Flu relief
The 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic infected an estimated 60 million people and hospitalized more than 250,000 in the USA. But, it brought with it informatics clues about how to make a vaccine that could protect against multiple strains of influenza.
Influenza type A (H1N1) virus is a strain of influenza that emerged widely in a pandemic during 2009 spreading from Mexico across the globe. Some strains of H1N1 are endemic in humans and cause a third or so of all influenza-like illness, including being involved in previous pandemics. But the 2009 outbreak of H1N1, dubbed “swine flu” by the tabloid media because of its lineage had led to 17,000 deaths by the start of 2010. By August 2010, the World Health Organization had declared the H1N1 influenza pandemic over, saying worldwide flu activity had returned to typical seasonal patterns. At the beginning of 2011, this H1N1 strain while now vaccinated against had killed several more. New clues as to how to protect people with some kind of generic vaccine against the ever-increasing strains of influenza is urgently needed.
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