Dear Editor-in-Chief, Influenza, commonly known as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by an influenza virus (1). Symptoms can be mild to severe (2). The most common symptoms include: high fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pains, headache, coughing, sneezing, and feeling tired (1). Three of the four types of influenza viruses affect people, Type A, Type B, and Type C (3, 4). Type D ha...

Background and Aims: Each year, the influenza virus causes moderate to severe infections with a high prevalence throughout the world. Accordingly, an influenza vaccine that ensures protection with only a single dose would be a much more cost effective approach to influenza prophylaxis. Generation of Influenza non-replicating virus-like particles (VLP) in baculoviral expression system is an attr...

Background: Respiratory infections, especially viral infections, are the most prevalent infection affecting Hajj pilgrims. Commonly 3 major human influenza viruses (A/H1N1, A/H3N2, and B) are responsible for these morbidities. The present study was conducted to develop a statistical report on human influenza in Hajj pilgrims.    Methods: Nasal and throat samples were collected from 2...

Background and Aims: Influenza A viruses are important pathogens for humans especially in pandemic episodes. Two adamantane derivates, amantadine and rimantadine, are used for prophylaxis and treatment of influenza A virus infections. However, single amino acid substitutions in the M2 transmembrane domain which lead to amantadine resistance of these viruses occur at residues 26, 27, 30, 31 or 3...

results: of 655 samples, 69 (10.53%) had positive results for human influenza a virus, and 5 (0.7%) samples had positive results for influenza b. of those 69 samples with positive results for influenza a viruses, 45 (6.8%) were h3n2, and 24 (3.6%) were h1n1 subtypes. in this study most cases with positive results were less than 20 years. the sample positive included 49% males and 51% females. t...

every year, millions of moslems depart to saudi arabia from more than one hundred countries around the world for paying to hajj precept. high percentages of these pilgrims suffer from an influenza-like illness (ili). this study was designed and conducted on 32370 iranian pilgrims (36% of total number of iranian pilgrims) to evaluate the incidence of the illness and determination of influenza va...

Background: The pandemic and regional influenza outbreaks resulting from antigenic variation of influenza viruses have been the subject of numerous studies which are crucial to the preparation of the vaccine. Frequent global winter outbreaks of influenza viruses require a constant surveillance of emerging influenza variants in order to develop efficient influenza vaccine. Methods: This study wa...