(CIDRAP News) Studies designed to tease out the benefits of seasonal influenza vaccines for elderly people have yielded conflicting results over the past few years, and now new findings suggest that the vaccine's ability to reduce the risk of pneumonia may be less than expected.
(CIDRAP News) The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said yesterday that the death rate in the United States dropped significantly from 2005 to 2006, led by a 12.8% decline in mortality related to seasonal influenza and pneumonia.
The findings were released in a 52-page preliminary report on death trends for 2006 from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.
Editor's note: This story was revised Jan 8 to correct information about the location of the test's manufacturer.
(CIDRAP News) A single test that can identify up to 12 different respiratory viruses, including three kinds of influenza, from one sample has won the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) approval.
(CIDRAP News) Predicting that this year's supply of influenza vaccine will be the largest ever, national health officials today called on healthcare professionals and the public to improve the "alarmingly low" vaccination rates of recent years.
(CIDRAP News) Health officials in Perth, Australia, last week advised parents to seek medical care quickly for young children with respiratory symptoms, after three children under age 5 died of pneumonia as a complication of "mild" influenza A infections.
(CIDRAP News) The World Health Organization (WHO) warned today that if H5N1 avian influenza spread to Africa and caused human cases, it "could push fragile health systems to the brink of collapse."
Also, China today ruled out H5N1 avian flu in the death of a girl who lived in a village recently hit by a poultry outbreak, while Romania reported finding the virus for the first time in an area other than the Danube delta.
(CIDRAP News) The 7-year-old son of a Thai farmer who died 2 days ago of H5N1 avian influenza also has the virus, but there is no evidence that the boy caught it from his father, according to news services.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports said the boy tested positive for the virus, but they didn't say what test was used or where it was done. The boy is hospitalized but is expected to recover.
(CIDRAP News) Researchers who reviewed 64 studies report that influenza vaccination is only modestly beneficial for elderly people overall, with nursing home residents benefiting more than people living on their own.
(CIDRAP News) National health officials made a major pitch today for healthcare workers and people most at risk for influenza and its complications to get flu shots within the next few weeks.
"There are going to be more opportunities than ever to get vaccinated, so go out and get your flu shot," said Mark B. McClellan, head of the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, in appealing particularly to Medicare recipients.
(CIDRAP News) Nursing homes that serve Medicare and Medicaid recipients would have to vaccinate residents against influenza and pneumococcal disease to stay in the federal programs, under a plan announced last week.
Nursing homes would have to give the immunizations unless the patient or patient's family refused or the shots were medically contraindicated, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said in a news release.
