Influenza Virus Net is the web resource for anyone interested in influenza and flu pandemics. Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae (the influenza viruses), that affects humans, birds and other mammals. The virus spreads easily from person to person. Influenza circulates worldwide and can affect anybody in any age group. Influenza causes annual epidemics that peak during winter in temperate regions. Influenza is a serious public health problem that causes severe illnesses and deaths for higher risk populations. The most common symptoms of the disease are chills, fever, sore throat, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, weakness/fatigue and general discomfort. Sore throat, fever and coughs are the most frequent symptoms. In more serious cases, influenza causes pneumonia, which can be fatal, particularly for the young and the elderly. An influenza epidemic can take an economic toll through lost workforce productivity, and strain health services. Vaccination is the most effective way to prevent infection.

The objectives of Influenza Virus Net are to be the public and professional information resource for influenza and to serve as a network in the exchange of information and news related to influenza.

• Adjuvant-free avian influenza vaccines in the works - EurekAlert
  Mon, 21 Jun 2021 15:22 GMT
• Snow days may save lives during flu season - Fred Hutch News Service
  Mon, 21 Jun 2021 17:27 GMT
• Enochian BioSciences Announces Acquisition of Exclusive License for Potential Pan-Coronavirus and Pan-Influenza Inhaled Treatment - GlobeNewswire
  Mon, 21 Jun 2021 11:00 GMT
• Flu virus became less diverse, simplifying task of making flu shots - STAT - STAT
  Wed, 02 Jun 2021 07:00 GMT
• 2 types of flu viruses may have gone extinct - Livescience.com
  Thu, 03 Jun 2021 07:00 GMT
• Influenza Vaccination Updates for the 2021-2022 Season Pharmacy Times - Pharmacy Times
  Wed, 26 May 2021 07:00 GMT
• The return of the flu? What we can expect later this year - CTV News
  Thu, 17 Jun 2021 14:04 GMT
• Ability to Produce immunity to Influenza A H3N2 Called Into Question for Certain Adults - Pharmacy Times
  Fri, 28 May 2021 07:00 GMT
• Cluster of Oseltamivir-Resistant and Hemagglutinin Antigenically Drifted Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 Viruses, Texas, USA, January 2020 - CDC
  Wed, 16 Jun 2021 15:52 GMT
• How The Pandemic Changed The Battle Against Influenza - khak.com - khak.com
  Mon, 07 Jun 2021 10:38 GMT
• NIH launches clinical trial of universal influenza vaccine candidate - National Institutes of Health
  Tue, 01 Jun 2021 07:00 GMT
• The coming flu season may be severe. Here's why - CNN
  Wed, 09 Jun 2021 07:00 GMT
• What Happened To The Flu? - Forbes Forbes - Forbes
  Wed, 26 May 2021 07:00 GMT
• Flu (Influenza) Vaccine Market to Witness Robust Expansion by 2028 with Top Key players like Pfizer, Merck & Co, Emergent BioSolutions, GlaxoSmithKline – The Courier - The Courier
  Fri, 18 Jun 2021 11:08 GMT
• Toward the use of neural networks for influenza prediction at multiple spatial resolutions - Science Advances
  Wed, 16 Jun 2021 18:05 GMT

• PRO/AH/EDR> Influenza (09): Germany, swine origin, H1N1v
  Mon, 14 Jun 2021 19:58:55 -0400
  Influenza -- Germany
  The World Health Organization (WHO) reports on a a human case of infection with an influenza A(H1N1)v virus in Germany recently. The individual infected is a 17-year-old boy from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania who developed an influenza-like illness onset on [18 Apr 2021].
  The virus was confirmed with genome sequencing conducted at the National Influenza Centre (NIC) at the Robert Koch Institute in a sample collected as part of routine sentinel surveillance. Sequencing indicated the virus

• Ketogenic diet restrains aging-induced exacerbation of coronavirus infection in mice Mon, 21 Jun 2021 06:00:00 -0400
  Increasing age is the strongest predictor of risk of COVID-19 severity and mortality. Immunometabolic switch from glycolysis to ketolysis protects against inflammatory damage and influenza infection in adults. To investigate how age compromises defense against coronavirus infection, and whether a pro-longevity ketogenic-diet (KD) impacts immune-surveillance, we developed an aging model of natural murine beta coronavirus (mCoV) infection with mouse hepatitis virus strain-A59 (MHV-A59). When...
• Inactivation of avian influenza viruses by hydrostatic pressure as a potential vaccine development approach Mon, 21 Jun 2021 06:00:00 -0400
  Vaccines are a recommended strategy for controlling influenza A infections in humans and animals. Here, we describe the effects of hydrostatic pressure on the structure, morphology and functional characteristics of avian influenza A H3N8 virus. The effect of hydrostatic pressure for 3 h on H3N8 virus revealed that the particles were resistant to this condition, and the virus displayed only a discrete conformational change. We found that pressure of 3 kbar applied for 6 h was able to inhibit...
• Upconversion Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer Aptasensors for H5N1 Influenza Virus Detection Mon, 21 Jun 2021 06:00:00 -0400
  Influenza A virus (IAV) poses a significant threat to human health, which calls for the development of efficient detection methods. The present study constructed a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) system based on novel fluorescent probes and graphene oxide (GO) for detecting H5N1 IAV hemagglutinin (HA). Here, we synthesized small (sub-20 nm) sandwich-structured upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) (SWUCNPs for short) with a high energy transfer efficiency, which allows for controlling...
• Narrowing antibiotic spectrum of activity for trauma-associated pneumonia through the use of a disease-specific antibiogram Mon, 21 Jun 2021 06:00:00 -0400
  CONCLUSIONS: For TAP diagnosed within the first 7 days of hospital admission, ceftriaxone monotherapy is adequate as empiric therapy, including in ventilated patients. The addition of vancomycin can be considered in patients with MRSA risk factors or who are critically ill.
• Substantial effect of phytochemical constituents against the pandemic disease influenza-a review Mon, 21 Jun 2021 06:00:00 -0400
  CONCLUSION: This article provides a summary of the actions of the herbal constituents. Since the mechanisms of action of the components are elucidated, the pandemic situation arising due to influenza and similar antiviral diseases can be handled promisingly with greater efficiency. However, clinical trials are in great demand. The formulation of usage may be a single drug compound or multi-herbal combination. These, in turn, open up a new arena for the pharmaceutical industries to develop...
• Comparison of Vaccine Acceptance Between COVID-19 and Seasonal Influenza Among Women in China: A National Online Survey Based on Health Belief Model Mon, 21 Jun 2021 06:00:00 -0400
  Background: Influenza could circulate in parallel with COVID-19. Studies focusing on the comparison of vaccine acceptance between COVID-19 and seasonal influenza are lacking. The aim of the study was to assess and compare vaccine acceptance of COVID-19 and influenza among reproductive women in China, in order to better understand and address factors associated with vaccine acceptance and to provide guidance for targeted measures to promote vaccination. Methods: A national anonymous...
• Identifying Critical States of Complex Diseases by Single-Sample Jensen-Shannon Divergence Mon, 21 Jun 2021 06:00:00 -0400
  MOTIVATION: The evolution of complex diseases can be modeled as a time-dependent nonlinear dynamic system, and its progression can be divided into three states, i.e., the normal state, the pre-disease state and the disease state. The sudden deterioration of the disease can be regarded as the state transition of the dynamic system at the critical state or pre-disease state. How to detect the critical state of an individual before the disease state based on single-sample data has attracted many...
• Neuronal Damage and Neuroinflammation, a Bridge Between Bacterial Meningitis and Neurodegenerative Diseases Mon, 21 Jun 2021 06:00:00 -0400
  Bacterial meningitis is an inflammation of the meninges which covers and protects the brain and the spinal cord. Such inflammation is mostly caused by blood-borne bacteria that cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and finally invade the brain parenchyma. Pathogens such as Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria meningitidis, and Haemophilus influenzae are the main etiological causes of bacterial meningitis. After trafficking across the BBB, bacterial pathogens in the brain interact with neurons, the...
• "Surfactants - compounds for inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 and other enveloped viruses" Mon, 21 Jun 2021 06:00:00 -0400
  We provide here a general view on the interactions of surfactants with viruses, with a particular emphasis on how such interactions can be controlled and employed, for inhibiting the infectivity of enveloped viruses, including coronaviruses. The aim is to provide to interested scientists from different fields, including chemistry, physics, biochemistry, and medicine, an overview over the basic properties of surfactants and (corona)viruses, which are relevant to understanding the interactions...
• Handheld plasmonic biosensor for virus detection in field-settings Mon, 21 Jun 2021 06:00:00 -0400
  After World Health Organization (WHO) announced COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic, we all again realized the importance of developing rapid diagnostic kits. In this article, we introduced a lightweight and field-portable biosensor employing a plasmonic chip based on nanohole arrays integrated to a lensfree-imaging framework for label-free detection of viruses in field-settings. The platform utilizes a CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) camera with high quantum efficiency in the spectral...