Avian influenza virus is adapting to spread to marine mammals

The highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 has adapted to spread between birds and marine mammals, posing an immediate threat to wildlife conservation, according to a study from the University of California, Davis, ...

Stabilizing mRNA vaccines for delivery to cells

Vaccines and therapies based on messenger RNA could be more readily delivered due to a non-toxic polymer that protects RNA and controls its release inside cells.

Your unique smell can provide clues about how healthy you are

Hundreds of chemicals stream from our bodies into the air every second. These chemicals release into the air easily as they have high vapor pressures, meaning they boil and turn into gases at room temperature. They give clues ...

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Infectious disease

An infectious disease is a clinically evident disease resulting from the presence of pathogenic microbial agents, including pathogenic viruses, pathogenic bacteria, fungi, protozoa, multicellular parasites, and aberrant proteins known as prions. These pathogens are able to cause disease in animals and/or plants. Infectious pathologies are usually qualified as contagious diseases (also called communicable diseases) due to their potential of transmission from one person or species to another. Transmission of an infectious disease may occur through one or more of diverse pathways including physical contact with infected individuals. These infecting agents may also be transmitted through liquids, food, body fluids, contaminated objects, airborne inhalation, or through vector-borne spread.

The term infectivity describes the ability of an organism to enter, survive and multiply in the host, while the infectiousness of a disease indicates the comparative ease with which the disease is transmitted to other hosts. An infection however, is not synonymous with an infectious disease, as an infection may not cause important clinical symptoms or impair host function.

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