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It’s usually the small things that are overlooked, emphasizes John Lowe, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental, Agricultural and Occupational Health at University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). Lowe’s facility was among a handful in the United States that treated patients infected with Ebola virus in 2014. Healthcare systems such as UNMC and Emory University Hospital in Atlanta have well-established biocontainment units and expert staff that helped stop the spread of the deadly pandemic pathogen.

Many viral infections, such as the common cold, cause mild illnesses that the body’s immune system eventually defeats. But when viruses cause severe disease, doctors have few options for effective treatment. Studying mice with a variety of viral infections, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have demonstrated a way to dial up the body’s innate immune defenses while simultaneously attacking a protein that many viruses rely on to replicate.

A joint study by UT Southwestern Medical Center and Parkland Health & Hospital System investigators found that a multicomponent outreach program increased completion of the three-dose human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination series that reduces the risk of cervical cancer caused by the virus.

Last year, the U.S. witnessed its first case of the Ebola virus disease (EVD). As healthcare workers and civilian volunteers returned from West Africa to the U.S., questions surrounding how to evaluate and address EVD-related risks quickly came into focus-ranging from public health exposure to clinical practices inside hospitals.

Tests that can distinguish whether HIV-positive people are infected with a drug-resistant strain or a non-resistant strain allow patients to get the most effective treatment as quickly as possible. In the November edition of the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, a team of Brown University researchers describes a new method that works faster and more sensitively in lab testing than the current standard technologies.