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# 7600
Dr Ian Mackay is on a roll this morning, with no fewer than four new entries his Virology Down Under blog. While you’ll want to read all of them, I’d like to call your attention to two of them in particular.
First, Ian shares correspondence with Dr. Ian Lipkin – Director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and world renowned virus hunter – whose lab recently found a match to the MERS-CoV in a sample from bat samples collected in Saudi Arabia (see Detection Of MERS-CoV In Saudi Arabian Bat).
Prof Lipkin: There is no more sequence coming from that bat sample
Many thanks to Prof Ian Lipkin's indulgence of my eMail questions.
Also, check out the TWiV webcast by Prof Lipkin.
Second, Ian expands on comments he’s made in the past regarding the importance of prospective testing – and not just for MERS-CoV and H7N9 – but for a variety of respiratory pathogens.
Editor's rant: Why testing the few may not benefit the many...
Prospective screening without regard for whether the person is sick. That's what I think we need more of, in order to truly understand respiratory viruses and acute respiratory infections (ARIs).
And I don't just mean the scary ones like MERS-CoV or influenza A(H5N1) virus or H7N9 or H7N7 (zoonotic flu).
Both of these articles are highly recommended.
Since his arrival to Flublogia back in April, Dr. Mackay has nicely filled the scientific void left behind when Revere pulled down the shades at Effect Measure in 2010.
Ian brings a level of expertise and understanding of virology, lab procedures, and testing that Crof and I could never begin to approach.
So if if Ian’s VDU website isn’t already on your daily list of sites to visit, it should be.
