Grenoble, à La Maison des Sciences de l'Homme-Alpes.
| 14h00 - 15h00 |
François Balloux, Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge The molecular epidemiology of the ongoing 2009 A/H1N1 influenza pandemic More information on the Francois Balloux website |
|---|---|
| 15h00 - 15h30 | Pause café |
| 15h30 - 16h30 |
Flora Jay, TIMC-IMAG
Ludovic Orlando, IGFL |
| 16h30 - 17h00 | Discussion générale |
Francois Balloux, Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge
The molecular epidemiology of the ongoing 2009 A/H1N1 influenza pandemic
As the first pandemic of the 21st century, the 2009 influenza A/H1N1 outbreak acts as a timely reminder of the looming threat posed by emerging infectious diseases. Indeed, the worldwide spread of a new deadly pathogen with sustained human-to-human transmission is one of the most worrying public health scenarios. Early containment based on robust scientific evidence is recognised as our best hope to avert a catastrophic situation if faced with the global spread of a deadly pathogen. To be most effective, prophylactic interventions must be implemented early on and will be based on only very preliminary scientific evidence. In this talk, I will first put the 2009 influenza virus in perspective of previous seasonal and pandemic flu epidemics. I will then present the early assessment of the severity of the pandemic that formed some of the key material used by the World Health Organisation to deal with the pandemic during the initial stages. Finally, I will introduce a novel method to reconstruct the spatiotemporal dynamics of disease outbreaks from sequence data.
