This page is intended to offer links to some of the many and varied resources available via the Internet concerning  the ever changing information available about a potential Avian Flu and past Influenza Pandemics. The summaries do not offer any guidance to the quality or reliability of the information contained within the linked sites. Please discuss any information you find on any Health topic with a qualified practitioner before deciding on treatment options. The Internet is dynamic so page locations may disappear or be moved with little or no notice, please contact us if you find any broken links. Alternatively, if you find a resource that is not listed here, please contact us and we will add it.

Mandy Hall, project coordinator
Eric Francis, editor

Historical

Pandemic: General history of pandemics (Wikpedia).

Influenza Pandemics: History of previous influenza pandemics (Wikpedia)

Spanish Influenza 1918 - 1919: History of the 'Spanish Flu' Pandemic 1918 -1919 (Wikpedia)

The Influenza Epidemic of 1918 and the Music of Life: Short article from a naval historian about the effect of the epidemic upon the Great Lakes Naval Station. Interesting in that it notes where the first recorded case arose.

The 1918 Influenza Pandemic: Deals with the history of the outbreak. Has lots of links to other materials.

Technical

Influenza viruses: Background scientific information on the Influenza virus including information about previous pandemic strains and why certain strains failed to become pandemic.

Federation of American Scientists: Fact sheet on Avian Influenza: Fact sheet produced by FAS regarding the danger of H5N1 virus. Rather scarily classified under Biological and Chemical Weapons section.

A review of Avian Influenza: This technical review looks at the history of avian influenza.

World Health Organization

Avian Influenza Fact Sheet: Basic fact sheet about Avian Flu and H5N1 in particular.

Avian Influenza Frequently Asked Questions: In depth FAQ's about Avian Influenza. Recently updated (Nov. 05) to show latest advice about eating poultry and poultry products.

Disease Outbreak News: Access to the latest news regarding outbreaks of disease. Page also provides access to disease outbreak news archives, (by year, disease or country). A RSS feed for notification of updates is also available from this page.

Influenza Pandemic Threat: current situation Index page for current information on the evolving threat.  

Influenza:  Index page for Influenza within the WHO site.  

Influenza Surveillance (FluNet): Details of and access to global Influenza surveillance data.

Animal Influenza Network: Details of the work that WHO carries out with regards to the collection of data with regards to animal influenza viruses.

European Union

Influenza Summary Page: Summary page for the European Union's surveillance measures with regards, in particular, infection in humans.

Avian Influenza (animals): Index page providing links to various sources of information about the control of the disease within European bird populations.

OIE: World Organization for Animal Health

OIE: World Organization for Animal Health: Home page for the 'Office International des Epizooties'. 

Disease Information: Information about outbreaks of notifiable animal diseases.  Outbreak information is accessible in a number of different ways.

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza: Technical information about the disease as it occurs in birds.

Guidelines for the control of Avian Influenza in Asia: The OIE guidelines for control of the disease in Asian flocks.

United States of America

CIDRAP: Home page of the Center For Infectious Disease Research And Policy.

CIDRAP Pandemic Influenza Overview: detailed overview of Pandemic Influenza authored by CIDRAP.  

CDC Influenza Home page: Site index covering Influenza (including pandemic and avian flu).

CDC Avian Influenza: Site index dealing specifically with Avian Flu. Offers advice on various issues.

CDC - Questions and answers on adding Pandemic Influenza to the list of quarantineable diseases: An explanation of the reasons behind the executive order concerning quarantine in an outbreak of avian influenza. Last updated in April 2005.

Pandemic Flu.gov: New official government website.

PUBMED: searchable database containing abstracts from a wide range of scientific journals. Some results will link directly to the text, others will link to abstracts only. Results available as an RSS feed.

Medline Plus: Flu: Flu information from the National Library Medicine.

United Kingdom

Please note that due to the organization of the Health Service within UK, some documents or links may only refer to arrangements for England and Wales or Scotland only. Where this is explicit in the target document or link, this will be noted.

Department of Health: Pandemic Flu:  Source page containing links to key strategy and policy documents.

Current UK Influenza Pandemic Contingency Plan: Bibliographic details and link to downloadable PDF file (581k ).

National Electronic Library for Health:  Searchable digital library created by the NHS.  Relies heavily on evidence based reviews. 

Clinical Guidelines for Patients with an Influenza like illness during an Influenza Pandemic (draft): Detailed guidelines detailing symptoms, possible outcomes, treatments. Bibliographic details including a link to a PDF document (3804k).

British Medical Journal:

British Medical Journal: Home page for the online version of the weekly journal. Subscription not necessary to access research papers. Other articles may require payment.  

BMJ Infectious Disease Topic Collection: Impressive collection of articles on various infectious diseases including influenza. Note this collection is extensive and covers other infectious diseases so it may be more efficient to use the search engine instead.

How the Media caught Tamiflu: (Nov 26 2005) An interesting review article on the press coverage of Tamiflu.

New England Journal of Medicine:

Avian Influenza A (H5N1) in Humans (Sept 29 2005) An overview and analysis of the infection to date in humans by the Writing Committee of the World Health Organization (WHO) Consultation on Human Influenza A/H5.

The Origins of Pandemic Influenza - Lessons from the 1918 Virus (Nov 24 2005) Discussion of the latest research into the 1918 Virus and the implications for modern day disease planning.

Oseltamivir Resistance during Treatment of Influenza A (H5N1) Infection (Dec 22 2005) A report of two cases where resistance to Tamiflu was found.

Nature:

Avian Flu Web Focus: A summary of current research published within Nature. Some articles are freely accessible, others are available by subscription only.  

Avian Flu Timeline: A timeline showing the development of the disease.

Complementary and Alternative Therapies: The Alternative therapy section on Flu Wiki.  Some entries go into detail concerning how the alternative therapy is thought to work with supporting links, others are simply links that go directly to another website.  Only one entry on a homeopathic remedy.

Prepare for Avian Flu: Jonathan Campbell proposes Vitamin C as a therapy for preventing complications from Avian Flu.

Avian Flu Awareness: A 'portal' page offering links to different alternate therapies.

NCH Flu Tracker: The National Center for Homeopathy's central Flu Information Page.

Genus Epidemicus: An article explaining how Homeopathic remedies are used in epidemics. Includes discussion of how they were used in the Spanish Flu of 1918.

Bird Flu: A fact sheet on Avian Influenza from Helios Labs.

Avian Influenza Fact Sheet: Produced by a Dr Gafur with no obvious commercial links.

Use of Homeopathy in the Spanish Flu Pandemic: Further article written by Dr Gafur.

Bird Flu Hype: Commentary and article tracker - critical of 'medical establishment' approach to the virus.

Kimchi: A brief news report about the value of Kimchi

BBC: Bird Flu  in depth:  BBC coverage of the disease.

BirdFlu Report.org: Site offering syndicated versions of news stories. Provenance of site, i.e. who owns it, when it was last updated not immediately clear from the front page.

Reuters AlertNet: Reuters site specializing in reporting emergencies. Searchable. Access to some content by the general public is limited. 

Above Top Secret Avian Flu Discussion Forum: Listing discussion threads dating from 2004.

NCH Flu Message Boards: Do not appear to be very active.

H5N1 - Blog focusing on Avian Flu.

Avian Flu - what we need to know - Blog focusing on Avian Flu

University of Leicester: A 'meta' page which lists links to sites around the Internet. Collected by the Information Librarian of the Clinical Sciences Library.

Flu Wiki - Large collection of information and links covering a wide range of topics.