News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – A government advisory committee yesterday endorsed the safety and immunogenicity of an adjuvant-containing H5N1 influenza vaccine proposed for inclusion in the US pandemic emergency stockpile, signaling that it could become the first adjuvanted flu vaccine to win approval in the United States.

(CIDRAP News) – In the largest study of its kind so far to assess how well 2009 H1N1 vaccines performed in the pandemic setting, new findings from seven European countries showed they provided good protection, a result that mirrors early clinical studies.

(CIDRAP News) – An independent review of the United Kingdom's response to the H1N1 pandemic gave the government good marks for the way it handled the outbreak, but said the experience yielded useful lessons for the next such health emergency, such as including break clauses in all future vaccine contracts.

(CIDRAP News) –Pandemic activity is showing early signs of peaking in some parts of North America, but is on the rise in several European countries as well as those in Central and Eastern Asia, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) today confirmed the pandemic H1N1 flu virus in a sample from a Minnesota pig, marking the first detection of the virus in pigs in the United States.

(CIDRAP News) – At an Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) symposium in Washington, DC, today on seasonal and pandemic influenza, a group of experts fielded questions from reporters on some of the new trends and emerging issues, including prepandemic strategies for H5N1 avian influenza vaccines, now that some countries are stockpiling them.

(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.