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Zika virus (ZIKV), which causes Zika virus disease, is spread to people primarily through the bite of an infected Aedes aegypti or Aedes albopictus mosquito. An infected pregnant woman can pass ZIKV to her fetus during pregnancy or around the time of birth. Sex is yet another way for infected persons to transmit ZIKV to others.

New UBC research on bacteria that cause major problems for those with cystic fibrosis reveals clues as to how it proliferates for so long in the lungs and offers new ideas for treatments to explore.

The concept that infection prevention and patient safety is everyone's responsibility is nothing new, but some healthcare institutions may still be struggling to foster and nurture a culture of safety that permeates every department and every function. Taking the lead are directors and managers in patient safety and quality improvement, but infection preventionists (IPs) must also retain a prominent position as stakeholder in the process.

Maintaining normothermia of the surgical patient is part of the prevention of surgical site infections, and a study by Steelman, et al. (2013) found that perioperative hypothermia was among the top patient safety issues identified by perioperative nurses. In this study, AORN members employed in ambulatory and hospital settings (N = 37,022) received an electronic survey; of the 3,137 returned surveys that contained complete information, 966 respondents (30.8 percent) identified prevention of hypothermia as a high priority. However, debate over the safety of forced-air warming systems continues, and clinicians should first and foremost consider all sides of the argument when making product evaluation and purchasing decisions. Alternatives to forced-air warming include direct-conduction fluid warming systems and systems that use conductive fabric technology. Conductive fabric systems do not require the use of a disposable blanket, which can help reduce waste and keep costs down.

Researchers hope to catch viruses for detection and vaccinations by understanding their sticky outer layers. The complex structures making the surface of a virus are small weaves of proteins that make a big impact on how a virus interacts with cells and its environment. A slight change in protein sequence makes this surface slightly water-repelling, or hydrophobic, causing it to stick to other hydrophobic surfaces. A new paper, published recently in Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces, details surface hydrophobicity in porcine parovirus (PPV).

Many international travelers to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, openly considered skipping the games to avoid the threat of Zika. Despite the fears, not a single case of Zika or its major neurological complication, microcephaly, was reported by foreign visitors. The near-paranoia -- and the diversion of scarce resources to protect a low-risk population -- could have been avoided by heeding the lessons of previous epidemics, argues a new study from public health researchers at UC Berkeley.

More than 190,000 polio vaccinators in 13 countries across west and central Africa will immunize more than 116 million children over the next week, to tackle the last remaining stronghold of polio on the continent.

Cross-sectional surveys of mosquito abundance carried out in the subtropics and tropics are meant to give researchers an indication of the risk of a dengue virus outbreak in any given area. This type of entomological monitoring, however, is not a good proxy for dengue risk, researchers report this week in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. Comparison of cross-sectional measures of mosquito density to longitudinal measures demonstrate the limitations of periodic entomological monitoring as households with exposure to Ae. aegypti may be misclassified as unexposed at any single survey visit.

Portland State University researchers have found that only about half the genes in a specific virus affecting single cell organisms is needed to infect a host. This means the virus can undergo major mutations without losing its ability to survive and infect. The research, headed by PSU biology professor Kenneth Stedman, shows how resilient and stable viruses can be. It also gives new insights into the structure of HIV and other viruses, how they are made and the challenges of fighting them.

Newborns are highly vulnerable to infections and don't respond optimally to most vaccines because their young immune systems typically mount weak antibody responses. Now, researchers at Boston Children's Hospital report achieving strong vaccine responses in newborn animals, including monkeys -- the final preclinical model before human trials -- by adding compounds known as adjuvants that boost the immune response. In two simultaneous papers, they also describe improved adjuvant formulations that could reduce side effects.