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Whooping cough: One mother's story of love, loss and action

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Children and Young people, immunisations, Uncategorized
A grayscale image of a baby, Riley Hughes, wearing a singlet, looks towards the camera.

Whooping cough cases (also known as the '100 day cough') are rising sharply across England. Between January and March 2024 there have sadly been 5 infant deaths. Vaccination is the best protection. In this blog post, Catherine Hughes, Founding Director at The Immunisation Foundation of Australia, shares the story of her son Riley Hughes and …

Inside Britain’s Deadly Fungus Collection

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Microbiology services, Uncategorized
A micriscopic image of the fungi Cunninghamella bertholletiae

Housed near Bristol, UKHSA’s National Collection of Pathogenic Fungi (NCPF) is home to more than 4,500 isolates of potentially deadly fungi isolates, gathered over the last century. In this blog post, we’ll cover the history of the NCPF: why it was set up, what it houses and how it continues to play an important role in …