Influenza Research. EU funded projects 2001-2007

Every year seasonal influenza is thought to be responsible for more than 500 000 deaths worldwide. In addition,
major changes in the surface antigens of the circulating viruses have the potential to lead to much more dangerous
pandemic outbreaks, such as the 'Spanish Flu' which took more than 50 million lives in 1918-1919. Birds are natural
reservoirs of influenza viruses and highly pathogenic variants of these avian influenza viruses (HPAI) can cause
rapidly spreading epizoonotics in poultry populations, leading to high economic losses. The increasing number of
human infections with an H5N1 HPAI virus makes pandemic influenza a paradigm of the potential health threat
that emerging infectious diseases pose to the world.

The present catalogue assembles 38 projects funded between 2001 and 2007 mostly through the European Commission’s Framework Programmes for Research, but also through its Public Health Programmes. It demonstrates the scope and long term track record of EU research funding in this field, as well as its rapid response to the more recent developments. The inclusion of both animal and human health projects underlines the importance of interdisciplinary cooperation in the area of zoonoses and emerging infectious diseases.

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