Influenza News

April 25, 2024

Top Headlines

Vaccine Breakthrough Means No More Chasing Strains

Apr. 15, 2024 — Scientists at UC Riverside have demonstrated a new, RNA-based vaccine strategy that is effective against any strain of a virus and can be used safely even by babies or the ...

New Drug Prevents Flu-Related Inflammation and Lung Damage

Apr. 10, 2024 — Findings show a newly created drug can prevent runaway inflammation while still allowing the immune system to handle the virus, even when given late into ...

Humans Pass More Viruses to Other Animals Than We Catch from Them

Mar. 25, 2024 — Humans pass on more viruses to domestic and wild animals than we catch from them, according to a major new analysis of viral ...

How Children's Birthdays Help Show the Best Month for Flu Shots

Feb. 22, 2024 — First large-scale analysis of optimal timing for flu shots finds October is the best month for children to get vaccinated against influenza. Study of 800,000 pediatrician visits leverages links between children's birth month, annual physical ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:42pm EDT

Metabolic Health Before Vaccination Determines Effectiveness of Anti-Flu Response

Apr. 18, 2024 — The annual influenza vaccine has become less effective on average over time. One reason may be reduced vaccine efficacy in people with obesity than ...

Just Ask: Patients in the ER Are Willing to Get a Flu Shot

Mar. 26, 2024 — Simply asking patients to get the flu vaccine, and combining it with helpful video and print messages, is enough to persuade many who visit emergency departments to roll up their sleeves, according ...

Addressing Both Flu and COVID-19 Through a Single, Multitasking Injection

Mar. 18, 2024 — Researchers have identified new drug candidates for preventing and treating major respiratory viral ...

New Antibodies Target 'Dark Side' of Influenza Virus Protein

Mar. 1, 2024 — Researchers have identified antibodies targeting a hard-to-spot region of the influenza virus, shedding light on the relatively unexplored 'dark side' of the neuraminidase (NA) protein head. The ...

'Hexaplex' Vaccine Aims to Boost Flu Protection

Feb. 26, 2024 — A research team has developed a recombinant protein flu vaccine candidate. It utilizes a nanoliposome vaccine platform that underwent phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trials in South Korea and the ...

Scientists Discover Hidden Army of Lung Flu Fighters

Feb. 14, 2024 — Scientists have long thought of the fluid-filled sac around our lungs merely as a cushion from external damage. Turns out, it also houses potent virus-eating cells that rush into the lungs during flu ...

Interactions Between Flu Subtypes Predict Epidemic Severity More Than Virus Evolution

Feb. 13, 2024 — Researchers have shed new light on how viral evolution, population immunity, and the co-circulation of other flu viruses shape seasonal flu ...

Flu Virus Variants Resistant to New Antiviral Drug Candidate Lose Pathogenicity

Feb. 6, 2024 — Influenza A viruses with induced resistance to a new candidate antiviral drug were found to be impaired in cell culture and weakened in animals, ...

Virus Ancestry Could Aid Bid to Predict Next Pandemic, Study Finds

Feb. 5, 2024 — Virus family history could help scientists identify which strains have potential to become the so-called Disease X that causes the next global ...

'Exhalation' System Improves Symptoms for Most Common Form of Chronic Sinus Infections

Jan. 18, 2024 — An exhalation delivery system that uses a patient's own breath to carry the anti-inflammatory compound fluticasone (EDS-FLU) directly to the sinuses ...

Changes in Flu Circulation Means U.S. Likely to See Vaccines Move from Quadrivalent to Trivalent

Feb. 29, 2024 — U.S. flu vaccines are likely to move from quadrivalent to trivalent due to a change in circulating influenza viruses, according to a new ...

Flu Vaccines Were Effective in 2022-2023 Flu Season, Studies Find

Feb. 19, 2024 — The prospect of the worrisome triple threat of COVID, RSV and flu was assuaged last year by the effectiveness of flu vaccines. Two recent studies from the Centers for Disease Control and ...

New Vaccine Design Uses Immunity Against Influenza to Offer Faster Protection Against Emerging Pathogens

Jan. 17, 2024 — Imagine a vaccine that speeds up the production of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that spreads COVID-19. A research team has developed such a vaccine by using preexisting immunity to a ...

Experiments in Infant Mice Suggest New Way to Prevent Spread of Flu in People

Jan. 11, 2024 — Scientists have long known that some viruses and bacteria begin infections by latching first onto sugar molecules on the surfaces of cells lining the sinuses and throat of mammals, including humans. ...

New Type of Antibody Shows Promise Against Multiple Forms of Flu Virus

Dec. 21, 2023 — Researchers have identified a previously unrecognized class of antibodies -- immune system proteins that protect against disease -- that appear capable of neutralizing multiple forms of flu virus. ...

'Long Flu' Has Emerged as a Consequence Similar to Long COVID

Dec. 15, 2023 — New research comparing the viruses that cause the flu and COVID-19 shows that people hospitalized with seasonal influenza also can suffer long-term, negative health effects, especially involving ...

Child Care Centers Aren't a Likely Source of COVID-19 Spread, Study Says

Nov. 27, 2023 — Parents who send their children to child care can breathe a little easier. New research shows that children in daycare were not significant spreaders of ...

Antiviral Treatment Is Largely Underused in Children With Influenza, Study Findings Show

Nov. 13, 2023 — Despite national medical guidelines supporting the use of antiviral medications in young children diagnosed with influenza, a new study reports an underuse of the ...

Survey Finds Many Americans Are Letting Their Guard Down During Respiratory Illness Season

Nov. 13, 2023 — Despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warning this year will be potentially dangerous for respiratory illnesses, a third of Americans are not concerned about the threat, according to ...

Next-Generation Influenza B Vaccines Provide Broad and Long-Lasting Protection Against Flu Viruses in Preclinical Tests

Oct. 31, 2023 — Recent preclinical results indicate novel next-generation vaccine candidates protect against multiple strains of influenza and last longer than vaccines currently in ...

Coronavirus: Model Can Predict the Evolution of New COVID Variants

Oct. 24, 2023 — Researchers have developed a model that predicts the likely evolution of variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The model predicts which variants can escape human immunity, spread through the population ...

Evidence from the Remains of 1918 Flu Pandemic Victims Contradicts Long-Held Belief That Healthy Young Adults Were Particularly Vulnerable

Oct. 10, 2023 — New analysis of the remains of victims of the 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide, contradicts the widespread belief the flu disproportionately impacted ...

To Prepare for Next Pandemic, Researchers Tackle Bird Flu

Sep. 29, 2023 — Researchers have developed an improved way to test potential vaccines against bird ...

Flu: Interferon-Gamma from T Follicular Helper Cells Is Required to Create Lung-Resident Memory B Cells

Sep. 13, 2023 — During a bout of influenza, B cells interact with other immune cells and then take different paths to defend the body. One path is the B cells that differentiate into lung-resident memory B cells, or ...

Climate Change Can Alter the Risk of Succumbing to Infectious Diseases

Sep. 11, 2023 — A new Europe-wide study investigated the prevalence of protozoans, bacteria and viruses potentially pathogenic to humans and domestic animals in birds and bats in varying climatic conditions. The ...

Bird Flu Is Undergoing Changes That Could Increase the Risk of Widespread Human Transmission

Sep. 5, 2023 — A new study has shown that a subtype of avian flu virus, endemic in poultry farms in China, is undergoing mutational changes, which could increase the risk of the disease being passed on to ...

Immune Cells Present Long Before Infection Predict Flu Symptoms

Aug. 17, 2023 — Scientists found that immune cells present in individuals long before influenza infection predict whether the illness is ...

Molecules in Vegetables Can Help to Ease Lung Infection

Aug. 16, 2023 — Researchers have found that molecules in vegetables like broccoli or cauliflower help to maintain a healthy barrier in the lung and ease ...

Influenza Shows No Seasonality in Tropics, Posing Challenges for Health Care

Aug. 4, 2023 — In temperate climates, like North America and Europe, flu season starts in the fall, peaks in the winter and ends in the spring. While public health officials have generally assumed that influenza is ...

Mutation Accessibility Fuels Influenza Evolution

July 28, 2023 — Scientists showed that fixed mutations within a viral population most likely stem from how easy it is to acquire that mutation (i.e., mutation accessibility) rather than just its ...