Pandemic Influenza

Editor's Note: This is the first of a series of articles reviewing the world's experience with pandemic H1N1 influenza and what we've learned in the past year. Look for further installments in the days to come.

(CIDRAP News) – A year's experience with the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus has underscored the endless unpredictability of flu.

(CIDRAP News) – An international avian and pandemic flu meeting in Hanoi concluded yesterday, with health ministers and top officials from more than 70 countries agreeing on a set of strategies for responding to future disease threats.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization's (WHO's) vaccine advisory group recently agreed to keep in place its guidance on pandemic H1N1 vaccines and discussed contamination issues related to the Rotarix rotovirus vaccine.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday updated its estimates for the number of pandemic H1N1 illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths, adding another month of data and bumping up the totals slightly.

From April 2009 to Mar 13 of this year, the CDC estimates about 60 million people were infected with the pandemic H1N1 virus, about 270,000 were hospitalized, and about 12,270 died.

(CIDRAP News) – In the biggest and most detailed look yet at pandemic flu infections in pregnant women, researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today that early antiviral treatment was linked to fewer intensive care unit (ICU) admissions and that severe illnesses and deaths are more likely to occur during the third trimester.

(CIDRAP News) – A panel set up by the World Health Organization (WHO) to review its pandemic response spent the last day of its 3-day meeting yesterday hearing from an expert who denied charged that drug companies swayed response activities and said it may be premature to declare that the pandemic is over, according to media reports.

(CIDRAP News) – About one in every eight residents of Singapore became infected with novel H1N1 influenza during the 2009 pandemic's main wave there, according to blood sampling done as the outbreak proceeded, with higher infection rates among members of the military and much lower ones among healthcare workers.

(CIDRAP News) – A committee of experts appointed by the World Health Organization (WHO) convened today to begin evaluating the agency's and the world's response to the H1N1 influenza pandemic, with WHO Director-General Margaret Chan urging the group to pull no punches.