Dengue fever does the opposite of what you might expect. Unlike for many diseases, if you've had this tropical virus and recovered, you might be worse off, as a second exposure to the dengue virus can be life threatening. So keeping track of the strains of the diseases is an important problem which can be solved with the help of a little randomness. Read more...

London, September, 1853. A cholera outbreak has decimated Soho, killing 10% of the population and wiping out entire families in days. Current medical theories assert that the disease is spread by "bad air" emanating from the stinking open sewers. But one physician, John Snow, has a different theory: that cholera is spread through contaminated water. And he is just about to use mathematics to prove that he is right.Read more...

We talk to Paddy Farrington, Professor of Statistics at the Open University, about issues surrounding vaccination safety. Hear more...

Vaccination is an emotive business. The furore around the MMR vaccine and autism has shown that vaccination health scares can cause considerable damage: stop vaccinating, and epidemics are sure to follow. But how do scientists decide whether a vaccine and a vaccination strategy are effective and safe? (This article is accompanied by a podcast.) Read more...

We have all become more aware of the dangers of influenza this year, but why is it so dangerous? Julia Gog explains that the unusual structure of the influenza genome can lead to dangerous evolutionary jumps, and how mathematics is helping to understand how the virus replicates. Read more...

Over the past one hundred years, mathematics has been used to understand and predict the spread of diseases, relating important public-health questions to basic infection parameters. Matthew Keeling describes some of the mathematical developments that have improved our understanding and predictive ability. Read more...

When a new infectious disease has broken out, how do you get those vital first estimates on numbers of infected and dead. This article, a news item from July 2009, looks at monitoring systems. Read more...

Swine flu has turned out to be much milder than was feared at first, leading to accusations of initial hype levelled at the government and scientists. But even at the start of the outbreak, scientists were accused at scare mongering. This article, a news item from May 2009, explains how prediction about the spread of the infection are made. Read more...

Buses may be safer than babies, at least when it comes to swine flu. Preliminary results from an online flu survey suggest that contact with children poses one of the greatest swine flu risk factors, while the use of public transport seems surprisingly safe. Read more...

Researchers are uncovering new insights into the structures of viruses and the mechanisms underlying virus assembly, and how this potentially opens up novel possibilities for anti-viral drug design. Read more...

— Travelling bank notes mimic the spread of diseases. Read more...



