News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – A large study of narcolepsy background rates in six European countries before and after 2009 H1N1 pandemic vaccine campaigns confirmed increases in Finland and Sweden—the two countries that first reported the problem—but also detected a rise in Denmark.

(CIDRAP News) – The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) today confirmed a link between narcolepsy and pandemic 2009 H1N1 vaccination in children in Finland and Sweden, the two countries that originally reported a problem with the vaccine.

(CIDRAP News) – Two research groups today reported rare cases of pandemic 2009 H1N1 coinfections with seasonal influenza strains, including a cluster in Cambodia and two patients from Italy's Veneto region.

(CIDRAP News) – Preliminary studies suggest that this year's trivalent seasonal flu vaccine used in Europe was less effective against the 2009 H1N1 virus than last year's monovalent H1N1 vaccine was, possibly because of some degree of mutation in the virus, according to recent reports in Eurosurveillance.

(CIDRAP News) – Influenza activity persists at medium to high levels in most European Union countries but is showing signs of decreasing, according to the latest report from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).