​The European Parliament adopted a resolution on the evaluation of the pandemic in its sitting on the 8th March 2011.

The objective of WHO’s Global Influenza Vaccine Action Plan (which began in 2006) is to increase the use and supply of influenza vaccines on a routine basis.

ECDC has previously summarised information concerning the appearance of narcolepsy following the use of a specific pandemic vaccine (Pandemrix®) in children and adolescents in three European Countries.

Due to an association that was observed in the United States between a swine-flu based human influenza vaccine developed in 1976 and the disease acute polyneuropathy Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) (1,2), GBS was one of the adverse events that was monitored in Europe and North  America (3) following the 2009 influenza pandemic vaccination campaigns.

EMA recommends restricting use in persons under 20 years of age Pandemrix to be used only in the absence of seasonal trivalent influenza vaccines, following link to very rare cases of narcolepsy in young people. Overall benefit-risk remains positive.

Two official evaluations have been made by the national Ministry of Health of Spain of their country’s response to the 2009 influenza pandemic. The reviews focused on two particular topics - Surveillance and Vaccines and Antivirals.

This is an authoritative independent evidence-based review and meta-analysis of the efficacy and effectiveness of influenza vaccines. It confines itself to trials and observational studies where diagnostic tests confirmed influenza infection as the end point.

It is accompanied by an editorial comment from Maria Zambon of the UK Health Protection Agency add link pleaseThis comprehensive study published by an international group attempts to estimate the global incidence of lower respiratory infections and premature deaths associated with influenza in children younger than 5 years.

​A pair of linked papers from Finland concerning the above topic, one epidemiological and the second combining both clinical and epidemiological were published on March 28th in the open access journal, PLoS One.(1,2).

​A rapid communication published on April 12th 2012 describes the early results of the annual multicentre case-control study undertaken by the ECDC sponsored I-MOVE consortium whose work is coordinated by an Epiconcept team