News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Experts who have studied the 1918 pandemic have long puzzled over why the mortality rate in young adults was so high, a feature that might be explained by pathologic immune responses related to previous flu exposure, according to a new theory from a research team.

(CIDRAP News) – A study of preserved lung sections from 68 US soldiers who died in the 1918 influenza pandemic shows that cases from the spring and fall pandemic waves looked much the same and that there is no evidence of viral mutations that could readily explain why the fall wave was so lethal.

As the world recovers its bearings after spikes in pandemic flu activity and anticipates how the upcoming flu season will unfold, antiviral and vaccine experts in Atlanta today plotted out the new prevention and treatment tools public health officials may someday use to fine-tune their disease responses.

Editor's Note: This is the first of a series of articles reviewing the world's experience with pandemic H1N1 influenza and what we've learned in the past year. Look for further installments in the days to come.

(CIDRAP News) – A year's experience with the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus has underscored the endless unpredictability of flu.

Editor's note: This story was revised Sep 29 to correct a detail about when pneumonia cases were diagnosed.

(CIDRAP News) – In a first early look at trends in patients who have been hospitalized with novel influenza H1N1infections, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today that all but one of a group of 30 patients presented with fever and that about two thirds of them had an underlying medical condition.

The World Health Organization (WHO) listed a global total of 2,500 confirmed cases of swine influenza H1N1 in 25 countries today. That total included 1,204 cases in Mexico, 896 cases in the United States (yesterday's number), 214 in Canada, 88 in Spain, and 34 in the United Kingdom. The death toll remains at 44, including 42 in Mexico and 2 in the United States. [WHO update 22]

(CIDRAP News) – Health officials in Perth, Australia, last week advised parents to seek medical care quickly for young children with respiratory symptoms, after three children under age 5 died of pneumonia as a complication of "mild" influenza A infections.