Related links for ‘Big Picture: Influenza’ special issue
A series of links to useful content about swine flu and related issues
Swine flu – everything you need to know
Government health and travel advice and more information on what swine flu is, what to do if you think you have it and what is being done to help combat it.
Guide to swine flu
NHS advice broken up into useful sections.
Swine flu: what you need to know
A ‘New Scientist’ article about swine flu.
Pandemic (H1N1) 2009
A World Health Organization guide to swine flu, including FAQs, statements and guidance documents.
Q&A: advice about swine flu
BBC News ‘medical notes’ advice on swine flu.
Centre of the Cell interactive influenza epidemic game
Assume the role of Minister of Health and stop a new flu virus from spreading.
Flu Wiki
Documenting the current flu outbreak with a wiki that anyone can edit.
Live swine flu Tweet map
Read what is being tweeted about swine flu around the world.
Spotlight on influenza
Working with a number of UK and international partners, the Wellcome Trust has responded to the emergence of a number of influenza events by initiating a number of influenza-related activities in order to identify and facilitate priority research.
PiggiFlu is coming
An interactive classroom activity from UPD8.
Computer simulation captures immune response to flu
An article from ‘Science Daily’, 20 May 2009.
Lead image:A model of the H1N1 virus, which causes ‘swine flu’. The name H1N1 refers to the types of haemagglutinin and neuraminidase proteins on the surface of the virus. There are roughly ten times as many haemagglutinin proteins (red) as neuraminidase (yellow). In the centre is the single-stranded viral RNA (purple).
Anna Tanczos/Wellcome Images CC BY NC ND
Related resources
The virus unmasked
The influenza A virus is deceptively simple – at its core are eight short single strands of RNA, the coding material for up to 14 proteins
Out of control?
Influenza epidemics are almost impossible to contain; the priority quickly becomes minimising their impact
Drugs for influenza
Influenza can be tackled with antiviral drugs, though they have their limitations