News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – In a new analysis of serologic studies from 19 countries, researchers estimate that about 24% of the population were infected with the 2009 H1N1 influenza (pH1N1) virus during the first year of the pandemic, a finding modestly higher than what US health officials estimated in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – Among kids who died during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the disease was most lethal for those who had neurologic conditions such as cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy, researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today.

Antiviral-resistant H1N1 virus in Australia didn't spread farAn oseltamivir-resistant 2009 H1N1 virus that spread in one Australian community in 2011 apparently did not escape to a nearby large city, according to a report published in Eurosurveillance yesterday. Researchers previously reported the community spread of a resistant 2009 H1N1 virus in the Newcastle, Australia, area from June through August of 2011, the report notes.

(CIDRAP News) – A detailed genetic analysis of an oseltamivir-resistant 2009 H1N1 virus responsible for a cluster of illnesses in Australia in 2011 found evidence that the viruses maintained their fitness when the resistance mutation was present, suggesting that widespread emergence of the strain may be more likely, according to the researchers.