News

Closing schools for less than two weeks during a flu pandemic may increase infection rates and prolong an epidemic, according to an NIGMS-supported study.

A new NIGMS-supported study projects that the severity of the H1N1 flu during the autumn-winter flu season in the U.S. will likely be less than previously feared.

NIGMS-funded disease modelers calculate that a vaccination program that reaches 70 percent of the U.S. population would control pandemic influenza H1N1.

The Harvard School of Public Health establishes a new MIDAS Center of Excellence to model drug resistance, seasonal infectious diseases, and intervention allocation. 

MIDAS adds new research expertise to simulate disease spread, evaluate different intervention strategies and help inform public health officials and policymakers.

The latest research team to join the MIDAS effort will create models that simulate the complex interplay between human behavior and disease spread.

University of Pittsburgh researchers will develop and test computer simulations that will ultimately help public health officials evaluate intervention strategies to contain infectious disease outbreaks.

 NIGMS-supported researchers have found that small stockpiles of a secondary flu medication—if used early in local outbreaks—could extend the effectiveness of primary drug stockpiles during a global influenza pandemic.

NIGMS-funded researchers will use TeraGrid, the world's largest cyber infrastructure, to develop models projecting the spread of infectious disease.

Antiviral medications and social-distancing measures may be sufficient to mitigate a flu pandemic outbreak until a vaccine becomes available, according to a new NIGMS-supported study.

A newly released software program will let health authorities at the site of an infectious disease outbreak quickly analyze data, speeding the detection of new cases and the implementation of effective interventions. 

Researchers funded by the NIGMS Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study report that cholera could be controlled inexpensively by orally vaccinating affected populations.

Infectious-disease-modeling experts funded by NIGMS confirm that H5N1 avian influenza spread among a family in Indonesia in 2006.

Maps developed as part of the Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study funded by NIGMS are being included in a book featuring the year's best examples of geographic information system cartography.

NIGMS-supported analyses of historic data show that cities that responded rapidly to the spread of flu in 1918 cut their mortality rates. The studies help plan for future pandemics.

Researchers involved in the NIGMS Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study contributed to interim guidance for slowing a pandemic flu outbreak.

Antiviral drugs are effective in reducing the spread of the influenza virus among family members, report researchers funded by an NIGMS MIDAS grant.

NIGMS-supported researchers develop a computer model to study how pandemic flu might spread in the United States and to test the effectiveness of possible intervention strategies.

New research from scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and the University of Washington in Seattle suggests that containment can buy time to prepare, but containment alone is not enough to stop a flu pandemic from occurring.

A Harvard–led research team was today awarded one of four new national Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study (MIDAS) grants from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS).

NIGMS has awarded $1.5 million over the next five years to a research team at the University of California, Irvine, to develop computer-based simulations of pandemic flu and other infectious disease outbreaks.