News & Perspective

The world needs much better influenza vaccines, but the quest for them faces a formidable barrier: overconfidence about the effectiveness of existing influenza vaccines.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently awarded a new round of contracts to the five US-licensed influenza vaccine manufacturers to make pre-pandemic and pandemic influenza vaccines—projects that could be worth billions of dollars if another pandemic arises in the next few years.

(CIDRAP News) – During the 2009 influenza pandemic, clinicians were frustrated by the lack of useful diagnostic tests, the government had no national system for monitoring stress on healthcare facilities, and there was some duplication in federal media campaigns.

(CIDRAP News) – A report released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) offers yet another review of lessons from the federal government's response to the H1N1 influenza pandemic while detailing how the government spent, and is still spending, $6.15 billion that was appropriated for the response.

Editor's note: This story was revised Mar 17 to include additional information about the number of claims filed and processing steps.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has so far received 386 claims of injuries related to the 2009 pandemic H1N1 vaccine and related pandemic countermeasures, HHS officials reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – Although antiviral drugs were used to treat many seriously sick people during the H1N1 influenza pandemic, experts at a conference today said they could have been used more widely and that some opportunities to learn from their use were missed.