Latest Influenza pandemics Stories

More research needed to measure impact of co-infections on hospital admission A study at Rhode Island Hospital has found that despite complications, patients co-infected with the pandemic 2009-2010 influenza A H1N1 (pH1N1) and a second respiratory virus were not associated with worse outcomes or admission to the hospital's intensive care unit. The study is published online in the journal PLOS ONE. "There is scant data in the literature regarding the incidence and impact of simultaneous...

SHERBROOKE, QC, Feb. 22, 2013 /CNW Telbec/ - Dr. Martin Richter (pharmacology), investigator with the Centre de recherche clinique Étienne-Le Bel (CRCELB) at the Centre hospitalier universitaire de Sherbrooke (CHUS) and professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the Université de Sherbrooke (UdeS), and his collaborators have identified a new function of the enzyme matriptase, present in the human respiratory system, that can activate a viral protein involved in...

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Ever wonder why some people don’t get the flu even though everyone around them is getting sick? A group of Australian researchers believe they have found an important clue for solving this mystery. According to new research in the journal Nature Immunology, some T-cells found on exposed body surfaces help to ward off infection better than others due to the selective expression of a certain protein, IFITM3. When the body is exposed...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online A new study shows that at least one in five people in countries including India, Australia and the U.K. were infected with influenza during the first year of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. Forty-seven percent of those infected were aged between five and 19, researchers said. Older people were less likely to have become infected, with eleven percent of people over the age of 65 becoming infected. They wrote in the journal Influenza and...

LONDON, Jan. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Bioradar UK Ltd this week reported that the H3N2 Lethality Gene Counts are approaching those of the highly lethal H3N2 pandemic of 1968 (1)(see Figure). (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130116/PH43879-INFO ) The severe flu outbreaks in 41 U.S. states in the first week of 2013 (CDC), predominately H3N2, further suggest that the State Fair 2012 H3N2 cases and the current outbreaks may be the opening salvos of an approaching H3N2...

Mathematicians have developed a powerful tool to quantify the spread and infectiousness of viruses like the pandemic H1N1 flu strain, which can be used together with modern laboratory techniques to help the healthcare system plan its response to disease outbreaks. By putting statistical data under the microscope, University of Warwick researchers have created a model to predict the impact of future pandemics in real-time as they strike. During the 2009 outbreak, the true extent of H1N1...

LONDON, July 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- A marked increase in the H5N1 pB1 Lethality Gene Replikin Count (number of Replikins per 100 amino acids) in Cambodia in 2009 (Figure 1 below) provided a warning for the outbreaks of the Avian Flu (H5N1) with human deaths in that country. Eight deaths were reported in 2011 and three thus far in 2012. This was one of seven consecutive correct predictions by genomic Replikins of coming viral outbreaks tied to specific geographical locations...

(Ivanhoe Newswire) – Changing medicine in the Lab! Scientists are looking at ways to help identify the severity of virus infections by looking at the way the cells change within that virus. This could bring much needed answers to diseases like influenza and Asthma in young children. Researchers at the University of Leeds with the help of the Health Protection Agency Porton, investigated changes in lung cells infected with swine flu from the 2009 outbreak compared with seasonal flu....

An international team of researchers has discovered a human genetic flaw that could explain why influenza makes some people more sick than others. Reporting in the journal Nature, British and American researchers, led by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (WTSI) in the UK, said the variant of the IFITM3 gene was much more common in people hospitalized for the flu than in those who were able to fight the disease at home. The researchers said this could explain why during the 2009/10...