News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – As researchers continue to sort out safety issues surrounding the monovalent vaccine used during the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic, two new reports focusing mainly on an adjuvanted version suggest that immunization was safe for babies born to vaccinated pregnant women and that it was linked to a small but significant risk of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) in some patients.

(CIDRAP News) – A special supplement published by Vaccine offers some new insights about historical influenza pandemics, including how different age-groups were affected in the 1889 pandemic and how the unusual age distribution of cases in the disastrous pandemic of 1918-20 changed in the ensuing years.

(CIDRAP News) – A five-country study from Europe indicates that the use of adjuvanted vaccines against the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus probably did not increase the risk of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), but the investigators could not firmly rule out a slightly greater chance of suffering the paralytic condition.

— Update #2

(CIDRAP News) – The British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) recently announced another major order of prepandemic H5N1 influenza vaccine from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), along with plans to launch a North American clinical trial of the vaccine.

(CIDRAP News) – A recently published survey of Europeans and Asians showed that, when faced with an influenza pandemic, most would avoid mass transit and limit shopping to essentials, and many would avoid other public places, including restaurants, theaters, and the workplace.

(CIDRAP News) – European countries' plans for coping with an influenza pandemic are generally good but have a number of gaps, including a lack of detail on distribution of drugs and supplies, according to an analysis published last week by The Lancet.