Cold and Flu News

January 1, 2025

Top Headlines

System to Auto-Detect New Variants Will Inform Better Response to Future Infectious Disease Outbreaks

Jan. 1, 2025 — Researchers have come up with a new way to identify more infectious variants of viruses or bacteria that start spreading in humans -- including those causing flu, COVID, whooping cough and ...

Public Shows Greater Acceptance of RSV Vaccine as Vaccine Hesitancy Appears to Have Plateaued

Dec. 23, 2024 — A year after becoming available, vaccines to protect against RSV in newborns and older adults are being more widely accepted by the American public, according to a new health ...

Scientists Design Workaround That Improves Response to Flu Vaccine

Dec. 19, 2024 — Stitching together four molecules found in the standard flu vaccine ensures an immune response to all of them, scientists have ...

Flu Virus Remains Infectious in Refrigerated Raw Milk, Study Reveals

Dec. 13, 2024 — Influenza or flu virus remains infectious in refrigerated raw milk for up to five days, according to a new study. The findings come at a time when outbreaks of bird flu -- a different subtype of the same influenza virus -- in dairy cattle have ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:45pm EST

Study Shows Drop in Use of Antiviral Medications in Young Children With Influenza

Dec. 17, 2024 — Despite national medical guidelines supporting the use of antiviral medications in young children diagnosed with influenza, a recent study reports an ...

Influenza Virus Genome: Finally Discovered in Its Coat

Dec. 16, 2024 — To fight the virus that causes influenza, one of the avenues being explored by scientists is the development of drugs capable of destabilizing its genome, made up of RNA molecules. But the challenge ...

Single Mutation in H5N1 Influenza Surface Protein Could Enable Easier Human Infection

Dec. 6, 2024 — A single modification in the protein found on the surface of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 influenza virus currently circulating ...

Innovative Immunotherapy Shows Promise in Early Clinical Trial for Breast Cancer

Dec. 5, 2024 — A groundbreaking phase one clinical trial explored a novel cell-based immunotherapy for breast cancer. The study focuses on a new treatment approach ...

Scientists Identify Mutation That Could Facilitate H5N1 'Bird Flu' Virus Infection and Potential Transmission in Humans

Dec. 5, 2024 — Avian influenza viruses typically require several mutations to adapt and spread among humans, but what happens when just one change can increase the ...

Pregnancy Enhances Natural Immunity to Block Severe Flu

Dec. 2, 2024 — Scientists have discovered that pregnancy may trigger a natural immunity to boost protection against severe flu infection. Contrary to the common belief that pregnancy increases vulnerability to ...

Researchers Find That Intestinal Infections Change Bile Composition

Nov. 26, 2024 — Researchers have identified a new axis of host defense by studying what happens during enteric infection -- a term that encompasses all types of intestinal infections including so called 'stomach ...

Cigarette Smoke Alters Microbiota, Aggravates Flu Severity

Nov. 20, 2024 — A new study shows that cigarette-smoke induced changes to the microbiota resulted in increased severity of disease in mice infected with influenza A ...

Eradivir's EV25 Therapeutic Reduces Advanced-Stage Influenza Viral Loads Faster, More Thoroughly in Preclinical Studies Than Current Therapies

Nov. 19, 2024 — A research article shows that Eradivir's patent-pending antiviral therapeutic called EV25 reduces lung viral loads of advanced-stage influenza in ...

Researchers Use Biophysics to Design New Vaccines Against RSV and Related Respiratory Viruses

Nov. 19, 2024 — In most people, the lung-infecting pathogens known as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and human metapneumovirus (hMPV) trigger mild cold-like ...

New Roles in Infectious Process for Molecule That Inhibits Flu

Nov. 14, 2024 — Researchers have identified new roles for a protein long known to protect against severe flu infection -- among them, raising the minimum number of viral particles needed to cause ...

Potential Single-Dose Smallpox and Mpox Vaccine Moves Forward

Nov. 13, 2024 — An FDA-approved vaccine for smallpox and mpox is effective but causes side effects. The other requires multiple doses. An experimental single-dose vaccine uses the horsepox virus to harness the ...

Key Influenza-Severity Risk Factor Found Hiding in Plain Sight on Our Antibodies

Nov. 13, 2024 — Why do some people develop severe flu symptoms? A study points the finger at an unsung portion of the antibodies our immune systems generate to fend off invading ...

New Study Traces Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Global Movement and Evolution of Seasonal Flu

Nov. 7, 2024 — Increased capabilities for genomic surveillance have offered new insights into global viral evolution. Seasonal flu showed a 'remarkable' bounce back to pre-pandemic levels once ...

Nasal Swab Tests Predict COVID-19 Disease Severity, Study Finds

Nov. 6, 2024 — New research is providing a more precise prediction of COVID-19 severity that can be found by looking at autoantibodies in the nasal cavity, leading to more personalized treatment ...

RSV Vaccines Effective, but More People Need to Get Them

Oct. 28, 2024 — Doctors detail what we learned after the first season following the approval of RSV vaccines. The vaccine effectively prevented severe illness in older, but only 24 percent of eligible US adults ...

H5N1 Virus Isolated from Infected Dairy Worker Is 100% Lethal in Ferrets, but Does Not Appear to Be Circulating in Nature Anymore

Oct. 28, 2024 — A strain of H5N1 avian influenza virus found in a Texas dairy worker who was infected this spring was able to spread among ferrets through the air, although inefficiently, and killed 100% of infected ...

New Images of RSV May Expose Stubborn Virus's Weak Points

Oct. 1, 2024 — The complex shape of respiratory syncytial virus is one hurdle limiting the development of treatments for an infection that leads to hospitalization or worse for hundreds of thousands of people in ...

Could a Bout of COVID Protect You from a Severe Case of Flu?

Sep. 30, 2024 — New findings on how past viral respiratory infections affect future, unrelated ones could lead to therapies for boosting general antiviral immunity -- and potentially pandemic ...

Getting the Flu and Then Your Shot May Benefit Immunity

Sep. 30, 2024 — Researchers found that natural immunity from previous flu infections has a significant impact on how well future influenza vaccinations ...

'Food Theft' Among Seabirds Could Be Transmission Point for Deadly Avian Flu

Sep. 16, 2024 — If seabirds can catch avian flu by stealing food from infectious birds, it gives scientists a clue where to monitor for outbreaks among these vulnerable ...

Avian Flu Found in Wastewater of 10 Texas Cities Through Virome Sequencing

Sep. 11, 2024 — Avian influenza A(H5N1) virus, which spread to cattle and infected 14 people this year, was detected using virome sequencing in the wastewater of 10 Texas ...

Hep C: We're Closer Than Ever to Solving Mystery of Deadly Virus

Sep. 9, 2024 — Around 300,000 people die from hepatitis C every year. A new study has mapped the protein complex that enables the virus to infect our cells, potentially paving the way for an effective ...

Saline Nasal Drops Reduce the Duration of the Common Cold in Young Children by Two Days

Sep. 6, 2024 — Using hypertonic saline nasal drops can reduce the length of the common cold in children by two days, according to a new study. They can also reduce the onward transmission of colds to family ...

Immune Cells Prevent Lung Healing After Viral Infection

Sep. 4, 2024 — Researchers have discovered a pathway by which immune cells prevent the lungs' protective barrier from healing after viral infections like ...

H5 Influenza Vaccines: What Needs to Be Done to Reduce the Risk of a Pandemic

Sep. 4, 2024 — As the global threat of H5N1 influenza looms with outbreaks across species and continents including the U.S., three international vaccine and public health experts say it is time to fully resource ...

Late Start of COVID Treatment May Still Benefit Immunocompromised Patients, Study Finds

Sep. 3, 2024 — Starting antiviral treatment as late as 14 days after infection with SARS-CoV-2 may still be beneficial in hosts with compromised immune systems, who are at greatest risk of developing severe ...

Universal Flu Vaccine Candidate Protects Against Infection in Mice

Aug. 22, 2024 — A new flu vaccine candidate incorporates proteins from 8 strains of ...

T Helper Cells May Be the Key to Improving Annual Influenza Vaccines

Aug. 20, 2024 — Scientists have discovered why the flu vaccine can perform poorly. They found that a specific type of immune cell, called T follicular helper cells, indirectly controls the anti-influenza response. ...

New Insights on How Bird Flu Crosses the Species Barrier

Aug. 19, 2024 — The avian influenza virus needs to mutate to cross the species barrier and to infect and replicate within mammalian cells. Scientists have now deciphered the structure of the avian influenza ...