influenza

Hultin’s work helped identify the virus behind the 1918 flu pandemic.

The Scientist spoke with the UK’s chief veterinary officer, Christine Middlemiss, about this winter’s high bird flu prevalence, the effects of the disease, and efforts to combat it.

Dozens of researchers, including myself, worked for years to uncover that swine flu had leapt to humans from a pig in Mexico in 2009. We learned a lot about influenza evolution, pig farming, and outbreak risk along the way.

The pathogen known as swine flu evolved in pigs in Mexico following imports of the livestock from the US and Europe.

Seven years of surveillance and research revealed the complex history of the H1N1 virus that leapt from pigs to humans and sparked the global swine flu outbreak.

Sherif Zaki worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more than 30 years, and was renowned for uncovering crucial intel on various outbreak-causing scourges, from Ebola and Zika to SARS and influenza.

Epidemiological research suggests that a flu diagnosis might be one factor in the eventual onset of the neurodegenerative disease, but experts say it doesn’t prove a causal relationship.

Dozens of researchers, including myself, worked for years to uncover that swine flu had leapt to humans from a pig in Mexico in 2009. We learned a lot about influenza evolution, pig farming, and outbreak risk along the way.

Cases of influenza and other respiratory viruses sank dramatically during the pandemic, with potential implications for both people and pathogens.  

Influenza RNA sequences from three sets of lungs preserved in formalin since 1918 provide new insights into the deadly pandemic.

Although scientists debate the ethics of deliberately infecting volunteers with SARS-CoV-2, plenty of consenting participants have been exposed to all sorts of pathogens in prior trials.

Lab and field experiments indicate that aquatic environments could act as reservoirs for the pathogens, which typically do not represent a direct risk to humans.

Electron microscopy revealed that a deadly disease of birds was not a form of flu, but a different type of virus entirely.

A new study demonstrates that some viruses can be transmitted on airborne particles other than those produced by talking, coughing, or sneezing.

As we struggle through the COVID-19 pandemic, we can still learn lessons from a scourge that plagued our ancestors more than a century ago.

A handful of factors tip the scales in making a virus more likely to trigger a disruptive global outbreak. Right now, scientists tend to rank influenza, coronaviruses, and Nipah virus as the biggest threats.