Modelling the biology and transmission of influenza virus - learning from 1918-19 and other outbreaks

Funded Activity Summary

In preparing for a future pandemic of influenza, it is important to learn as much as possible from what happened in the past, particularly from the devastating pandemic of 1918-19. This project will collate detailed information about the spread of influenza in past outbreaks and create a publicly accessible data-base. Mathematical methods will be used to analyse historic and contemporary data, so as to provide better understanding of the spread of influenza, and of the likely effects of social and medical measures for its control. An important theme of the project is to consolidate our knowledge about how past exposure to non-pandemic influenza could provide short-lived protection against any new pandemic, and to explore the implications of this for prevention today. Another theme is to explore the severity of influenza during pandemics, and to identify social and medical factors that might reduce the dose of virus transmitted, or otherwise reduce the severity of infection. The insights from the modeling will also help to identify gaps in knowledge and understanding about the basic biology of influenza, stimulate new research to fill those gaps, and thus offer the prospect of more effective vaccines and treatments for the future control of influenza.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2006

End Date: 01-01-2007

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Strategic Awards

Funding Amount: $114,222.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Public Health and Health Services

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Ecology | Epidemiology | Mathematicl modelling | Pandemic influenza | Viral Transmission

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