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Dr. Rowan Durrant

@rowandurrant.bsky.social
1.8K followers 866 following 40 posts

Postdoc at the University of Glasgow | virus phylogenetics and evolutionary modelling | she/her

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Dr. Rowan Durrant @rowandurrant.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
www.cdc.gov/han/php/noti...
cdc.gov
Nationwide Increase in Reported Human Rabies Exposures: Rabies Post-exposure Prophylaxis Administration
Nationwide Increase in Reported Human Rabies Exposures: Rabies Post-exposure Prophylaxis Administrat
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Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Rabies is 100% fatal if untreated. Please help spread the word about the exposure at the Farm Adventures mobile petting zoo in North Carolina. The vaccine is incredibly effective and will save your life. Also…. Rabies at a petting zoo!?!? www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
nbcnews.com
Four baby goats at mobile petting zoo in North Carolina test positive for rabies
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services said the petting zoo held events involving children and elderly people between July 28 and Thursday.
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BK. Titanji @boghuma.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
A malaria cluster is unfolding among airport workers in Frankfurt, Germany. 6 workers have developed Plasmodium. falciparum malaria, apparently after being bitten by infected mosquitoes carried into the airport on arriving aircraft. One has since died. www.euronews.com/my-europe/20...
euronews.com
Frankfurt Airport employee dies after catching malaria, operator says
The cause of the infections is believed to be a mosquito that travelled by plane from a malaria-endemic area to Germany, likely in July. #EuropeNews
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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 12/08/2026
A new study suggests that the current Bundibugyo epidemic is a new spillover from an animal host--not a resurgence of human cases from the two previous human outbreaks. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Emergence of a Bundibugyo virus variant in the 2026 outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda - Nature Medicine
A phylogenetic analysis of 22 genomes from the recent Bundibugyo virus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda suggests the outbreak was caused by a new zoonotic spillover event.
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Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 @helenbranswell.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
The #Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak in NE DRC was likely underway for months before it was formally detected in mid-May. That's often the way with Ebola outbreaks, but the scale of the missed cases seems ... extraordinary. Terrific reporting by @kakape.bsky.social. www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
EXCLUSIVE: Congo’s Ebola epidemic started at least 4 months before it was detected
A remote mining town gripped by fear saw hundreds of suspected cases before the government declared an outbreak, report says
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Max Stammnitz @maxstammnitz.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Wow! A fourth class of transmissible cancers. CONTAGIOUS FISH MELANOMA, discovered in Lake Memphremagog (Vermont / Quebec) 🎣 🧬 😷 www.nature.com/articles/s41... @uvmvermont.bsky.social
nature.com
Brown bullhead catfish melanoma represents a novel transmissible cancer - Nature
Whole-genome sequencing analysis of tumour and matched non-tumour host tissues of the brown bullhead catfish reveals a type of naturally occurring transmissible cancer.
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
The Ebola outbreak in the DRC keeps growing at a shocking pace. We're already close to 2000 confirmed cases. Right now: 1926 confirmed cases (incl. 53 new cases in the last 24 hours) 702 of these have died insp.cd/sitrep-n058-...
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Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
This is absolutely heartbreaking. Please know that if you ever come into contact with a bat, you should seek medical attention. Even if there are no visible bite marks, you may have been exposed. Rabies is preventable with post exposure prophylaxis, and fatal without it @jackiantonovich.bsky.social
cnn.com
Canadian boy, 11, died from rabies after waking up with bat on his mouth | CNN
An 11-year-old Canadian boy has died from rabies after waking up with a bat on his nose and mouth.
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Dr. Rowan Durrant @rowandurrant.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Now out in Virus Evolution! CpG content is higher in carnivore-associated rabies virus clades than in bat-associated clades. Coauthors on here: @jdushoff.bsky.social @matt-arnold-bio.bsky.social @khampson.bsky.social
academic.oup.com
Validate User
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Wytamma @wytamma.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Clockor2 v1.12.1 adds date-randomisation tests 🎉 Date randomisation is a permutation test for temporal signal: does the observed relationship between sampling time and genetic divergence exceed what we would expect if dates were unrelated to sequences?
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Jonathan Dushoff @jdushoff.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Led by @rowandurrant.bsky.social, we're trying to develop rules of thumb to estimate under-reporting from sequence data. Today rabies, tomorrow the world! With @khampson.bsky.social, @kirstynbrunker.bsky.social and others.
A schematic diagram showing how average phylogenetic branch lengths increase as sampling proportions decrease.
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bioRxiv Genetics @biorxiv-genetic.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
A simple method of estimating rabies outbreak sizes from phylogenies www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
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Dr. Rowan Durrant @rowandurrant.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Very excited that this project is now out as a preprint! We found a very simple way of estimating rabies outbreak sizes from phylogenies: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Coauthors on bluesky: @jdushoff.bsky.social @khampson.bsky.social @kirstynbrunker.bsky.social
biorxiv.org
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Kirstyn Brunker @kirstynbrunker.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
🧬 New resource alert! Pleased to share the release of RABV-gDB: a new platform for rabies virus genomic data, analysis, and sequence management developed @cvrbioinfo.bsky.social as part of the RAGE toolkit. 🌐 gdb-web-dev.cvr.gla.ac.uk 🔧 github.com/RAGE-toolkit #Rabies #Genomics #OneHealth
gdb-web-dev.cvr.gla.ac.uk
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BK. Titanji @boghuma.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Important to read the seminal paper on the discovery of the Bundibugyo virus. It is a different species from Zaire Ebola virus, differing in its genome by up to 32%. The vaccines and monoclonal antibodies for Zaire virus are unlikely to be effective here. journals.plos.org/plospathogen...
journals.plos.org
Newly Discovered Ebola Virus Associated with Hemorrhagic Fever Outbreak in Uganda
Author Summary In this report we describe a newly discovered ebolavirus species which caused a large hemorrhagic fever outbreak in western Uganda. The virus is genetically distinct, differing by more ...
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Kristian G. Andersen @kgandersen.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Amazing speed from the teams in Uganda and the DRC - impressive! Three genomes released so far - a few quick takes: 1️⃣ New genomes ~equidistant from 2007 and 2012 outbreaks. 2️⃣ Represents new spillover from reservoir. 3️⃣ Limited diversity, so too early to speculate on timing. Great work ⭐!
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Tom Peacock @peacockflu.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Really excited to be able to share our latest preprint, describing how during its evolution in cattle, H5N1 has got better at using a type of alternative receptor that's abundant in cows, but not found in humans and birds. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Graph of receptor binding curves showing an ancestral and recent H5N1. The ancestral virus does not bind NeuGc receptor well, whereas the recent virus birds NeuGc and NeuAc containing receptors equally.
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Amy Maxmen, PhD @amymaxmen.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
🔔Exclusive: CDC just posted a tranche of genomic data from measles. 1,000 genomes have been sequenced, so researchers expect an answer to the elimination question within the month. "That we're even talking about this is nuts," said @kgandersen.bsky.social kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
kffhealthnews.org
US Scientists Sequence 1,000 Genomes From Measles, a Disease Long Eliminated With Vaccines - KFF Health News
This week, the CDC began to publish long-awaited data that will reveal the extent of measles’ comeback. While applauding the science, researchers say the Trump administration has done little to contai...
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public health guy @publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
“By July, the rabies team will be down to just one person with the clinical expertise to advise state and local officials, and the pox virus team will have none.”
nytimes.com
C.D.C. Pauses Testing for Rabies and Mpox
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Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 @helenbranswell.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
What could possibly go wrong? #CDC pauses support for states on testing for #rabies & #mpox because it doesn't have the personnel to do the work. 2 pathogens you really don't want to mess with, rabies & mpox. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/01/h...
nytimes.com
C.D.C. Pauses Testing for Rabies and Mpox
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Matt Arnold @matt-arnold-bio.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Wondering what happens if a seal sneezes on a whale? We were! 🦭🤧🐋 We sequenced viromes from 16 species of marine mammals stranded in Scotland. Of >100 viruses detected, ~10% appeared in multiple species (one in both seals & cetaceans!), mirroring known interspecies interactions in Scottish waters.
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Mark A. Hanson @hansonmark.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
It's deeply unimaginative to think the purpose of any endeavour is the destination. The journey is the fun part. The satisfaction of reaching the end depends on how you got there. If you think you can achieve the intellectual peak of what is possible in 2026 with yourself + AI, you're naive. 6/n
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Kristian G. Andersen @kgandersen.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
There's a common misconception that zoonotic viruses require significant adaptation to jump from animals to cause human epidemics. Not so 👇. Further, we see clear signs of 1977 flu experiencing cell passage, prior to epidemic. SARS-CoV-2? Business as usual. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Dynamics of natural selection preceding human viral epidemics and pandemics
Using a phylogenetic framework to characterize natural selection, we investigate the hypothesis that zoonotic viruses require adaptation prior to zoon…
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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 27/02/2026
Study finds ChatGPT Health did not recommend a hospital visit when medically necessary in more than half of cases. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
‘Unbelievably dangerous’: experts sound alarm after ChatGPT Health fails to recognise medical emergencies
Study finds ChatGPT Health did not recommend a hospital visit when medically necessary in more than half of cases
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Kevin Daly @gingerhowley.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Can safely way this is the craziest and coolest study I have led. We chart the evolution of sheeppox virus, finding it in the Eurasian steppe ~3700 years ago, and also in a LOT of parchment from medieval Europe (made from a range of animals skins!) #aDNA
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Keith @keithdunn.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
The conch was blown at 5:00am. The 2026 Barkley Marathons begins in one hour. #BM100
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bioRxiv Microbiology @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Differences in codon usage between host-species-specific rabies virus clades are driven by UpA and purine content www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
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Dr. Rowan Durrant @rowandurrant.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
New preprint! We had a look at the codon and dinucleotide usage of rabies clades that circulate in specific host species, and found some interesting differences, particularly between carnivore- and bat-associated clades 👀 Coauthors on bluesky: @jdushoff.bsky.social @matt-arnold-bio.bsky.social
biorxiv.org
Differences in codon usage between host-species-specific rabies virus clades are driven by UpA and purine content
Viral genes sometimes use certain codons more than others due to their nucleotide content, translational efficiency, and selection pressure from the host immune system. The rabies virus (RABV) is a ne...
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Nathan Grubaugh @nathangrubaugh.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
Check out our new print that combines dense sequencing and phylodynamics to uncover a bunch of 😎 things about an understudied virus. - Doesn't evolve for 10 months a year ✅ - Uses some mossies for maintenance, others for spread ✅ - Established in Northeast for ~300 years ✅
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Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
Ötzi and a 45,000-year-old Siberian were both infected with a cancer-causing strain of HPV. This is fascinating, and a reminder that we have a vaccine that *prevents cancer* and everyone eligible should get it.
science.org
Two ancient humans, including famed ‘Iceman,’ had cancer-causing virus
Findings from ancient DNA may shed light on HPV’s history in our species
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Ed Hutchinson @socialinfluenza.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
BBC News - Drones detect deadly virus in Arctic whales' breath www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... (it is, in case you're wondering, cetacean morbillivirus)
bbc.co.uk
Drones detect deadly virus in Arctic whales' breath
Whale breath collected by drones is giving clues to the health of wild humpbacks and other whales.
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Jonathan Dushoff @jdushoff.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
This is a really cool project, I was lucky to have the opportunity to participate. news.mcmaster.ca/mcmaster-res...
news.mcmaster.ca
McMaster research team digitizes more than 100 years of Canadian infectious disease data
The new, publicly accessible database contains more than a million infectious disease incidence counts dating back to 1903.
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Nick Loman @pathogenomenick.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
Amazing novel mpox recombination between epidemic clade 1 and 2 in returning traveller detected in UK: virological.org/t/inter-clad...
virological.org
Inter-Clade Recombinant Mpox Virus Detected in England in a Traveller Recently Returned from Asia
Inter-Clade Recombinant Mpox Virus Detected in England in a Traveller Recently Returned from Asia Authors: Steven T. Pullan1, Isobel Everall1, Rebecca Doherty1, Lucy Crossman1, Emma Wise1, Hassan Ha...
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Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
This is extremely rare and extremely awful. “The report said that organ donations are not routinely tested for rabies “because of its rarity in humans in the United States and the complexity of diagnostic testing.” @jackiantonovich.bsky.social
nytimes.com
Kidney Recipient Dies After Transplant From Organ Donor Who Had Rabies
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Yawako @yawaguchi.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
I’ve released a tool to sketch and edit phylogenetic trees! yawak.jp/PhyloWeaver/ Load a Newick file and intuitively add/remove/resize branches. Useful for quick conceptual trees, extracting subtrees, or turning ideas into Newick.
yawak.jp
PhyloWeaver – Interactive phylogenetic tree editor
Edit and visualize phylogenetic trees directly in your browser. PhyloWeaver lets you interactively rearrange tree topologies and export high-quality figures for publications and presentations.
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Dr. Rowan Durrant @rowandurrant.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
is nothing safe from AI
screenshot of google scholar's new "scholar labs" page. "An AI-powered Scholar search; understands detailed questions, finds papers, and explains their relevance, all within a conversational search session"
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Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 @helenbranswell.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
The outbreak in Ethiopia is #Marburg virus, the first such outbreak for this country. 9 cases so far, including some health workers. x.com/drtedros/sta...
x.com
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on X: "#Ethiopia has confirmed the outbreak that has infected at least 9 people in the south of the country is of #Marburg virus disease. I commend Ethiopia’s @FMoHealth for its rapid and transparent response to the outbreak, and the work of the Ethiopia Public Health Institute and" / X
#Ethiopia has confirmed the outbreak that has infected at least 9 people in the south of the country is of #Marburg virus disease. I commend Ethiopia’s @FMoHealth for its rapid and transparent response to the outbreak, and the work of the Ethiopia Public Health Institute and
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Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 @helenbranswell.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Update on the wild #polio discovery in Germany: The virus was found in wastewater in Hamburg. @rki.de, the German public health agency, says the virus sequence is very similar to some isolated in Afghanistan, so the likely source was an infected human. (page 10 here: www.rki.de/DE/Aktuelles...)
rki.de
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I-Ting Tu @itingtu.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
My 1st first-author paper is out as a preprint! Excited to share the fascinating story of marine-feeding vampire bats 🌊🦇 We found that marine-diet bats were exposed to #H5#AvianFlu 🦠 from marine wildlife and could potentially spread it to livestock via blood feed🩸 doi.org/10.1101/2025.11.09.686930
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CK DexterHaven 🍂🍁🍂 @ckshowalter.bsky.social · 09/11/2025
Regardless of fox’s actual rabies status. This is your reminder vaccinate for rabies. Always. Even if indoor only. The ONLY way to test for rabies is euthanize the animal and remove brain tissue. There is no live test for rabies and your state/local health department will not play
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My IRL friends call me Chris @christyceeck.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
BREAKING: "The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has notified the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) that Canada no longer holds measles elimination status."
canada.ca
Statement from the Public Health Agency of Canada on Canada’s Measles Elimination Status
Following over 12 months of transmission across the country, PAHO confirms Canada's loss of measles elimination status. We are coordinating efforts with provinces and territories to restore the status...
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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
🚨 NEW: The majority holder of the world's genetic sequence data is a bad actor who can cut off access to critics and competing services. We've tolerated this for years, and now it threatens the pandemic treaty. Time for WHO to step in. With @ctrlalttim.com: www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/to-f...
thinkglobalhealth.org
To Finish the Pandemic Agreement, WHO Needs a Trustworthy Viral Database | Think Global Health
Online platforms for sharing virus sequences are in disarray. The World Health Organization has a chance to build something new
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Grant Jacobs BioinfoTools/NotJustDNA 🔬🧬🖥️✍️📚🇳🇿 @notjustdna.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
Sarawak rabies update Sadly rabies continues there 😢 Now 80 deaths since 2017 “no record of any animal bite or scratch,“ but “handled the carcass of his pet dog in June” (CW: angry dog photo) 51-year-old man is Sarawak’s sixth rabies fatality for 2025 www.theborneopost.com/2025/10/28/5...
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 27/10/2025
Oh heck no. Anti-vaccine disinformation is now making some owners refuse to vaccinate their pets against rabies.
nytimes.com
Vaccine Skepticism Comes for Pet Owners, Too
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Andrew Rambaut (🐏🎀) @arambaut.bsky.social · 19/10/2025
Our paper on the phenomenon of persistence and latency in Ebola virus in an unobserved reservoir is finally out in preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Evidence of latency reshapes our understanding of Ebola virus reservoir dynamics
Ebola virus (EBOV) has caused severe outbreaks of haemorrhagic fever in Central and West Africa since the first observed zoonotic epidemic in the late 1970s. While recent outbreaks have revealed much ...
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Helen Lazear @lazearlab.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
On an Arctic archipelago, frozen soil may preserve a hidden history of viruses
Scientists are hunting for ancient RNA in Svalbard’s permafrost, hoping to shed light on the evolution of viral diseases
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Jonathan Dushoff @jdushoff.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
The fact that the 6 L (leucine) codons come together to form an L should be interpreted as a sign that this is a good way to visualize the aa table. 🙂 8/8
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Jonathan Dushoff @jdushoff.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
Working with @rowandurrant.bsky.social on ways to visualize the amino-acid table and better understand viral evolution. We started with a two-by scheme for nucleotides (small square), where bond partners are horizontally adjacent and transition-connected nts are vertically adjacent. 1/8
A blackboard with a drawing in several colors of chalk showing 16 squares, some subdivided, with one-letter abbreviations for amino acids and other annotations. Above is a small white square divided in four, showing ATCG (clockwise from upper left). More description provided in the thread.
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Kai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
Sequence data from the new Ebola outbreak in DRC suggests it is indeed a new spillover. And just incredible to see the virus sequenced and the data publicly shared less than 24 hours after confirmation of the outbreak. #IDsky 🧪 virological.org/t/the-16th-e...
virological.org
The 16th Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak in Bulape Health Zone, Kasai, Democratic Republic of the Congo: A new spillover event from an unknown reservoir host
Background The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is currently facing concurrent outbreaks including mpox, cholera and malaria (1-4). The Ministry of Public Health, DRC has declared the 16th Ebola...
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Bruno J. Navarro @brunojnavarro.bsky.social · 01/09/2025
Six deaths from rabies have been reported over the last 12 months in the U.S., the highest number in years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
nbcnews.com
'They would never have known:' New warnings about rabies outbreaks as cases rise in the U.S.
The CDC's rabies team says it's tracking 15 different likely outbreaks from New York to Oregon.
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