Clinical and laboratory data from Western countries suggest that pregnant women are at an increased risk for severe illness and complications associated with 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1). However, previous data among Korean women suggested a less severe outcome. In this study performed at a single referral center in Korea, rates of admission, pneumonia, intensive care unit admission, and de...

Background Several studies have shown a relatively high mortality rate among young people infected by the 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) virus. Here we compared the age distributions of morbidity and mortality during two seasonal influenza epidemics (H1N1 and H3N2) in France and the United States with those of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic waves in the same countries. Methods Age-standardized ratios...

BACKGROUND/AIM The first cases of the pandemic pH1N1 influenza virus infection was observed in the Unated States and Mexico in April 2009 and the first laboratory confirmed case in Serbia was registered in June 2009. The aim of this paper was to report on the investigation of the first confirmed outbreak of the 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza in Serbia and to describe the clinical and epidemiologi...

INTRODUCTION Since the emergence of the pandemic influenza A/H1N1/2009 virus in April 2009, diagnostic testing in many countries has revealed the rapid displacement and then replacement of circulating seasonal influenza viruses by this novel virus. MATERIALS AND METHODS In-house seasonal and pandemic influenza-specific polymerase chain reaction assays were introduced and/or developed at the M...

BACKGROUND The mortality burden of the 2009 A/H1N1 pandemic remains unclear in many countries due to delays in reporting of death statistics. We estimate the age- and cause-specific excess mortality impact of the pandemic in France, relative to that of other countries and past epidemic and pandemic seasons. METHODS We applied Serfling and Poisson excess mortality approaches to model weekly ag...

Since May 2009, the pandemic influenza A(H1N1) virus has been spreading throughout the world. Epidemiological data indicate that the elderly are underrepresented among the ill individuals. Approximately 1,000 serum specimens collected in Finland in 2004 and 2005 from individuals born between 1909 and 2005, were analysed by haemagglutination-inhibition test for the presence of antibodies against...

In 2009, a novel swine-origin H1N1 influenza virus emerged in Mexico and quickly spread to other countries, including China. This 2009 pandemic H1N1 can cause human respiratory disease, but its pathogenesis remains poorly understood. Here, we studied the infection and pathogenesis of a new 2009 pandemic strain, A/Wenshan/01/2009 H1N1, in China in human airway epithelial cell lines compared with...

To the Editor: Accumulating evidence suggests that the degree of serologic crossreactivity to pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus varies between populations worldwide. To assess potential serologic cross-reactivity in Singapore, we obtained serum samples during May–June 2009 from 50 randomly recruited, healthy volunteers born mostly before 1958 (i.e., potentially those with some natural exposure to the ...

In September 2009, an outbreak of 2009 pandemic influenza A(H1N1) took place in a Finnish garrison. In November 2009, we performed a serological survey among 984 recruits undergoing their military service at the garrison and related the results to self-reported upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) with or without fever. Of 346 volunteers who donated a blood sample, 169 (49%) had pandemic in...

We describe the epidemiology of influenza virus infections in refugees in a camp in rural Southeast Asia during May-October 2009, the first 6 months after identification of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 in Thailand. Influenza A viruses were detected in 20% of patients who had influenza-like illness and in 23% of those who had clinical pneumonia. Seasonal influenza A (H1N1) was the predominant virus circ...