The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is funding two projects to aid in developing better seasonal flu vaccines and in improving pandemic flu preparedness, the agency said in a news release yesterday.
Both the H3N2 and B strains will differ in next year's Southern Hemisphere trivalent flu vaccine.
Uptake increased a bit in adults and in health workers but dropped among pregnant women.
If approved, the Novartis product would be the nation's first boosted flu vaccine.
Nigeria reported six new outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu affecting more than 28,000 chickens, bringing to 12 the number of outbreaks reported this month, according to separate reports filed yesterday with the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
An end-of-season analysis on how seasonal flu vaccines performed in the United Kingdom has found low effectiveness, not much different than the midseason estimate, researchers reported today in Eurosurveillance.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today that 56 more illnesses have been reported in a multistate Salmonella Poona outbreak linked to cucumbers imported from Mexico, raising the total so far to 341 cases.
Treatment with antiviral drugs early in the course of hospitalization for influenza in elderly patients is associated with a shorter hospital stay and a lower risk for extended care after discharge, according to a study yesterday in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
A side-by-side look at MERS-CoV and SARS infection patterns shows differences and some similarities, according to a study presented this week at the International Conference on Emerging and Infectious Diseases (ICEID) in Atlanta.
The US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) yesterday announced two actions to help prepare for a potential return of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) to US flocks: a request for proposals for vaccines to equip the National Veterinary Stockpile and a notification that it will publish an environment assessment on vaccinating poultry.
