Every winter, respiratory viruses, especially influenza, SARS-CoV-2 and RSV, put huge pressure on health care systems ...

Antigenic drift is the accidental alteration of genes encoding antigens. It typically occurs in viruses and enables the pathogen to evade the immune system, triggering an infection once more. Antigens ...

In 2009, the world saw the first influenza pandemic in more than forty years in the form of the H1N1 strain. Although response to this variant was fast and a vaccine quickly developed, the fight ...

Influenza viruses evade infection-fighting antibodies by constantly changing the shape of their major surface protein. Now, researchers have proposed a new explanation for the evolutionary forces that ...

Genetic analysis of the COVID-19 virus shows that it is very similar to a coronavirus in bats but the receptor binding looks like the receptor for SARS. This could happen naturally with slow changes ...

Widespread vaccination efforts against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have successfully prevented innumerable severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections, ...

The Omicron variant is spreading across the globe, but so far the strain appears to be less deadly than its predecessors. That’s good news, but here’s a risk that policy makers in every country should ...

Influenza viruses evade infection-fighting antibodies by constantly changing the shape of their major surface protein. This shape-shifting, called antigenic drift, is why influenza vaccines—which are ...

In 2009, the world saw the first influenza pandemic in more than forty years in the form of the H1N1 strain. Although response to this variant was fast and a vaccine quickly developed, the fight ...