Critical insights into why airborne viruses lose their infectivity have been uncovered by scientists at the University of Bristol. The findings, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface today [21 June], reveal how cleaner air kills the virus significantly quicker and why opening a window may be more important than originally thought. The research could shape future mitigation strategies for new viruses.

In the aftermath of COVID-19, it is tempting to characterize pandemics as problems foreign in origin, traced to shadowy wildlife markets and unhygienic conditions. Indeed, such “wet” markets sometimes sell and slaughter wild, exotic animals on site leading to concerns that diseases may spread there across species. Expert calls for global bans on wet markets and the consumption of wildlife have been met with overwhelming approval.

The comments are the first admission by a senior official that Beijing’s took the so-called Wuhan lab leak theory seriously after years of heated denials.

The cases in England were found during screening and there is no sign of human-to-human transmission.

We know mosquitoes are a serious threat to our health as human beings– in fact, they're the world's deadliest animal, with mosquito-borne diseases responsible for more than a million deaths a year.

With new detection, officials warn of spring and summer transmission risks.

A study from Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine is the first to connect highly pathogenic avian influenza to a large scale mortality event in wild mammals.

Researchers are announcing that a 53-year-old man in Germany has been cured of HIV.

The patient in Germany was given the transplant to help treat a blood disorder, which in his case was leukaemia, that had developed alongside his HIV infection, and after four years of not taking anti-retroviral medicine, he has not relapsed.

Scientists fear a mammal-to-mammal spread could lead to global catastrophe.

Rare bacterial infections, such as invasive strep A, are popping up around the United States and Europe, with unusual effects for children.

Researchers from the French National Centre for Scientific Research have revived more than a dozen prehistoric viruses that were previously trapped deep within the Siberian permafrost, according to a pre-print study.

Vaccine against all strains of virus hailed as major step in protecting against potentially devastating flu pandemic

Seven viruses from the Siberian permafrost have been revived and replicated themselves in the lab – including the oldest revived so far

Genome analysis finds SARS-CoV-2 and bat coronaviruses shared an ancestor just a few years ago, but extensive recombination has muddied the picture.

The Arctic—that remote, largely undisturbed, 5.5 million square miles of frozen terrain—is heating up fast. In fact, it’s warming nearly four times quicker than the rest of the world, with disastrous consequences for the region and its inhabitants. Many of these impacts you probably know from nature documentaries: ice caps melting, sea levels rising, and polar bears losing their homes. But good news! There is another knock-on effect to worry about: the warming landscape is rewiring viral dynamics, with the potential to unleash new pathogens.

A string of about 30,000 genetic letters were all that it took to start the nightmare of covid-19, the death toll from which is likely to be more than 20m. Exactly how this story began has been hotly contested. Many think that covid-19’s emergence was a zoonosis—a spillover, as so many new pathogens are, from wild animals, for it resembles a group of coronaviruses found in bats.

Analysis of Arctic lake suggests viruses and bacteria locked in ice could reawaken and infect wildlife

In a laboratory study, human epithelial cells were treated with the lubricant before being exposed to HIV or a herpes virus, with subsequent infection rates being as low as 20 per cent.

Key is whether the gene-editing technology can stop the virus from replicating.