases this week. They estimated that more than 1000 people have been infected thus far! Is dengue becoming endemic the US again?
Malaria research upswing – The NIH announced that the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) will be funding 10 new International Centers of Excellence for Malaria Research; $14 million in funding was awarded to 10 universities (9 in the US and one in Colombia). See the press release for the list of universities and the research focus areas.
HIV vaccine research – In other NIAID news, studies have identified not one but two anti-HIV antibodies that were effective in neutralizing the virus in the laboratory. Will a vaccine be far behind?
Modeling infectious…emotions? Harvard and MIT researchers spent some time determining that the emotion of happiness can be modeled in the same way that infectious diseases are modeled. In other words, they are contagious. A little frivolous, perhaps, especially since common sense might have told us the same thing, but geeks gotta have fun too. I wonder how they estimated transmission probability.
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