The European Vaccine Manufacturers group (EVM) welcomed the opportunity to address today’s Council of Europe Health Committee hearing on ‘The handling of the H1N1 pandemic: more transparency needed?’ EVM was pleased to provide information on industry’s role in helping combat pandemic influenza, and sought to address many of the misunderstandings that exist regarding the pandemic planning process…
ILI rate: The Department of Health & Children and the HSE advised yesterday that the rate of influenza-like illness (ILI) for the week ending Sunday 24th January 2010 (week 3, 2010), was 12.2 per 100,000 population. This is a decrease from the 16.6 per 100,000 population reported during week 2, 2010. Age-specific ILI rates: During week 3, 2010, sentinel GPs reported an ILI rate of 6…
WHO spokesman, Gregory Hartl, said in a new briefing that the H1N1 flu pandemic (swine flu) continues to spread in parts of eastern and southeastern Europe, parts of Asia, and North Africa. However, he added that globally it is generally declining. The H1N1 pandemic virus continues to be the main influenza virus circulating globally…
Published reports on the usefulness of CT scans for complicated H1N1 cases have spurred use of these procedures in U.S. hospitals. According to healthcare market research publisher Kalorama Information, this opens up a pathway of diagnostics for physicians and overall is a positive sign not only for the technology but also for companies making chemical agents for procedures…
A mandatory influenza vaccination policy improves immunization rates among health care workers, according to a recent study of a large health care organization. The finding comes from a study, now available online, published in the February 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases…
The Government of Canada announced it will make a donation of five million doses of the H1N1 flu vaccine, as well as a $6 million contribution to support the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global pandemic relief efforts. The five million vaccine doses amount to 10% of Canada’s total vaccine order, a donation which is in line with that of other developed countries…
A study that looked at how people behave during pandemics has identified key demographic and psychological factors that may predict protective behaviours. The study is published online, in the British Journal of Health Psychology…
The Swine Flu Vaccination programme is moving into its final phase, where Swine Flu vaccine is being made available to the general population through HSE Clinics nationwide. Anyone in the target groups* who has not yet been vaccinated is advised to come to a HSE clinic for their vaccine before March 31st…
Providing preventive Tamiflu and educating and emphasizing the need for repeated hand sanitizer use and disinfectant spray helped stop the spread of H1N1 influenza at a boys’ summer camp in northern Alabama, according the co-director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. David Kimberlin, M.D…
Vaccination against seasonal influenza is safe and produces a protective immune response in infants as young as 6 to 12 weeks, concludes a study in the February issue of The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal…
Antiviral drugs block influenza A viruses from reproducing and spreading by attaching to a site within a proton channel necessary for the virus to infect healthy cells, according to a research project led by Iowa State University’s Mei Hong and published in the Feb. 4 issue of the journal Nature. Hong, Iowa State’s John D. Corbett Professor of Chemistry and an associate scientist for the U.S…
Making flu shots mandatory in 2008 dramatically increased the vaccination rate among St. Louis-based BJC HealthCare’s nearly 26,000 employees to more than 98 percent, according to a report now online in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. The study’s lead author, infectious disease specialist Hilary Babcock, M.D…
ILI rate: The Department of Health & Children and the HSE advised that the rate of influenza-like illness (ILI) for the week ending Sunday 31st January 2010 (week 4, 2010), was 7.5 per 100,000 population. This is a decrease from the 12.2 per 100,000 population reported during week 3, 2010. Age-specific ILI rates: During week 4, 2010, sentinel GPs reported an ILI rate of 3…
An assistant professor with the Virginia Tech College of Engineering has won a $750,000 federal grant to formulate a mathematical framework that can track the spread of pandemics among populations and malware across wireless computer networks, as well as how a blackout occurring on one major power grid can cause a cascade of additional neighboring networks to fail. Funded by the U.S…
Sports fans attending the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and the Paralympics Games in Vancouver, Canada, in February can be winners if they make plans now to help stay healthy during their trip. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers some simple tips to help travelers share gold medal memories but not the flu at the games…
Key points: – The clinical consultation rate for influenza – not necessarily swine flu – in Wales during the week ending 31 January fell to 3.5 cases of flu-like illness diagnosed by GPs out of every 100,000 people in Wales. It was 4.8 per 100,000 in the previous week. Current levels of flu in Wales are below the usual level for this time of year…
A viral e-mail currently making the rounds between private accounts and public message boards warning of a danger posed by mixing over-the-counter medications Motrin and Robitussin is unfounded…
Australia’s Chief Medical Officer, Professor Jim Bishop, is calling on GPs to promote vaccination against the pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza to their patients before the flu season begins in Australia …
SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCLN) and its partner Sigma-Tau S.p.A., announced additional topline results in a clinical study evaluating the potential of ZADAXIN® (thymalfasin) to enhance immune response to the MF59 adjuvanted H1N1 influenza monovalent vaccine, Focetria™ from Novartis…
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute have signed a license agreement with Genentech, a wholly owned member of the Roche group, and Roche, that grants the companies exclusive rights to manufacture, develop and market human monoclonal antibodies to treat and protect against group 1 influenza viruses…
A daily update on swine flu issued by the National Public Health Service for Wales. Spread and extent of the outbreak (information as at 5pm on 15 December) The NPHS influenza surveillance scheme, which records reports of diagnoses of flu from more than 300 GP practices across Wales, shows that the rate of influenza consultation is decreasing. Further detail can be found on the NPHS website…
Sixty-four percent of the advisers hired by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2007 to serve on panels evaluating cervical cancer and flu vaccines had potential conflicts of interest that were unresolved or were not identified by the agency, according to a new report by HHS Inspector General Daniel Levinson, the New York Times reports…
Researchers in Brazil who carried out the first autopsy study of victims who died of H1N1 swine flu to establish the precise causes of death, have discovered some new patterns of the disease. Their research appears as a paper in the 1 January 2010 print issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved Fluzone High-Dose, an inactivated influenza virus vaccine for people ages 65 years and older to prevent disease caused by influenza virus subtypes A and B. People in this age group are at highest risk for seasonal influenza complications, which may result in hospitalization and death…
