Bird Flu News

July 26, 2024

Top Headlines

Study Shows Promise for a Universal Influenza Vaccine

July 19, 2024 — New research reveals a promising approach to developing a universal influenza vaccine -- a so-called 'one and done' vaccine that confers lifetime immunity against an evolving virus. The study tested a vaccine platform against the virus considered ...

Influenza Viruses Can Use Two Ways to Infect Cells

July 17, 2024 — Most influenza viruses enter human or animal cells through specific pathways on the cells' surface. Researchers have now discovered that certain human flu viruses and avian flu viruses can also use a second entry pathway, a protein complex of the ...

Receptors Make Dairy Cows a Prime Target for Influenza

July 15, 2024 — A study helps explain why dairy cows infected by highly pathogenic avian influenza are shedding the virus in their milk. Their findings could help develop biosecurity measures aimed at slowing the spread of the ...

Think You Might Have COVID? Wait Two Days to Test, Research Suggests

June 25, 2024 — A new study provides insight on how to make a new generation of rapid tests, including COVID, flu, RSV, and all-in-one tests, work ...

Latest Headlines

updated 9:48pm EDT

Raw Milk Is Risky, but Airborne Transmission of H5N1 from Cow's Milk Is Inefficient in Mammals

July 8, 2024 — While H5N1 avian influenza virus taken from infected cow's milk makes mice and ferrets sick when dripped into their noses, airborne transmission of ...

Pasteurization Inactivates Highly Infectious Avian Flu in Milk, Study Suggests

July 3, 2024 — Researchers found no infectious virus in the sampled pasteurized milk products tested for ...

Low-Dose Aspirin Could Help Prevent Pregnancy Complications Caused by Flu Infections

July 2, 2024 — A world-first study has found low-dose aspirin may treat flu-induced blood vessel inflammation, creating better blood flow to the placenta during ...

Bird Flu Stays Stable on Milking Equipment for at Least One Hour

June 27, 2024 — H5N1 virus in unpasteurized milk is stable on metal and rubber components of commercial milking equipment for at least one hour, increasing its potential to infect people and other ...

Simple Test for Flu Could Improve Diagnosis and Surveillance

June 21, 2024 — Fewer than one percent of people who get the flu every year get tested, in part because most tests require trained personnel and expensive equipment. Now researchers have developed a low-cost paper ...

N95 Masks Near-Perfect at Blocking Escape of Airborne COVID-19, Research Shows

May 30, 2024 — In a head-to-head comparison of masks worn by people with active COVID-19, the inexpensive 'duckbill' N95 came out on top, stopping 98% of COVID-19 ...

Antibodies May Aid Effort to Fight Influenza B

May 31, 2024 — Researchers have isolated human monoclonal antibodies against influenza B, a significant public health threat that disproportionately affects children, the elderly and other immunocompromised ...

Bird Flu: Diverse Range of Vaccines Platforms 'Crucial' for Enhancing Human Pandemic Preparedness

May 29, 2024 — Review of research to-date suggests vaccination remains the most effective strategy for avian influenza prevention and control in humans, despite ...

Drug-Like Inhibitor Shows Promise in Preventing Flu

May 21, 2024 — Currently available flu medications only target the virus after it has already established an infection, but what if a drug could prevent infection in the first place? Now, scientists have designed ...

Repeat COVID-19 Vaccinations Elicit Antibodies That Neutralize Variants, Other Viruses

May 17, 2024 — A study has found that repeat vaccination with updated versions of the COVID-19 vaccine promotes the development of antibodies that neutralize a wide ...

More Hospitals Than Ever Require Staff to Get Flu Shots, U.S. Study Finds

June 14, 2024 — As hospitals and health systems begin to prepare for flu vaccination campaigns, a new study shows that 96% of the hospitals that serve America's veterans, and 74% of hospitals serving the ...

Highly Pathogenic Avian Flu Detected in New York City Wild Birds

May 15, 2024 — A small number of New York City wild birds carry highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza, according to a recent ...

Promising New Treatment Strategy for Deadly Flu-Related Brain Disorders

May 2, 2024 — Researchers have found that a brain disorder associated with flu (influenza-associated encephalopathy, or IAE) can be caused by the influenza virus entering the brain from the blood via endothelial ...

New Strategy Could Lead to Universal, Long-Lasting Flu Shot

May 1, 2024 — An experimental influenza vaccine carrying more than 80,000 variations of hemagglutinin antigens caused the immune system of mice and ferrets to respond more strongly to less variable portions of the ...

Metabolic Health Before Vaccination Determines Effectiveness of Anti-Flu Response

Apr. 18, 2024 — The annual influenza vaccine has become less effective on average over time. One reason may be reduced vaccine efficacy in people with obesity than those with a healthier body mass index (BMI), while ...

Vaccine Breakthrough Means No More Chasing Strains

Apr. 15, 2024 — Scientists at UC Riverside have demonstrated a new, RNA-based vaccine strategy that is effective against any strain of a virus and can be used safely even by babies or the ...

Just Ask: Patients in the ER Are Willing to Get a Flu Shot

Mar. 26, 2024 — Simply asking patients to get the flu vaccine, and combining it with helpful video and print messages, is enough to persuade many who visit emergency departments to roll up their sleeves, according ...

Humans Pass More Viruses to Other Animals Than We Catch from Them

Mar. 25, 2024 — Humans pass on more viruses to domestic and wild animals than we catch from them, according to a major new analysis of viral ...

Addressing Both Flu and COVID-19 Through a Single, Multitasking Injection

Mar. 18, 2024 — Researchers have identified new drug candidates for preventing and treating major respiratory viral ...

New Antibodies Target 'Dark Side' of Influenza Virus Protein

Mar. 1, 2024 — Researchers have identified antibodies targeting a hard-to-spot region of the influenza virus, shedding light on the relatively unexplored 'dark side' of the neuraminidase (NA) protein ...

Changes in Flu Circulation Means U.S. Likely to See Vaccines Move from Quadrivalent to Trivalent

Feb. 29, 2024 — U.S. flu vaccines are likely to move from quadrivalent to trivalent due to a change in circulating influenza viruses, according to a new ...

'Hexaplex' Vaccine Aims to Boost Flu Protection

Feb. 26, 2024 — A research team has developed a recombinant protein flu vaccine candidate. It utilizes a nanoliposome vaccine platform that underwent phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trials in South Korea and the ...

How Children's Birthdays Help Show the Best Month for Flu Shots

Feb. 22, 2024 — First large-scale analysis of optimal timing for flu shots finds October is the best month for children to get vaccinated against influenza. Study of 800,000 pediatrician visits leverages links ...

Flu Vaccines Were Effective in 2022-2023 Flu Season, Studies Find

Feb. 19, 2024 — The prospect of the worrisome triple threat of COVID, RSV and flu was assuaged last year by the effectiveness of flu vaccines. Two recent studies from the Centers for Disease Control and ...

Scientists Discover Hidden Army of Lung Flu Fighters

Feb. 14, 2024 — Scientists have long thought of the fluid-filled sac around our lungs merely as a cushion from external damage. Turns out, it also houses potent virus-eating cells that rush into the lungs during flu ...

Interactions Between Flu Subtypes Predict Epidemic Severity More Than Virus Evolution

Feb. 13, 2024 — Researchers have shed new light on how viral evolution, population immunity, and the co-circulation of other flu viruses shape seasonal flu ...

Flu Virus Variants Resistant to New Antiviral Drug Candidate Lose Pathogenicity

Feb. 6, 2024 — Influenza A viruses with induced resistance to a new candidate antiviral drug were found to be impaired in cell culture and weakened in animals, according to a new ...

Virus Ancestry Could Aid Bid to Predict Next Pandemic, Study Finds

Feb. 5, 2024 — Virus family history could help scientists identify which strains have potential to become the so-called Disease X that causes the next global ...

'Exhalation' System Improves Symptoms for Most Common Form of Chronic Sinus Infections

Jan. 18, 2024 — An exhalation delivery system that uses a patient's own breath to carry the anti-inflammatory compound fluticasone (EDS-FLU) directly to the sinuses reduced chronic sinus infection (sinusitis) ...

New Vaccine Design Uses Immunity Against Influenza to Offer Faster Protection Against Emerging Pathogens

Jan. 17, 2024 — Imagine a vaccine that speeds up the production of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that spreads COVID-19. A research team has developed such a vaccine by using preexisting immunity to a ...