The Lancet Infectious Disease
Aug 2009  Volume 9  Number 8   Pages 455 – 520
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/issue/current

[Editor’s Note: This special themed issue of The Lancet Infectious Disease includes a number of commentaries and articles focused on influenza. We present the editorial overview here]

Leading Edge
Running faster to stay in the same place

The Lancet Infectious Diseases
For a UK based infectious diseases journal, albeit one with a global perspective, August would not, in any other year, be the obvious month for an influenza themed issue. But 2009 is not just any other year for influenza—for the first time in their careers, clinicians and researchers are facing the global challenge of an influenza pandemic. This issue also coincides with The Lancet Conference on Influenza in the Asia–Pacific to be held in Beijing, Aug 21–23, in which international experts come together to discuss various aspects of influenza research from insights on the virus, to surveillance, and, pertinently, pandemic response.