Avian influenza viruses (AIVs) represent an evolving global threat to animal and human health, with outbreaks recurring across wild bird populations, ...

In the early, uncertain days of the coronavirus pandemic, scientists delivered one comforting pronouncement: The virus that caused COVID mutates rather slowly. If that remained true, the virus would ...

A study published in Nature Medicine found that monkeypox viruses from the current outbreak have on average 50 differences in their DNA compared to the versions from about four years earlier. That’s ...

A new study has shown that person-to-person variation in antibody immunity plays a key role in shaping which influenza (flu) strains dominate in a population. The work, published today as a Reviewed ...

A study published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases provides a comprehensive overview of the evolution of H3 avian influenza viruses in China. A high prevalence of the H3 subtype avian ...

A hybrid form of mpox has been identified in the UK. The UK's national health security agency, UKHSA, said the recombinant mpox virus was detected in a man who had recently returned to the UK from ...

Interactions among viruses can help them succeed inside their hosts or impart vulnerabilities that make them easier to treat.

Over the last couple of months researchers tracking emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants have started noticing something strange. No one new variant has looked like taking over but instead a variety of ...

Mr. Quammen is a science writer and the author of the forthcoming book “Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus.” The Covid-19 pandemic has been a lesson in speed — the speed at which ...

Evolution optimizes all creatures, from viruses to elephants, to their environment. Where do new variants come from, especially Omicron which is so different from previous variants? There may be a ...