Rhian Hutchings explores the ongoing debates surrounding the canceling of Hong Kong Art Basel show in response to the Coronavirus crisis The narrative surrounding the Art Basel show in Hong Kong has certainly been colourful over the past couple of months. It has now officially been cancelled due to the impending threat of a virus […]
virus
The EB and Flow of Skin Condition Treatment.
Skin as delicate as a butterfly’s wing – this is how patients with epidermolysis bullosa (EB) are often described. The condition causes skin to blister and tear painfully in response to the lightest touch – even the touch of light clothing can be enough. EB is a genetic condition that occurs due to an absence […]
Variations in viruses
Imagine a disease that can infect millions of people a year. One that can spread by merely coughing and sneezing. One that an outbreak in 1918 caused the death of at least 50 million people. No, I’m not talking about Ebola, Zika virus or any other disease that tends to dominate the news. I’m talking […]
Zika: from Mild to Wild
What is Zika? Zika is a virus that’s recently been hitting the news, due to its nasty effects on new-borns. The virus spreads via Aedes mosquitos, the species of mosquito that also transmits tropical diseases like yellow fever and dengue. In addition to mosquito-bites, there have been cases of sexual transmission, transmission through blood donation […]
AIDs changed the world. Now the world of AIDs is changing.
The now-infamous AIDS epidemic was first reported in June 1981. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported an astonishing 774,467 cases of AIDS within the US between 1981 and 2001, with a mortality rate of over 50%. Despite this clear global health issue, progress was slow. Funding into scientific research was limited, and it took 3 years […]
Venom-Stealing Viruses
Venom-stealing viruses sound like something plucked straight from a horror film, but a recent paper published in Nature Communications has discovered exactly that. Husband-and-wife team Seth and Sarah Bordenstein at Vanderbilt University, USA, found snippets of animal DNA within a bacteria-infecting virus. Gene stealing in viruses is not a new phenomenon but these findings are […]