(CIDRAP News) Based on an assessment of outside experts, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today that it is sticking with its current pandemic alert level, based on recurring but low-level activity in some parts of the globe and until it has more information on the Southern Hemisphere's flu season.
Jun 2, 2010
(CIDRAP News) The risk for the paralytic condition called Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) in people who received pandemic H1N1 influenza vaccine was about the same as the risk among those who receive seasonal flu shots, according to preliminary findings released today by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
(CIDRAP News) Australia's chief medical officer today renewed his advice for clinicians to suspend seasonal flu vaccination for healthy children younger than 5 after national investigations confirmed higher-than-expected rates of fever and convulsions after immunization in that age-group.
Jun 1, 2010
May 28, 2010
(CIDRAP News) A letter and commentary published this week in Emerging Infectious Diseases explore the idea that "original antigenic sin"the hypothesis that the first influenza A virus a person encounters in childhood strongly influences his or her immune responses to all related flu viruses encountered latermay explain the partial protection that older people have against the pandemic H1N1 flu virus.
(CIDRAP News) Legal issues that came into play during the H1N1 flu pandemic provided a useful look at how laws can help ease the availability of the vaccine, but in some instances can work against immunization efforts, according to a legal expert who has analyzed events that unfolded over the past year.
May 24, 2010
May 21, 2010