Swine flu science: overview

Friday October 2 2009

This page brings together the latest science and developments on the swine flu pandemic, offering a single accessible resource for both health professionals and the general public.

You will find a range of regularly updated links to scientific resources on the Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus listed below. We will also be critically appraising new research on swine flu as it is published.

For the latest, more general news on swine flu in the UK, including prevalence, NHS policy and guidance, go to swine flu latest from the NHS.

We encourage comments and suggestions from the scientific community on the development of this page.

 

Recent swine flu appraisals by Bazian

• Swine flu vaccination predictions
• First results from vaccine trial
• Swine flu death risk examined
• Suspected antiviral side effects
• Pandemic may come in waves

For a full list of related articles see our archive of swine flu news.

 

Useful links

Journals and research

• The Lancet H1N1 Flu Resource Centre brings together swine flu related content from over 40 journals and 11 learned societies. Free access to all content.
• Nature includes articles on the history of swine flu and a blog rounding up the latest swine flu news from around the globe.
• The New England Journal of Medicine H1N1 Influenza Center features articles, review papers and surveillance updates of swine flu news.
• The British Medical Journal has a pandemic flu microsite with articles, podcasts, learning modules, and blogs.
• The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP). A good resource with the latest news, and a useful overview of the pandemic.
• Public Library of Science influenza feed: a rolling list of influenza research and data.
• Eurosurveillance. An open access peer-reviewed journal about infectious diseases surveillance, prevention and control.

 

UK government

• Health Protection Agency
• Department of Health
• Chief Medical Officer for England 
• Scotland: Health Protection Scotland
• Wales: National Public Health Service
• Northern Ireland: nidirect 

 

International government

• World Health Organization Pandemic (H1N1) 2009
• European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
• US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• US Pandemic Flu.gov
• US National Library of Medicine. Enviro-Health links 2009 H1N1 Flu (Swine Flu) 
• European influenza surveillance from the World Health Organization
• Medline Plus, health information for the US public
• Promed, from the international society for infectious diseases, is a useful electronic global reporting system for emerging infectious diseases

 

The genetics of swine flu

• Gene sequencing and related information. GenBank, National Center for Biotechnology Information
• Database of influenza genome sequences and background information. BioHealthBase Bioinformatics Resource Center
• Analysis of genetic data on the origin and evolution of swine flu. Human/Swine A/H1N1 Influenza Origins and Evolution

 

 

Health & Medical organisations

• The Royal College of General Practitioners: Information for GPs looking to prepare for enquiries about H1N1 and a preparation checklist
• British Medical Association: pandemic flu guidance for GPs

 

Blogs, wikis, alerts and other tools

• BBC: Fergus on flu
• WHO: interactive swine flu map
• Nature blog: swine flu
• Virology blog by Dr Vincent Racaniello
• Flu Wiki
• Wikipedia 2009 flu pandemic
• Flu tracker Map
• HealthMap. Global Disease Alert Map
• Microsoft Bing. 2009 Swine Flu H1N1
• Outbreak and Migration Map
• Facebook group. AH1N1 Swine Flu 2009
• Twitter aggregator. Outbreak.tweetmeme