Details of two innovative initiatives designed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to increase awareness of influenza and seasonal influenza were recently published on the CDC website.

This report describes the investigation of two cases of febrile respiratory illness caused by swine influenza A (H3N2) viruses identified on the 19th and the 26th August 2011 in two different states in the US (Indiana and Pennsylvania).

This Public Health Development is an update of an earlier Public Health Development published by ECDC on 28th October 2011 (1).

In this letter the authors describe being able to identified a sustained community transmission of oseltamivir-resistant influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses in Australia

It is a truism that the number of individual deaths confirmed and reported as due to seasonal or pandemic influenza will represents only a proportion of the actual number of premature deaths that follow as a consequence of the virus infection.

This academic article describes virological findings and pathological consequences of a strain of influenza A(H3N8) recently identified as part of the investigations of an outbreak of pneumonia among harbour seals in New England in the autumn.

A report in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) MMWR this week describes the investigation of mild respiratory illness among swine and people at a county fair  in Indiana, USA between 8 and 14 July 2012. This is an important report as it is very clearly documents simultaneous detection of H3N2v influenza viruses in humans and swine in close contact.

This small study performed at two tertiary care teaching hospitals in New York, compares and evaluates the risk of Influenza A (H1N1) pdm09 infection among front line health care professionals and non health care professionals in the 2009 pandemic.

​​In a large community study (Flu Watch), cohorts were prospectively studied across the UK during six periods (2006-2010) with the main aim to compare the burden and the severity of seasonal and pandemic influenza across different age groups over time.