Stacey Schultz-Cherry, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
100 Years and Counting: Influenza Continues to Stump Us
This year will mark the 100th anniversary of the 1918 influenza pandemic. What have we learned during this time? What questions still remain? Is influenza still a threat and if so, what/who/where should we be focusing our surveillance efforts? And what’s up with our vaccine? Is it possible to create a universal flu vaccine? In this talk, Dr. Schultz-Cherry will present a brief background on influenza viruses, introduce the audience to influenza surveillance including the CEIRS and WHO networks, discuss influenza vaccines, and present new work on how changes in the host population could impact influenza disease severity, transmission and thwart the production of more effective vaccines.