(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.
(CIDRAP News) Global production of the H1N1 influenza vaccine has made clear that the world still has a long way to go to meet pandemic production capacity goals set by the World Health Organization (WHO) 4 years ago, WHO experts said in a report released this week.
(CIDRAP News) In the wake of a pandemic vaccine that came too little and too late to blunt the second wave of pandemic flu infections last fall, President Barack Obama's science advisory group today presented a set of recommendations on how to more quickly produce a vaccine in the face of another novel flu outbreak or other public health emergency.
(CIDRAP News) If the trajectory of public opinion during the H1N1 influenza pandemic is any guide, safety worries and doubts about the severity of the disease threat may cause a good share of the public to shun vaccination the next time a pandemic emerges, according to a review of 10 months' worth of polls.
(CIDRAP News) The World Health Assembly (WHA), the decision-making arm of the World Health Organization (WHO), opened in Geneva today with director-general Dr Margaret Chan praising the accomplishments of global partners with diseases such as smallpox and polio but noting that health officials got lucky with the pandemic H1N1 virus because it has not overwhelmed medical systems and is a good match with the vaccine.
(CIDRAP News) Low levels of flu activity across the United States resemble a summer pattern, while globally only sporadic pandemic flu activity is occurring with the most active areas in parts of the Caribbean and Central America, according to updates today.
(CIDRAP News) An influenza expert who formerly headed the World Health Organization's (WHO's) flu program and now works for Novartis has suggested developing a prepandemic vaccine to get the jump on the next flu pandemican idea that other experts are greeting with caution or skepticism.
(CIDRAP News) A preliminary study from Germany suggests that an adjuvanted vaccine against the pandemic H1N1 virus was highly effective in adolescents and younger adults and moderately effective in older people, according to a report published yesterday in Eurosurveillance.
May 6, 2010
