Specials

  • The World Health Organization declared the first flu pandemic in 41 years on 11 June. As details of the global impact of the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) virus — and efforts to combat the threat — unfold over the coming months, Nature News provides breaking news and authoritative analysis of the science and the politics behind the headlines.

  • News

  • Dealing with Pandemics

      • Mass-vaccination campaigns for the pandemic H1N1 virus must take public concerns into account.
      • 8 October 2009
      • Additional work is needed to prepare for the next pandemic viral outbreak.
      • 2009
    • History: Bird flu and the 1918 flu

        • Key scientific and political milestones from around the world, charting the first appearance of H5N1 avian flu in Hong Kong in 1997 to its global spread today, and links to archives.
        • 2007
        • Is there going to be a pandemic? History suggests that this question is a matter of when, rather than if. Flu pandemics occur every 30-70 years, as newly evolved flu viruses sweep across entire world regions infecting enormous numbers of people.
        • 2007
    • Research

        • Most human infections with swine-origin H1N1 influenza viruses (S-OIVs) seem to be mild; however, a substantial number of hospitalized individuals do not have underlying health issues, attesting to the pathogenic potential of S-OIVs. To achieve a better assessment of the risk posed by the new virus, we characterized one of the first US S-OIV isolates,as well as several other S-OIV isolates, in vitro and in vivo.
        • 13 July 2009
        • The rapid evolution of many important pathogens, particularly RNA viruses, means that their ecological and evolutionary dynamics occur on the same timescale. This Review discusses the insights into the transmission and epidemiology of viruses that have been provided by analyses of their evolutionary dynamics across a wide range of biological scales.
        • 30 June 2009
    • Elsewhere in Nature

        • More about influenza, previous pandemics, preventative measures and how the spread of disease can be modelled and possibly predicted with these selected Nature Reviews Microbiology and Nature Reviews Genetics articles.

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