From February 5-9, 2018, MISMS staff taught a hands-on workshop in Dubai, UAE for participants coming from multiple countries in South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh. The course included time-series analysis, R, disease modeling, phylogenetic analysis, and opportunities for participants to study their own data. Many of the participants were part of the […]
MISMS researchers identify the cause of sloth bear deaths at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, DC: human-to-bear transmission of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza A virus. Full article. Impacts An infection of a sloth bear with the pH1N1 (2009) influenza A virus is confirmed for the first time. Human origin of infection is strongly suspected. […]
MISMS researchers analyzed fine-grain insurance claims data on influenza-like-illnesses over eight seasons in ~300 locations throughout the United States. Using statistical methods, they found that seven of eight epidemics likely originated in the Southern US, that influenza spatial transmission is dominated by local traffic between cities, and that seasons marked by novel influenza virus circulation had […]
6th ANISE (African Network for Influenza Surveillance and Epidemiology) Meeting Antananarivo, Madagascar November 13 to 17, 2017 at Hotel Carlton Please register and submit your abstract on-line (due August 15) to the meeting website: www.anise-network.org The agenda is in progress, but we plan to hold plenary sessions from November 13- 15 and training workshops […]
Big data derived from electronic health records, social media, the internet and other digital sources have the potential to provide more timely and detailed information on infectious disease threats or outbreaks than traditional surveillance methods. A team of scientists led by MISMS researchers Cecile Viboud and Gerardo Chowell reviewed the growing body of research on the subject […]
Last week, the work of Dr Andrew Bowman, Ohio State University, was highlighted in Yahoo news. Dr Bowman has been tracking influenza viruses in US exhibition swine since 2009. In 2016, Dr Bowman co-authored two studies with MISMS researchers examining how novel viruses with pandemic potential evolve in exhibition swine. One study, published in January […]
Researchers from the Fogarty International Center, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Laboratorio Avi-Mex have used genetic sequencing to show that the 2009 global H1N1 influenza pandemic began in central Mexico, originating in pigs and spreading to humans. Mexico is not typically considered a source of novel influenza strains, and the findings demonstrate […]
