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Nature 414, 10-11 (1 November 2001) | doi:10.1038/35102245

Open Innovation Challenges

The flu HQ

Alison Abbott1

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Leading virologists plan to thwart emerging strains of influenza by creating a global laboratory to keep tabs on this ever-changing virus. Alison Abbott reports.

During the Northern Hemisphere's coming winter, tens of thousands of people may die of influenza. It is a sobering figure, but a mere fraction of the half-million killed in 1968, the last time a flu pandemic swept the globe.