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(CIDRAP News) In its seventh annual report card on the nation's public health preparedness, the advocacy group Trust for America's Health (TFAH) praised the US response to the H1N1 influenza pandemic but also said it has exposed serious gaps in the ability to deal with public health emergencies.
As much as we'd all like to put behind us the tale of H1N1, the first influenza pandemic of this century, I'm afraid it's too soon to stamp the words "The End." What's more, I've reached a conclusion that the way we define severity—or lack thereof—is as antiquated as the egg technology we've used to produce a vaccine for 40-plus years.
Dec 14, 2009
Dec 11, 2009
(CIDRAP News) New ways of producing influenza vaccine that would free the process from long-standing problems are on the horizon, federal officials said today, but they added that scientific and regulatory hurdles will slow the products' movement past licensure and into the market.
Dec 10, 2009
(CIDRAP News) Another month's worth of data on H1N1 influenza has led federal officials to more than double their estimates of total cases, hospitalizations, and deaths and to assert that the impact on children and younger adults has been far greater than that of a typical flu season.
North Korea confirms flu outbreak
(CIDRAP News) About the same percentage of Americans were vaccinated against seasonal influenza this year as received vaccine last year, according to a survey released today that undercuts perceptions of extraordinary demand driven by pandemic-fueled awareness.
Dec 9, 2009 (CIDRAP News) In an update of a review on the role of neuraminidase inhibitors in seasonal flu prevention and treatment, the authors reversed a previous conclusion that oseltamivir (Tamiflu) prevents complications like pneumonia in healthy patients because they were unable to reconstruct the data in one of the key studies that found a benefit.
South Korea may aid North Korea's flu fight
(CIDRAP News) Researchers who analyzed H1N1 influenza hospitalization and death data from the early months of the pandemic say the fall-winter phase of the contagion may bring fewer deaths than an average flu season, barring any changes that would make the virus more virulent, but the deaths are likely to be in younger age-groups.
Dec 7, 2009
(CIDRAP News) Preliminary studies indicate that the pandemic H1N1 vaccine is just as safe as seasonal flu vaccines and is very unlikely to increase the risk of the paralytic condition that derailed the 1976 swine flu vaccination campaign, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.
Dec 4, 2009
(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization's (WHO's) top influenza expert said today it's too soon to judge whether the H1N1 influenza pandemic has passed its peak, though he acknowledged that cases are dropping in the United States and Canada.
Johns Hopkins finds resistant strain in 2 patients
