Influenza: achievements and challenges An historical snapshot

Abstract

I have worked with influenza over a period of 40 years and, with each passing year, I have become more aware of its impact and more intrigued by the fascinating biology and natural history of the causative viruses. Influenza wasn?t my first experience in virology, having worked initially in a poliomyelitis vaccine R&D programme following the introduction of Salk vaccine into Australia by Val Bazeley. I had something of a jaundiced view when my next project was to assist in applying the virus dissociation methods of Laver & Webster to the production of an improved, less reactogenic influenza vaccine. Although William Farr had alerted the medical profession as early as 1847 to the excess mortality associated with influenza outbreaks, like many others, I regarded influenza as little more than a winter season inconvenience.