Influenza research

Influenza (the flu) is caused by a virus that attacks mainly the upper respiratory tract.

Influenza rapidly spreads around the world in seasonal epidemics and imposes a considerable economic burden in the form of hospital and other healthcare costs and lost productivity. Hospitalisation and deaths mainly occur in high-risk groups (children, the elderly, and the chronically ill).

It’s estimated that these annual epidemics are thought to result in between three and five million cases of severe illness and between 250,000 and 500,000 deaths every year around the world.

The threat of a major pandemic is ever present. For example, in 2009 the swine flu pandemic killed up to 500,000 people around the globe. The Spanish flu, in 1918, is estimated to have killed between 50 to 100 million people.

The Institute for Glycomics is fighting influenza virus infection through novel therapeutic approaches.