Nearly 850 HIV federal colleagues staff and grantees participated in a webinar on Wednesday, September2, “H1N1 Preparedness & HIV” for the HIV community.

Dr. Elizabeth Higgs, Deputy Branch Chief of the Collaborative Clinical Research Branch at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, spoke about their work around H1N1 and HIV. She told the participants that “the job of NIH is to help provide the data that comes from research to support pandemic preparedness. At NIAID we’ve been partnering with colleagues in HHS and focusing on three broad areas — vaccines, better understanding or pathogenesis of the illness, and trying to think through research for novel antiviral approaches.”

Next Tuesday’s post will provide a more thorough review of the webinar, along with the transcripts and audio recording. In the meantime, to learn more about NIAID’s activities around H1N1, please visit their H1N1 Influenza Research Program website. The CDC also has a podcast, hosted by Dr. John Brooks, who also participated in the webinar, where he discusses Novel H1N1 Flu and HIV-Infected Adults and Adolescents.

We encourage you to visit these resources, along with the following ones that were mentioned during the webinar:

• Flu.gov
• Flu.gov on TwitterExit Disclaimer
• What Adults with HIV Infection Should Know About the Novel H1N1 Flu (formerly called swine flu)
• Interim Guidance-HIV-Infected Adults and Adolescents: Considerations for Clinicians Regarding Novel Influenza A (H1N1) Virus