The high-dose flu vaccine is 38% more effective in protecting elderly people against laboratory-confirmed influenza than the standard-dose vaccine, according to a study of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) senior patients published yesterday in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
China has reported the world's first known novel H7N4 avian flu infection in a human, according to a report today from Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP), which based its information on a notification from the mainland's National Health and Family Planning Commission.
China has reported another H7N9 avian flu infection, marking only the third case of the sixth wave of illness activity that began in October, according to a report today from Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP).
Half of EU nations report that only a third of older adults are vaccinated against flu.
Protection against the H3N2 strain was 17%—and not statistically significant.
The risk of heart attack increases sixfold in the first 7 days after lab-confirmed flu in adults 35 and older.
A large longitudinal study of an elderly population in Taiwan found that flu vaccination reduced the risk of tuberculosis (TB) infection by 18%. Earlier studies, including animal ones, have hinted that flu vaccination might protect against a range of pathogens, including TB, due to activation of T-cell mediated immunity. A team from Taiwan reported the findings yesterday in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health (MOH) said yesterday a woman from the village of Al Qaryat died from MERS-CoV.
The 60-year-old Saudi woman's MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) case was announced last week. Her infection source was listed as "primary," meaning it was unlikely she contracted the virus from another person.
Adults born from 1958 to 1979 may have experienced a drop in protection against 2009 H1N1 during the 2015-16 flu season because of priming with other H1N1 viruses during their younger years, according to a group led by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
With the threat of a US federal government shutdown at midnight today because of expiring temporary appropriations and no Congressional passage of a continuing resolution to fund the government, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a staffing contingency plan.
