Influenza Gateway

The spread of influenza in schools

A low-cost ranking method for modeling the spread of influenza in schools identifies subpopulations at higher risk of early infection than randomly selected communities, which could be effective for predicting and preventing epidemics.

Modeling infection transmission

Gerardo Chowell and Cécile Viboud comment on a novel method that identifies risk of influenza transmission and allows early detection of infection in schools, but caution that this promising method needs testing on outbreaks in different settings.

Swine virus protects from human influenza

A swine influenza virus that grows to high titres and exhibits cross-reactivity was identified and used as an inactivated vaccine to protect mice from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic strain.

From genome to personalized treatments

State-of-the-art techniques may address the problem of translating the human genomic information
into phenotypes for personalized treatment through life science research, genomic sequencing and information technology.

Computational forecasting for flu

Computational forecasts of influenza transmission are in good agreement with real-life surveillance results when built from high quality data, suggesting that such models can be used to predict the spread of disease in case of a pandemic.

Modeling influenza mortality

Mathematical modeling of influenza mortality rates shows that emerging virus strains are similar to those that were present previously, suggesting that mortality levels are affected by virulence and moderated by acquired immunity in older people.

Modeling diseases at mass gatherings

Gerardo Chowell and colleagues review models of infectious disease transmission at mass gatherings, and discuss factors influencing model formulation, proposing strategies for better integration with outbreak management.