Latest Influenza pandemic Stories

Computer chips of a type more commonly found in games consoles have been used by scientists at the University of Bristol to reveal how the flu virus resists anti-flu drugs such as Relenza and Tamiflu. Professor Adrian Mulholland and Dr Christopher Woods from Bristol’s School of Chemistry, together with colleagues in Thailand, used graphics processing units (GPUs) to simulate the molecular processes that take place when these drugs are used to treat the H1N1-2009 strain of influenza –...

Licence agreement signed between local SME, AITbiotech and A*STAR to market the test kit will directly benefit public healthcare sector in the fight against infectious diseases.Singapore, May 29, 2012 - (ACN Newswire) - The close collaboration between scientists from the Experimental Therapeutics Centre (ETC) under the Agency for Science and Technology Research (A*STAR) and clinicians from Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) has enabled the successful development of the most...

Connie K. Ho for RedOrbit.com With temperatures rising and summer rapidly approaching, flu season may seem long gone. However, this is not so for a group of researchers who have discovered that the pandemic 2009 H1N1 vaccination, otherwise known as the swine flu vaccine, can produce antibodies against a variety of flu strains like H5N1 and H3N2. This new finding highlights a new dimension to the report last year that people who were infected by the pandemic 2009 H1N1 virus could produce...

Dr Julian Hiscox and Dr John Barr of the University's Faculty of Biological Sciences are working with the Health Protection Agency Porton (HPA) to build a bank of molecular signatures that will help identify the severity of virus infection from characteristic changes seen in cells. Currently the team is barcoding different strains of influenza virus and human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) - a virus associated with the onset of asthma in young children. "Diseases such as flu infect and...

University of British Columbia researchers have found a potential way to develop universal flu vaccines and eliminate the need for seasonal flu vaccinations. Each year, seasonal influenza causes serious illnesses in three to five million people and 200,000 to 500,000 deaths. The 2009 H1N1 pandemic killed more than 14,000 people worldwide. Meanwhile, public health and bioterrorism concerns are heightened by new mutations of the H5N1 "bird flu" virus, published last week by the journal...

Connie K. Ho for RedOrbit.com A controversial report regarding avian flu research was finally published on May 3 in the journal Nature. The research, which studies how the avian H5N1 influenza spreads among mammals, had been contested by a government review panel who wanted to stop the report from being published. According to Med Page Today, the study finds four key mutations in a gene of the H5N1 avian flu that helps it adjust to mammals. The debate about the publication of the...

Text message reminders to parents about flu vaccinations may help boost the number of children vaccinated, according to researchers at Columbia University Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Full study findings are reported in the April 25 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). "Text messaging can be a very effective tool for reaching large numbers of people in need of vaccination, whether they are children or adults," says lead author Melissa...

A panel of US science research experts that had previously barred publication of research on key details of a mutant strain of H5N1 bird flu, reversed that decision on Friday, saying two papers on the research are okay to publish after all. The announcement came after Dutch and US scientists made revisions to the research, and after an extensive review by the US National Science Advisory Board for Insecurity (NSABB). The panel opposed publication of the research in December because it...

Researchers at the University of British Columbia have identified a number of tiny but powerful "genetic regulators" that are hijacked by avian and swine flu viruses during human infection. The discovery, published this week in the Journal of Virology, could reveal new targets for broad-spectrum antivirals to combat current – and perhaps future – strains of influenza A viruses. The study is the first to compare the role played by human microRNAs – small molecules that control the...

The Brazilian Navy and the Spanish flu Few people know about the participation of Brazil in World War I. Although Brazil remained neutral during most of the conflict, it eventually sent a fleet to support the war effort against the central powers. It was the only Latin-American country to do so. But the Brazilian expedition encountered an unexpected and treacherous enemy in the African coast against which -like all other Armies- it was not prepared for: the Spanish flu. The Spanish flu...