Viruses, Infections & Disease, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 16, 2017

Ebola Leaves Unique Scar Inside Survivors' Eyes

In some Ebola survivors, the virus leaves a unique scar at the back of the eye that can be seen long after they are cured of the disease, according to a new study. Researchers analyzed information from 82 Ebola survivors in Sierra Leone and 105 people who lived in the...

Dec 17, 2021

Breakthrough COVID cases may supercharge immunity, study hints

Catching COVID-19 after vaccination may supercharge the immune system, making it better able to fight off new variants, a new study hints. The small study only included 26 people with breakthrough infections, and all of the participants had received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, so there's no data on the other vaccine...

Dec 25, 2021

Omicron may cause milder disease. A lab study hints at why.

The omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 may be less efficient at infiltrating the lungs and spreading from cell to cell, compared with other versions of the coronavirus, early studies of human cells in a lab dish suggest. This may help explain why some early data from countries such as South Africa...

Jan 6, 2022

Rapid tests may not detect omicron early in infection

Rapid antigen tests for COVID-19 may not reliably detect the omicron variant during the first few days of infection, even when a person is shedding the virus in high enough quantities to be contagious, preliminary evidence hints. For the new study, posted Wednesday (Jan. 5) to the preprint database medRxiv,...

Jan 7, 2022

Will omicron wipe out delta forever?

Six weeks after it was first reported in South Africa on Nov. 24, the omicron variant of the coronavirus is sweeping away the previous delta variant. Does that mean that omicron will wipe out delta for good? Or will the two strains co-circulate forever? Increasingly, it looks like omicron's takeover...

Jan 12, 2022

Omicron's not the last variant we'll see. Will the next one be bad?

The new year rode in on a wave of omicron cases, but will this be the last of the variants, or will a brand-new variant of concern emerge in 2022? Experts told Live Science that they wouldn't be surprised if a troublesome new coronavirus variant crops up this year —...

Jan 18, 2022

You got omicron. Should you still get a booster?

As omicron surges across the country, the coronavirus variant is infecting many people who have received their initial vaccine course — two doses of an mRNA vaccine (Pfizer or Moderna) or one dose of Johnson & Johnson — but who have not yet gotten their booster shot. So if you've...

Jan 20, 2022

COVID-19 may trigger diabetes by causing fat cells to go haywire

Scientists may be zeroing in on why catching COVID-19 raises people's risk of developing diabetes, Science News reported. Several studies have hinted that COVID-19 infections can trigger diabetes in some people, but exactly why remained a mystery, Live Science previously reported. The new diabetes cases linked to COVID-19 include both...

Jan 21, 2022

Will we need more COVID-19 boosters to end the pandemic?

Omicron's explosive surge in the U.S. is a painful reminder that the pandemic is far from over. It also raises some questions. Will the pandemic ever end? And will we need more boosters to enter the endemic phase of transmission, in which COVID-19 case counts don't break records and hospitals...

Jan 25, 2022

Can CBD really prevent COVID-19 infection? Scientists hope to find out.

Cannabidiol (CBD), an active ingredient in cannabis, might help block infection with the virus that causes COVID-19. But don't go drop a bunch of cash on CBD oils at your local dispensary: The possible effect still needs to be tested in humans. (And definitely don't smoke marijuana to prevent coronavirus...

Jan 26, 2022

'Stealth' omicron is in the US. Here's what we know about it.

A stealthy version of the omicron variant has been detected in the U.S., but so far, it makes up a very low proportion of the overall cases in the country. This version of the variant, called BA.2, bears some genetic mutations not seen in the original omicron lineage, and some...

Jan 31, 2022

Do other viruses have as many variants as SARS-CoV-2?

SARS-CoV-2 seems to be constantly changing. In the span of just two years, alpha, beta, delta, lambda, mu and omicron have all made headlines. And that list doesn't include dozens of other variants that were detected but not considered high priority by the World Health Organization. Is this coronavirus's rapid...

Feb 1, 2022

These 4 risk factors may increase your chance of long COVID, study hints

Scientists identified four risk factors that may help predict whether a person will develop long COVID, where an individual experiences various symptoms for weeks or months after their initial COVID-19 infection ends. The risk factors are: a high quantity of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material in the blood early in infection; an...

Feb 2, 2022

One nasal droplet's worth of coronavirus is enough to make you sick

Scientists deliberately infected young, healthy volunteers with SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 — and now, they've shared their first results from that experiment. The new study, published Tuesday (Feb. 1) in Springer Nature’s preprint database, In Review, has not yet been peer reviewed, but it could provide insight into...

Feb 7, 2022

Mystery lineages of coronavirus are popping up in NYC sewage

Unknown lineages of the virus that causes COVID-19 have been found in New York City's sewage, raising new concerns that the novel coronavirus is finding ways to escape immunity. The lineages don't seem poised to break out and cause a new surge at this point. Their proportion has risen and...