Predictive fitness model for influenza: Physics, computer science help find clues on flu evolution
Thursday, February 27, 2014 - 09:02
in Health & Medicine
A new model to successfully predict the evolution of the influenza virus from one year to the next has been created by researchers. This advance in our understanding of influenza suggests a new, systematic way to select influenza vaccine strains. The flu is one of the major infectious diseases in humans. Seasonal strains of the influenza A virus account for about half a million deaths per year. Because influenza is a fast-evolving pathogen, the selection of optimal vaccines is a challenging global health issue. The scientists used ideas from physics and computer science in their approach to finding clues about the predictable versus random part of the flu evolution.
