Measles, Polio, COVID, AIDS, tick-borne encephalitis, Lyme disease, meningitis, yellow fever, and Ebola are examples of diseases that can be fatal and those who survive the infection may have long-term neurological disability resulting from damage to neural circuits caused by the virus or bacteria. Effective vaccines have been developed for all of these infectious diseases except AIDS for which vaccines against HIV are being developed. In this episode I talk with Dr. Kiran Thakur, Director of the Neuroinfectious Disease Program at Columbia University, about the impact of these infectious agents on the brain, the threat of their resurgence, and the importance of world-wide surveillance and vaccination programs to prevent mortality and long-term disability, and to prevent the emergence and spread of new strains of viruses and bacteria. We also discuss treatments for patients whose brains have been infected. Unfortunately, currently available treatments are in many instances not effective in reducing morbidity and mortality, a fact that bolsters the importance of vaccination.

LINKS

Thakur laboratory page:

https://www.neurology.columbia.edu/research/research-labs/thakur-lab

Review article on the global threat of vaccine-preventable neurological diseases:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41582-025-01172-w

Review article on long COVID:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41572-025-00674-7

Advances in treatments for neuroinfectious diseases:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11418331/pdf/10.1177_20499361241274246.pdf

Climate change, habitat degradation, and the emergence of new neuroinfectious agents:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11412215/pdf/10.1177_20499361241274206.pdf