Flu season

Scientists and public health officials are increasingly using digital surveillance tools to monitor diseases and plan how to react to outbreaks. The new technology has shortened by half the amount of time it takes for public health officials to determine that an outbreak has occurred.

Sorting out the facts from the fiction around H1N1, and what we really need to be concerned about.

Fewer than ten H1N1 cases are confirmed in Africa, but health experts worry the disease may spread in the continent’s crowded slums.

Scientists who were looking for a way to annihilate the Avian flu have stumbled upon a protein that halts both the Avian and seasonal flu.

Several scientific groups are tracking the global spread of infectious diseases by monitoring Twitter, web searches, and other content online. The World’s Rhitu Chatterjee looks at the promise and challenges of disease surveillance via the internet.