H1N1 Influenza Research Updates
NIAID researchers are among the leaders of the federal response to H1N1 influenza. NIAID is conducting:
- basic research to understand influenza viruses
- surveillance of flu viruses worldwide
- clinical trials of H1N1 vaccines, including at-risk groups
- research to improve diagnostic tools
- clinical trials to evaluate treatments for people with severe H1N1 influenza illness
Read about NIAID's 2009 H1N1 Research Program.
H1N1 Clinical Studies
In August, 2009 NIAID began a series of clinical trials to evaluate new vaccines to prevent and decrease the severity of H1N1 influenza virus infection. Through the summer and fall, NIAID is collecting and analyzing information from thousands of volunteers at medical facilities across the country.
Several trials are determining how many doses of H1N1 vaccine are needed to induce a potentially protective immune response in a variety of populations, including healthy adults, the elderly, children, pregnant woman, people with asthma, and people with HIV. Other trials seek to measure vaccine safety and immune response of volunteers who are given the seasonal flu vaccine before, after, or concurrently with the H1N1 vaccine.
The NIAID trials are designed to support public health decisions about vaccination schedules for different groups, including special populations that are not often included in clinical trials for flu vaccines.
These trials are analyzing responses to injected vaccines containing inactivated influenza virus. Vaccines containing live, attenuated virus delivered in a nasal spray are not being assessed by NIAID at this time.
Safety data is collected and monitored closely by the study investigators and an independent safety monitoring committee.
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