Convalescent plasma. It’s an old term that’s recently resurfaced as we face a virus with no vaccine. Just this week, a study of 20,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients who received convalescent plasma was published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. While convalescent plasma therapy might be promising for treating COVID-19 patients, it actually has a long history of…
As COVID-19 spreads around the world, more and more things such as conferences, schools, and large events such as SXSW are being canceled – an effort to halt the spread of the virus and reduce the strain on our healthcare system. Meanwhile, dangerous notions circulate: the idea that nearly everyone will get COVID-19 so distancing…
It’s 1854 in London. The third major cholera pandemic was racing through the city. Spreading from the Ganges delta of India since 1837, it’s claimed over a million lives mostly among Asia, Europe, and North America. Within the Soho district of Westminster, London, things weren’t looking good. The London sewer system had not reached Soho,…
Flu season is upon us, but there are actually “seasons” for many other infectious diseases. Chickenpox outbreaks peak each spring and polio transmission historically occurred in the summer. In fact, at least 69 infectious diseases vary seasonally. Micaela Elvira Martinez, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University, found this out…
Mosquito bites are such a nuisance. They itch intensely for days, you can’t help but scratch them, and you are left with a scar to remember them by. For much of the world, this is the aftermath of a mosquito bite. But in warm tropical climates, mosquitos are carriers of a variety of microbes pathogenic…