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The article presents an editorial commentary on the paper "Predominant role of bacterial pneumonia as a cause of death in pandemic influenza: implications for pandemic influenza preparedness," by D. M. Morens and colleges. The paper reviews 109 published autopsy series from the 1918 pandemic. According to the author, the findings are striking in the context of modern conceptions of the 1918 pandemics: the great majority of deaths could be attributed to secondary bacterial pneumonia.

The article discusses the recent advances and future challenges in dealing with filoviruses, previewing the papers published within the issue. According to the authors, the fact that Marburg and Ebola viruses are highly pathogenic for humans and nonhuman primates makes these viruses feared pathogens worldwide today. They note that the collection of papers in within the issue focuses on these viruses. Among others, the papers bring up to date information on the mechanisms of how filoviruses emerge and re-emerge, and the molecular mechanisms of how these viruses replicate and cause disease.

The article presents information on the December 2005 issue of the "Journal of Infectious Diseases." The issue presents papers from 2 large multicenter studies of vertical transmission of hepatitis C virus (HCV). The studies are complementary and have largely similar findings. The most interesting observation from the European study is that HCV infection was twice as frequent among female than male infants. It is perplexing that the European investigators provide little information to help interpret the sex differences they observe and emphasize in the title of their paper.