Giovanni Di Guardo (He/Him)

Retired Professor of General Pathology and Veterinary Pathophysiology, University of Teramo, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine

Italy

On the omissive representation of veterinarians in the media storytelling about COVID-19 and other public health emergencies in Italy

This article, coauthored by Professors Sante Roperto and Giovanni Di Guardo, explores the crucial and often overlooked role of veterinarians in managing and responding to the dramatic COVID-19 pandemic as well as to other public health emergencies in Italy.

Giovanni Di Guardo

Sep 30, 2025

News and Opinion

West Nile fever: Another example of "media storytelling asymmetry" in Italy

As an European Board-certified veterinary pathologist and professor with a long teaching and research experience on animal infectious diseases, with special reference to those of zoonotic nature/origin, I am witnessing herein another example of "media storytelling asymmetry" in Italy.

Giovanni Di Guardo

Jul 28, 2025

News and Opinion

Emerging infectious diseases in people and animals: Keep an eye on pathogen, host and environmental drivers

Embracing with a single glance human and animal infectious diseases represents an almost prohibitive task.

Giovanni Di Guardo

Jul 16, 2025

News and Opinion

Radiation-induced damage: Lessons from history

Eighty years have already elapsed since the launching of two nuclear bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, followed by the catastrophic accidents occurred in 1986 and 2011, respectively, at the nuclear plants of Chernobyl (Ukraine) and Fukushima (Japan).

Giovanni Di Guardo

Jun 30, 2025

News and Opinion

Helicobacter pylori and Alzheimer's: An intriguing paradox is taking place!

An interesting article recently published in Science Advances returns a "two-faced Janus" image of Helicobacter pylori (Jin et al., 2025).

Giovanni Di Guardo

Jun 17, 2025

News and Opinion

On the alarming ostracism of Donald Trump towards Science

Not yet satisfed by the forced ripatriations imposed on South American immigrants, the ostracism of Donald Trump's Administration targets now "intellectual immigration", namely the same "workforce" which has made America great!

Giovanni Di Guardo

May 27, 2025

News and Opinion

Highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) virus: Are we so far from a new pandemic?

While the COVID-19 pandemic is not yet behind our shoulders, due to the repeated appearance of new SARS-CoV-2 variants and subvariants, the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N1) virus is being increasingly perceived as a global threat.

Giovanni Di Guardo

Apr 07, 2025

News and Opinion

Veterinarians, key players in the fight against zoonotic pathogens

An interesting Letter to the Editor recently published in Science highlights the actions, the strategies, and the tools through which the potential emergence of a new pandemic caused by the AH5N1 avian influenza virus could be efficiently counteracted (1).

Giovanni Di Guardo

Mar 17, 2025

Whales' extraordinarily long median life spans: A lot of food for evidence-based thoughts

A recently published article, dealing with Southern right whales' and North Atlantic right whales' median life spans (1), allows to deepen our knowledge on the biological drivers of the great longevity characterizing other species like the human one.

Giovanni Di Guardo

Jan 23, 2025

News and Opinion

X disease epidemic in Congo: X agents are not new to Science!

The "new" disease outbreak taking place in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which had already been heavily struck by the "Monkeypox" (MPX) epidemic, has been hitherto responsible for approximately 600 cases with a 6.2% lethality rate, especially among children.

Giovanni Di Guardo

Dec 23, 2024

Behind the Paper

Two Nobel Prizes in Medicine gained thanks to a worm

One year has gone by since the achievement of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine by Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for the development and subsequent improvement of the messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.

Giovanni Di Guardo

Oct 18, 2024

Behind the Paper

Whales' health and conservation are exceedingly threatened by micro-nanoplastics

The huge and progressively expanding contamination of planetary seas and oceans by micro-nanoplastics (MNPs) is a major concern issue.

Giovanni Di Guardo

Sep 05, 2024

News and Opinion

A(H5N1) Avian Influenza Virus: A New Pandemic Threat on the Horizon?

Despite its zoonotic potential, the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N1) virus is far from being easily transmissible between people. However, the rapidly expanding range of susceptible bird and mammalian species alongside the increasing viral spread among USA cattle, are of concern.

Giovanni Di Guardo

Jun 06, 2024

Behind the Paper

A(H5N1) Avian Influenza Virus: Issues of Concern in a One Health Perspective

The neurotropism and neuropathogenicity of the A(H5N1) influenza virus in birds and mammals like pinnipeds and cetaceans (1-5) are of concern, along with the rapidly growing number of virus-susceptible animals, including several species phylogenetically distant from each other (6).

Giovanni Di Guardo

May 17, 2024

News and Opinion

Micro-nanoplastics in carotid atheromas: Dioxins and Toxoplasma gondii are an additional matter of concern!

The higher risk of a composite end point of myocardial infarction, stroke, or death among patients carrying micro-nanoplastics (MNPs) in carotid artery plaques, compared with subjects showing no evidence of MNPs in the aforementioned atheromatous lesions, is of relevant concern (1).

Giovanni Di Guardo

Mar 11, 2024

News and Opinion

Anti-snake alpha-neurotoxins antibody: Issues of concern

Snakebites affect between 1.8 to 2.7 million people worldwide each year, being additionally estimated to cause between 80,000 and 138,000 fatalities (1).

Giovanni Di Guardo

Mar 09, 2024

News and Opinion

SARS-CoV-2 entry into human and animal host cells: Should we pay attention just to the ACE2 receptor?

This commentary addresses an interesting article focused on a machine learning-based approach, which was successfully employed to predict mammalian hosts' susceptibility to severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, along with the zoonotic risk posed by them [1].

Giovanni Di Guardo

Mar 06, 2024

Nature Communications

News and Opinion

Enhanced infection susceptibility as a consequence of chronic starvation in polar bears

A recent article addresses the worrysome links existing between the progressively increasing Arctic Sea ice melting and the chronic starvation experienced by polar bears (Ursus maritimus) (1).

Giovanni Di Guardo

Feb 21, 2024

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