Current Status


Current United Nations Flu Pandemic Status is at Level 6

Protection Steps


How to reduce your risk of contracting swine flu:

Do not travel to areas known to be affected.

Minimize the amount of time spent on public transport especially aeroplanes.

Avoided crowded public places, especially those using recirculated air conditioned air

Wear a surgical grade face mask and ensure it is fitted correctly so that it covers your nose as well as your mouth.

Refrain from touching your mouth with your hands or fingers if they may have come into contact with surfaces contiminated with the virus.

Carefully wipe any surfaces that may have come into contact with carriers such as door handles, toilet flushers, work surfaces and telephones

Highly conserved sequences for human neutralization epitope on hemagglutinin of influenza A viruses H3N2, H1N1 and H5N1: Implication for human monoclonal antibody recognition.

Authors: Yamashita A, Kawashita N, Kubota-Koketsu R, Inoue Y, Watanabe Y, Ibrahim MS, Ideno S, Yunoki M, Okuno Y, Takagi T, Yasunaga T, Ikuta K
The epitope sequences within the hemagglutinin (HA) of influenza A virus H3N2 at amino acid residues 173-181 and 227-239 that forms anti-parallel beta-sheet structure are similarly recognized by human monoclonal antibodies (HuMAbs), B-1 and D-1 that we recently obtained using the peripheral blood lymphocytes from two influenza-vaccinated volunteers. Both HuMAbs showed strong global neutralization of H3N2 strains. Here we show the significant conservation of the beta-sheet region consisting of the above-mentioned two epitope regions in H3N2. In addition, we also identified the corresponding regions with similar structure in other subtypes such a...

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