Don't just sneeze without a tissue! That's the message of this early pandemic era graffiti in Dakar, Senegal. The World Health Organization has just issued an updated report on the way SARS-CoV-2 spreads. Take our quiz to see if you're up on your COVID terminology. Seyllou/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
The world may be out of the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, but humans still share the globe with countless pathogens. Here are some of the ways viruses shaped 2023. Olivia Taussig-Rees for NPR hide caption
Wielding the "insectazooka," Cecilia González prepares to collect mosquitoes from a house in the village of Los Encuentros, Guatemala. Luis Echeverria for NPR hide caption
Yeshnee Naidoo prepares a "flow cell" for analysis by one of the center's many genetic sequencing machines. Tommy Trenchard for NPR hide caption
This image shows purified particles of mpox virus, formerly called monkeypox. Viruses like these can be genetically altered in the lab in ways that might make them more dangerous. NIAID hide caption
Afrigen Biologics staff members in the company's lab in Cape Town, South Africa. Afrigen is working on a project to figure out how to manufacture the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine â part of an effort to address global health inequities. Tommy Trenchard for NPR hide caption
Cracking a window can help reduce your risk of infection by COVID pathogens. Tanishka R./For NPR hide caption
Smoky skies cast a reddish glow to San Francisco skies when the Northern California wildfires were burning earlier this year. Ray Chavez/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images hide caption
The Permafrost Tunnel Research Facility, dug in the mid-1960s in Fairbanks, Alaska, allows scientists a three-dimensional look at frozen ground. Kate Ramsayer/NASA hide caption
Passengers wear masks on a Myanmar National airlines flight out of Yangon. Many airlines now require passengers to don masks. Paula Bronstein/Getty Images hide caption
Where should you sit on a plane to reduce the risk of exposure to germs spread by infectious passengers? skaman306/Getty Images hide caption
Suspicious travel companions: Bacteria can survive for days on surfaces inside a plane. But that doesn't mean you have to take these critters home with you. Benjamin Arthur for NPR hide caption
On the list of pathogens (from left): Staphylococcus aureus (causes skin infections, pneumonia, bloodstream infections), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (causes blood infections, pneumonia, infections after surgery) and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (causes the sexually-transmitted disease gonorrhea). NIAID; Scott Chimileski and Roberto Kolter, NIH Image Gallery/Flickr; NIAID hide caption
Emmie de Wit, who usually works in a Biosafety Level 4 Lab, spent time in less secure labs in Liberia during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Above, she prepares to test Ebola patient blood samples. Courtesy of NIAID hide caption
This electron microscope image provided by researchers shows a section of a Pithovirus particle, dark outline, inside an infected Acanthamoeba castellanii cell. Julia Bartoli, Chantal Abergel/AP hide caption
Plant pathologists sequenced the genome of 19th century potato specimens like this one from London's Kew Gardens herbarium, collected during the height of the Irish famine in 1847. Marco Thines/Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung hide caption