Here are answers to questions send to virology blog about the new strain of influenza H1N1 that is spreading globally. Q: Regarding this marker (PB1-F2) - is it something that was present as well in the early wave of the 1918 virus, which was also considered mild up until August, ...

I found the following animation on YouTube depicting replication of an H1N1 influenza virus. It's entitled "Antigenic shift - the spread of a new, mutated virus". It is visually appealing but contains at least one error. If you think you know what it is, post it in the comments below.

As we discussed previously, attachment of all influenza A virus strains to cells requires sialic acids. However, there are a number of chemically different forms of sialic acids, and influenza virus strains vary in their affinity for them. These differences may determine which animal species can be infected. In the ...

In a recent press conference (transcript pdf), Dr. Keiji Fukuda of WHO made the following statement about infection with the new influenza H1N1 strains: The illness that we are seeing is generally consisting with seasonal influenza infection. That is the kind of symptoms that the milder cases are experiencing and ...

Here at virology blog we have been speculating for a week why sequences of the Mexican influenza virus isolates have not been available. Today we received a comment from Dr. Ruben Donis, who we quoted in a previous post. Dr. Donis wrote: Thank you for the nice vignette about the ScienceInsider ...