The emergence of a swine influenza virus (H1N1) pandemic strain earlier this year prompted a huge worldwide effort to produce swine flu vaccines in time for the winter flu season. Justine Davies reports.

This thesis reports on the use of Twitter during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic to explore its use as an “infoveillance” approach complementary to traditional surveys and content analysis. This study aimed to: 1) report on the use of “H1N1” versus “swine flu”, 2) conduct a qualitative analysis of tweet content, and 3) assess the feasibility of Twitter as a real-time content, sentiment, and public atten...

BACKGROUND To probe seroepidemiology of the 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) among health care workers (HCWs) in a children's hospital. METHODS From August 2009 to March 2010, serum samples were drawn from 150 HCWs in a children's hospital in Taipei before the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) pandemic, before H1N1 vaccination, and after the pandemic. HCWs who had come into direct contact with 2009 inf...

A swine influenza outbreak occurred on a commercial pig farm in Thailand. Outbreak investigation indicated that pigs were co-infected with pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus and seasonal influenza (H1N1) viruses. No evidence of gene reassortment or pig-to-human transmission of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus was found during the outbreak.

This Perspective discusses the following study published in PLoS Medicine: Skowronski DM, De Serres G, Crocroft N, Janjua NZ, Boulianne N, et al. (2010) Association between the 2008-09 Seasonal Influenza Vaccine and Pandemic H1N1 Illness during Spring-Summer 2009 : Four Observational Studies from Canada. PLoS Med 7(4): e1000258. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000258. In three case-control studies an...

OBJECTIVES The pandemic of novel influenza A (H1N1) virus has required decision-makers to act in the face of the substantial uncertainties. In this study, we evaluated the potential impact of the pandemic response strategies in the Republic of Korea using a mathematical model. METHODS We developed a deterministic model of a pandemic (H1N1) 2009 in a structured population using the demographic...

CONTEXT Preventing nosocomial transmission of influenza is essential to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with this infection. In October 2009, an outbreak of the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) virus occurred in a hematology ward of a children's hospital over a 21-day period and involved two patients and four healthcare workers. OBJECTIVE To investigate nosocomial transmission of the 200...