Two preclinical studies which evaluated AVI-7100 against a fully virulent pandemic H1N1 (swine flu) virus had promising results, says AVI Biopharma Inc. Data from the studies revealed statistically significant reductions in average viral titer vs. a saline control (placebo) and a Tamiflu control.

(Pre-clinical studies means studies with animals, not humans)

Global performance improvement solutions provider General Physics Corporation (GP), a subsidiary of GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE: GPX), has been selected by the Maryland Department of Public Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) to provide an After Action Report/Improvement Plan (AAR/IP) for the 2009 response to the H1N1 virus. GP will collect data from public health entities in order to gauge the overall response to the H1N1 outbreak and lessons learned, for DHMH to evaluate and consider for future pandemic response.

The recent pandemic-causing H1N1 flu virus used a new biochemical trick to spread efficiently in humans, according to an international team of scientists. The details, published August 5 in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens, expand the repertoire of known factors flu viruses can use to hijack a host cell and amplify infection in mammals, including humans.

Associate Professor Vicki Clifton from the University's Robinson Institute says asthma affects a significant number of pregnancies (16% of pregnancies in South Australia) but women are often not identified as asthmatic.

In response to the H1N1 flu, most employees at U.S. businesses say their company took measures to protect them from illness, such as encouraging sick employees to stay home, according to a national poll of employees by researchers from the Harvard Opinion Research Program at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). Smaller, but notable, percentages of employees reported that their company took other actions such as creating back-up systems for employees to cover each others' work and expanding leave policies.

Now Dr. Bart Legutki, a researcher at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University has pioneered a method for profiling the immune system, using clues provided by antibody activity to track an individual's state of health.

Dr Adrian Barnett from QUT's IHBI (Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation) said the numbers showed that winters in Australia posed a greater risk to health than winters in cold northern European countries such as Finland and Sweden.