Swine Flu coverage on the blog

A Race Against Time to Vaccinate Against Novel H1N1 Virus

Jon Cohen

Science 11 September 2009: 1328 .

On 24 August, the White House released a report about the swine flu pandemic from a group of prominent scientists commissioned by U.S. President Barack Obama. The first report issued by the current President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), it made a stir because it high-lighted a "plausible scenario" that the novel H1N1 virus could infect up to half the U.S. population in the next 6 months and kill as many as 90,000 people, most of them young.

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Worries About Africa as Pandemic Marches On

Martin Enserink

Science 7 August 2009: 662 .

In July 2002, more than 70% of the 2160 inhabitants of Sahafata, a small village in the rural highlands of southeastern Madagascar, came down with an acute respiratory illness, and 27 died. A few patient samples tested positive for influenza, but the viciousness of the outbreak led health authorities to suspect something worse and ask for assistance.

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Ferrets Shed Light on New Virus's Severity and Spread

Martin Enserink

Science 3 July 2009: 17.

When scientists want to know how a new flu strain behaves, one of the first things they do is squirt it up the noses of ferrets. The small carnivores' responses often closely resemble those of humans, assuring them the unenviable status of flu virologists' favorite model animal.

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New Details on Virus's Promiscuous Past

Jon Cohen

Science 29 May 2009: 1127.

An international team of scientists working at breakneck speed has provided the most detailed description yet of the origins of the novel H1N1 swine flu virus now causing a global outbreak, published online by Science on 29 May.

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Past Pandemics Provide Mixed Clues to H1N1's Next Moves

Jon Cohen

Science 22 May 2009: 996-997.

Influenza researchers trying to predict where the swine flu outbreak is headed are looking to the past for clues about the seasonality and geography of pandemic flu, the relationship between the new virus and existing ones, and the behavior of this new H1N1's parent viruses in swine.

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Flu Researchers Train Sights On Novel Tricks of Novel H1N1

Jon Cohen

Science 15 May 2009: 870-871.

Shortly after receiving word on 23 April that the same odd strain of swine influenza had infected humans in both the United States and Mexico, researchers around the world pounced on this novel H1N1 virus.

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Swine Flu Names Evolving Faster Than Swine Flu Itself

Martin Enserink

Science 15 May 2009: 871.

Three weeks after the world woke up to the threat of an influenza pandemic, a Babylonian confusion has arisen about what the virus—and the pandemic, if it happens—should be called.

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Out of Mexico? Scientists Ponder Swine Flu's Origins

Jon Cohen

Science 8 May 2009: 700-702.

The origin of the virus behind the current swine flu outbreak, its muscle power, and how much of a threat it presents remain mysteries. But the virus itself has helped clear up some matters.

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Devilish Dilemmas Surround Pandemic Flu Vaccine

Martin Enserink and Jocelyn Kaiser

Science 8 May 2009: 702-705.

If and when a pandemic of H1N1 swine flu hits, vaccines might be the world's best hope for softening the blow. But major uncertainties cloud the prospects for vaccines against the new strain.

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What Role for Antiviral Drugs?

Jennifer Couzin-Frankel

Science 8 May 2009: 705.

There's good news and bad news about the new H1N1 swine flu strain circling the globe. Two antiviral drugs can squelch it. But stocks are too small to protect everyone in a worst-case scenario outbreak; health officials also worry that the virus could become resistant to the drugs.

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As Swine Flu Circles Globe, Scientists Grapple With Basic Questions

Jon Cohen and Martin Enserink

Science 1 May 2009: 572-573.

Shortly after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rang the alarm about two cases of swine flu in southern California, scientists and health officials around the world went on alert, concerned that this never-before-seen virus could lead to a killer pandemic. But some say the world hasn't done nearly enough over the past 10 years to prepare for a pandemic.

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The Transmissibility and Control of Pandemic Influenza A (H1N1) Virus

Yang Yang, Jonathan D. Sugimoto, M. Elizabeth Halloran, Nicole E. Basta, Dennis L. Chao, Laura Matrajt, Gail Potter, Eben Kenah, Ira M. Longini Jr.

Science 10 September 2009

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Epidemic Science in Real Time

Harvey V. Fineberg and Mary Elizabeth Wilson

Science 22 May 2009: 987

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Pandemic Potential of a Strain of Influenza A (H1N1) : Early Findings

Christophe Fraser, Christl A. Donnelly, Simon Cauchemez, William P. Hanage, Maria D. Van Kerkhove, T. Déirdre Hollingsworth, Jamie Griffin, Rebecca F. Baggaley, Helen E. Jenkins, Emily J. Lyons, Thibaut Jombart, Wes R. Hinsley, Nicholas C. Grassly, Francois Balloux, Azra C. Ghani, Neil M. Ferguson, Andrew Rambaut, Oliver G. Pybus, Hugo Lopez-Gatell, Celia M Apluche-Aranda, Ietza Bojorquez Chapela, Ethel Palacios Zavala, Dulce Ma. Espejo Guevara, Francesco Checchi, Erika Garcia, Stephane Hugonnet, Cathy Roth, The WHO Rapid Pandemic Assessment Collaboration

Science 11 May 2009

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