H3N2 News and Research

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Influenza A virus subtype H3N2 (also H3N2) is a subtype of viruses that cause influenza (flu). H3N2 viruses can infect birds and mammals. In birds, humans, and pigs, the virus has mutated into many strains. H3N2 is increasingly abundant in seasonal influenza, which kills an estimated 36,000 people in the United States each year.

Scientists visualize influenza virus particles

Scientists at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), and colleagues at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville have succeeded in imaging, in unprecedented detail, the virus that causes influenza.

2 Jan 2007

Sanofi pasteur begins shipping influenza vaccine

Sanofi pasteur, the vaccines business of the sanofi-aventis Group, began shipping influenza vaccine (Fluzone, Influenza Virus Vaccine) to the U.S. market for the 2006-2007 season.

4 Sep 2006

FluChip can spot bird flu in under 12 hours

Scientists in the United States have developed a new technology that reduces the time it takes to achieve a detailed diagnosis of avian flu, from one week or more down to less than 12 hours.

30 Aug 2006

New microchip enables quick diagnosis of flu strains

Scientists from the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have developed a microchip-based test that may allow more labs to diagnose influenza infections and learn more about the viruses causing illness.

30 Aug 2006

New way to assess pandemic potential of influenza viruses

Study provides first assessment of the risk of an H5N1 pandemic strain emerging from the combining of avian and human influenza viruses.

1 Aug 2006

Creating your own pandemic virus is not so easy

A team of scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have developed a new research method that may help identify the types of genetic changes that would be necessary for the avian influenza virus (H5N1) to be more easily transmitted among people.

1 Aug 2006

US warns older flu drugs often don't work

Health authorities in the U.S. are advising doctors to stop using two drugs to treat this winters influenza because it has become evident that the most common strain has become resistant to the drugs and they are unlikely to work.

16 Jan 2006

Flu kills more U.S. children than chicken pox, whooping cough, and measles combined

A new study has shown that flu killed more U.S. children than chicken pox, whooping cough, and measles combined in the 2003-2004 flu season.

19 Dec 2005

New Flu Chip can determine the genetic make-up of types of flu virus in 11 hours

A novel "Flu Chip" developed at the University of Colorado at Boulder that can determine the genetic signatures of specific influenza strains from patient samples within hours may help world health officials combat coming epidemics and pandemics.

7 Nov 2005

Most comprehensive picture to date of how influenza viruses evolve and are transmitted

In the first large-scale effort of its kind, researchers have determined the full genetic sequence of more than 200 distinct strains of human influenza virus.

5 Oct 2005

Influenza evolution in action

On the eve of the 2005-06 flu season, scientists at The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) have captured influenza evolution in action. In a study published in this week's journal Nature, the researchers report the first large-scale project to sequence the influenza virus.

5 Oct 2005

First large-scale effort to sequence the flu genome

Multiple strains of the flu virus, circulating in a population at the same time, can reshuffle their genes and create a new virus, one capable of infecting many more people, according to a new study in the open-access journal PLoS Biology.

26 Jul 2005

Immunising against influenza

New Zealanders who were immunised against influenza last year are likely to have some protection against the current influenza viruses hitting schools around the country.

2 Jun 2005

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

Influenza is a contagious disease caused by an RNA virus of the orthomyxoviridae family

Influenza (or as it is commonly known, the flu) is a contagious disease caused by an RNA virus of the orthomyxoviridae family (The orthomyxoviridae is a family of RNA viruses which infect vertebrate).

6 Oct 2004

Bird flu has jumped species barrier to cats

Now the United Nations health agency is investigating reports that bird flu, which experts say could mutate into a potentially deadly human pandemic under certain conditions, has now jumped the species barrier to infect cats.

4 Sep 2004

Emergence of drug resistant influenza viruses more common than previously thought

Results of a small study from Japan in this week’s issue of THE LANCET suggest that the emergence of influenza viruses which are resistant to a widely used influenza drug may be more common than previously thought.

26 Aug 2004

Inevitable that H5N1 avian influenza viruses will be detected in pigs

Considering the widespread nature of the current H5N1 outbreak in Asia and the capability of influenza viruses to jump the species barriers, it is inevitable that H5N1 virus will be detected in some pigs.

26 Aug 2004

Aventis ships its influenza vaccine, Fluzone

Aventis began to ship its influenza vaccine (Fluzone(R), Influenza Virus Vaccine) today, meeting the company's goal to provide Fluzone vaccine to customers to allow health-care providers to plan successful immunization programs for the upcoming influenza season.

3 Aug 2004

Patent pending botanical extract, V38-AMF-1, completely inhibits bird flu (H5N1) and Fujian Flu

PRB Pharmaceuticals and Lee's Pharmaceuticals have announced the discovery that PRB'S patent pending botanical extract, V38-AMF-1, completely inhibits bird flu (H5N1) and Fujian Flu (H3N2) infections in vitro.

29 Jul 2004