Pandemic Influenza

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) plans to issue a report in January on ethical issues raised by pandemic influenza planning, such as how to provide fair access to available drugs and vaccines, WHO officials said today after 2 days of meetings in Geneva.

More than 30 leading experts on pandemic flu, ethics, and public health attended the meetings Oct 24 and 25, WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said at a news teleconference today.

(CIDRAP News) – Americans are overwhelmingly willing to cut back their activities to help cope with an influenza pandemic, but many worry that they would have money problems if they had to miss as few as 7 days of work, according to a survey from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH).

(CIDRAP News) –Warning that the world is billions of doses short of the amount of vaccine needed to prepare for an influenza pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) today called for an urgent and coordinated international effort to make up the deficit.

(CIDRAP News) – Government researchers reported this week that they have developed a vaccine that protects mice from the deadly 1918 "Spanish flu" virus, demonstrating that immunization against it is possible.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued new guidance calling for stronger respiratory protection for healthcare workers in the event of an influenza pandemic.

(CIDRAP News) – Low doses of a cell-based avian flu vaccine triggered a good immune response to the H5N1 avian influenza virus, according to preliminary results of a clinical trial by Baxter International of Deerfield, Ill., maker of the vaccine.

(CIDRAP News) – The human immune system may respond better to a vaccine for a new strain of H5N1 avian influenza if it is prepared in advance with a vaccine based on an existing H5N1 strain, the preliminary results of a government-sponsored study suggest.

(CIDRAP News) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) plans to fund eight studies on whether simple measures such as handwashing, "cough etiquette," and face masks could help limit the extent of the next influenza pandemic.

The CDC announced this week it would provide a total of $5.2 million to research institutions, some outside the United States, to assess nonpharmaceutical measures for battling pandemic flu.

(CIDRAP News) – Public health and infectious disease experts today called on the United States to develop a "master plan" for development of pandemic influenza vaccines in order to translate scientific advances more rapidly into improved pandemic preparedness.

(CIDRAP News) – A microbiologist who reviewed the evidence about how influenza viruses spread says that some official guidelines, including the US pandemic influenza plan, may not go far enough in protecting healthcare workers who take care of flu patients.