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External panel issues draft report saying WHO response to H1N1 lacked cohesion, clarity

An independent panel of experts commissioned by the WHO to probe its response to the H1N1 pandemic on Thursday released a draft report stating that while the organization performed well in many ways, it made "crucial mistakes" and "warned tens of millions could die if there is a severe flu outbreak in the future," the Associated Press reports.

14 Mar 2011

Flu pandemics may return & mutating strains: Studies

Scientists have warned that we have not seen the end of H1N1 swine flu that swept the globe in 2009/10. The strain of the virus could easily morph into a more transmissible form, while an older, mid-20th century virus could also come roaring back they say. Asian influenza, a H2N2 strain, first appeared in 1957 and killed one to four million people despite a major vaccination campaign. Studies have shown that most people today aged 50 or older retain some immunity to the virus, which continues to circulate in birds and swine. But the younger are more vulnerable they warn.

12 Mar 2011

Inovio commences immunization in U.S. Phase I clinical trial of SynCon H5N1 influenza DNA vaccine

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leader in the development of therapeutic and preventive vaccines against cancers and infectious diseases, announced today that it has immunized its first subject in a U.S. Phase I clinical trial to evaluate its SynCon™ H5N1 (avian) influenza DNA vaccine, VGX-3400X.

15 Jun 2010

Lethality of H1N1 virus has dropped from its peak of 3.7, shows new data

Biotech firm Replikins Ltd., which has analyzed the H1N1 virus' genomic data from the 1918 pandemic through the prediction, outbreak, and progress of the current H1N1 pandemic, today issued its latest biochemical analysis of the virus.

25 Nov 2009

Inovio Biomedical announces positive test results of its consensus influenza vaccines

Inovio Biomedical Corporation, a leader in DNA vaccine design, development and delivery, announced today that a combination of its synthetic consensus H1N1, H2N2, H3N2, and H5N1 influenza vaccine candidates achieved protective antibody responses against several different influenza sub-types and strains in ferrets.

20 Nov 2009

Inovio Biomedical's proprietary DNA vaccine development platform introduced

Inovio Biomedical Corporation (NYSE Amex:INO), a leader in DNA vaccine design, development and delivery, announced today that Dr. J. Joseph Kim, president and CEO, presented at the invitation-only World Knowledge Forum being held in Seoul, South Korea.

14 Oct 2009

Fast-tracked H1N1 vaccines will not compromise safety, WHO says

Efforts to fast-track the approval of H1N1 (swine) flu vaccines will not compromise the safety or quality controls of vaccine production, the WHO said in a written statement Thursday, the Mail & Guardian reports.

6 Aug 2009

Research helps explain why some flu strains cause major pandemics and others lead to seasonal epidemics

The exchange of genetic material between two closely related strains of the influenza A virus may have caused the 1947 and 1951 human flu epidemics, according to biologists.

6 Mar 2008

Tamiflu could halve the pandemic influenza death toll versus no intervention

Treatment with the oral antiviral Tamiflu (oseltamivir) and prophylaxis for people exposed to infected patients could be one of the most cost-effective strategies for reducing illness and death during an influenza pandemic.

23 Jun 2007

Renewed interest in studying influenza A viruses

The emergence of the avian influenza virus H5N1 that is currently devastating chicken flocks in many countries and threatening to unleash a worldwide epidemic among humans has triggered a renewed interest among scientists in studying influenza A viruses, according to investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

9 May 2006

UK plan for influenza pandemic

The HPA Influenza Pandemic Contingency Plan outlines the Health Protection Agency’s plan for responding to an influenza pandemic. It replaces the Public Health Laboratory Service Pandemic Influenza Plan of July 2001.

23 Apr 2005

Almost all killer flu bug kits destroyed

99 percent of the kits containing a killer flu bug that mistakenly ended up in thousands of laboratories around the world, sparking fears of a pandemic, have been destroyed, according to top U.S. health official Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

22 Apr 2005

Missing samples of deadly flu strain now found

World Health Organization (WHO) officials say that all but one of the deadly flu virus samples mistakenly sent to labs outside the United States have been destroyed.

20 Apr 2005

Concern over H2N2 freeze-dried powder being available over the Internet

The World Health Organization fears that a global pandemic could occur should the H2N2 virus, the "Asian flu" strain of 1957, be unwittingly released, the virus which was mistakenly included in routine test kits and sent to 61 laboratories in 18 countries outside the United States.

19 Apr 2005

Test kit mistake - labs in race to destroy deadly flu virus

As many as 3,750 medical laboratories, all but 75 of which are in the U.S., have been told by the World Health Organization to destroy a pandemic flu virus sent to them as part of routine testing kits.

13 Apr 2005