#viruses

"You’re likely already infected with a brain-eating virus you’ve never heard of

Fatal brain infection was thought to be from profound immune suppression. Not anymore.

There’s a virus you may have never heard of before that is estimated to infect up to 90 percent of people and lurks quietly in your cells for life—but if it becomes activated, it will destroy your brain. If that’s not startling enough, researchers reported this week that there may be a new way for this virus to activate—one that affects up to 10 percent of adults worldwide.

The virus is the human polyomavirus 2, commonly called either the JC virus or John Cunningham virus, named after the poor patient from whom it was first isolated in 1971. It shows up in the urine and stool of infected people and spreads via the fecal-oral route. Many people are thought to be infected early in life, and blood testing surveys have suggested that 50–90 percent of adults have been exposed at some point."

https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/03/youre-likely-already-infected-with-a-brain-eating-virus-youve-never-heard-of/

#disease #viruses

"You’re likely already infected with a brain-eating virus you’ve never heard of

Fatal brain infection was thought to be from profound immune suppression. Not anymore.

There’s a virus you may have never heard of before that is estimated to infect up to 90 percent of people and lurks quietly in your cells for life—but if it becomes activated, it will destroy your brain. If that’s not startling enough, researchers reported this week that there may be a new way for this virus to activate—one that affects up to 10 percent of adults worldwide.

The virus is the human polyomavirus 2, commonly called either the JC virus or John Cunningham virus, named after the poor patient from whom it was first isolated in 1971. It shows up in the urine and stool of infected people and spreads via the fecal-oral route. Many people are thought to be infected early in life, and blood testing surveys have suggested that 50–90 percent of adults have been exposed at some point.

Researchers hypothesize that the initial site of infection is the tonsils, or perhaps the gastrointestinal tract. But wherever it happens, that initial infection is asymptomatic. At that point, a person is infected with what’s called the archetype JC virus, which quietly sets up a persistent but utterly silent lifelong infection.

For the vast majority of people, that is all their JC virus infection will be—silent. But for an unlucky few, the JC virus will seemingly awaken, rearrange its genetic material, and morph into a brain-demolishing nightmare that causes a disease called progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy or PML."

https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/03/youre-likely-already-infected-with-a-brain-eating-virus-youve-never-heard-of/

PEOPLE ARE NEXT

New research shows that bird flu is rampant among black vultures. The animals’ scavenging ways, which play a crucial ecological role, might increase their exposure to the disease.

#BirdFlu #Vultures #Viruses https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-36912-5

Luxury Cruise Descends Into a Diarrhea Nightmare

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://futurism.com/health-medicine/cruise-norovirus-diarrhea

Phage antirestriction induced system (PARIS) protects bacteria from viral infections by cleaving viral tRNAs and T5 phage escaping it by expression of a lysine transfer RNA variant that is not cleaved by PARIS
#armsRace #biology #bacteria #viruses

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.24.666596v1
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07874-3