Influenza victims crowd into an emergency hospital near Fort Riley, Kansas in 1918.
AP Photo/National Museum of Health
Don’t believe these 10 common myths about the 1918 Spanish flu.
An annual vaccine is your best protection against the flu.
REDPIXEL.PL/shutterstock.com
After Australia’s tough flu season, some experts predict that the U.S. is in for a few difficult months. What does that mean for you?
Beds with patients in an emergency hospital in Camp Funston, Kansas, during the influenza epidemic around 1918.
National Museum of Health and Medicine.
Many healthy young men and women, including military personnel, died in the 1918 flu pandemic. It’s a reminder of how dangerous influenza can be.
Every year in Canada, there is an average of 23,000 cases of lab-confirmed influenza, 12,000 people who need to be admitted to hospital and 3,500 flu deaths.
(Shutterstock)
As influenza season begins in North America, many people wonder whether to get a flu shot. Our expert delves into the pros and cons of the vaccine and how it works.
Vaccines for the flu offer mediocre coverage compared with those for other diseases.
PLRANG ART/Shutterstock
A better vaccine could have reduced the rates of flu, but not the high-dose Fluzone vaccine doctors were touting at the start of the week.
Most people don’t take flu seriously enough.
from www.shutterstock.com.au
A vaccine recommendation from a health professional and convenient access will make the biggest difference to uptake.
Flu seems to be more deadly than colds, here’s why.
from www.shutterstock.com.au
Why is it the flu virus is so deadly compared to the common cold virus?
Vaccines are one of the greatest public health achievements in history.
from shutterstock.com
The kinds of vaccines adults need depend on several factors, including whether you were born here, how old you are and whether you intend to travel overseas.
When the H3N2 strain dominates, we see bigger flu seasons and cases affecting the elderly more than the young.
from shutterstock.com
By mid-August, the 2017 year had recorded more flu notifications across Australia than the previous five years. So why is the flu season so bad this time around?
The Bubonic plague slowed urbanisation, industrial development and economic growth in Europe for many years.
from www.shutterstock.com
Despite being so small they can’t be seen with the naked eye, pathogens that cause human disease have greatly affected the way humans live for centuries.
Spanish flu killed more people than the Great War that preceded it. And tuberculosis even more than that.
from www.shutterstock.com.au
Here we explore our past and present struggles with the most significant infectious diseases human beings have faced.
What can a single person’s flu infection tell you about how the virus changes around the world?
Xue and Bloom
New genetic technologies are letting us look at flu evolution right where it starts: within individual people, while they’re sick.
Computers may play an important role in preparing us for the next viral outbreak – whether flu or Ebola.
UW Institute for Protein Design
This antivirus software protects health, not computers. Researchers are beginning to combat deadly infections using computer-generated antiviral proteins – a valuable tool to fight a future pandemic.
When resources are scarce, deciding who should be front of the queue for the flu vaccine is an ethical minefield.
from www.shutterstock.com
Australia needs to think about who gets the flu vaccine first before the next pandemic strikes and supplies run low.
Capturing the moment for the internet.
astarot/shutterstock.com
Yelp and Twitter can help us spot food poisoning outbreaks quickly. But a new study shows the data favor some communities over others.
While the flu vaccine cuts your chance of coming down with influenza, that’s not the whole story.
from www.shutterstock.com
As we head towards flu season, many people are wondering if it’s worth getting vaccinated against influenza and if so, when. Here’s what you need to know.
After the Spanish flu we didn’t see any new flu strains for forty years. Now novel strains are increasingly popping up.
Carlos Barria/Reuterspics
How is it the flu has managed to stay around for so long, and why haven’t we beaten it yet?
Flu vaccination uptake rates are low in adults, including among those who work in health, aged care and childcare.
from www.shutterstock.com
Most immunisation campaigns continue to primarily focus on infants and children, but almost 4 million Australian adults are not vaccinated against preventable diseases.
The avian influenza strain of bird flu is thought to spread across continents via wild migratory birds.
Shutterstock
Functional early warning systems help countries respond to a disease before it spreads.
A Ugandan chicken farmer rides to market in this file photo. In the wake of an outbreak of avian flu farmers have been told to quarantine their poultry.
EPA/Kim Ludbrook
Since regular monitoring for avian influenza viruses started, several subtypes that have been circulating - but not all pose a threat to humans.