The United States Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on vaccine issues, voted to approve a new recommendation on  February 24 to offer seasonal influenza vaccination to the whole population aged 6 months and older.

IGRAs are increasingly being considered for the diagnosis of LTBI, as a replacement to the TST, including travel medicine. As with the TST, many uncertainties remain with regard to the efficacy of the IGRAs. It is therefore essential to secure an accurate understanding of these assays‘ known efficacy, so that they be optimally used and only in context with proven effect.

2 papers are reviewed: A Novel Risk Factor for a Novel Virus: Obesity and 2009 Pandemic Influenza A (H1N1) and Morbid Obesity as a Risk Factor for Hospitalization and Death Due to 2009 Pandemic Influenza A(H1N1) Disease.

The European Food Standard Agency has recently published a call for proposals for a methodological framework for potentially pandemic influenza strains.

This large national cohort study followed-up pregnant women admitted to hospital and found to have laboratory-confirmed influenza A(H1N1) 2009 infection during the autumn-winter wave of the 2009 pandemic. The main objective was determining any adverse pregnancy outcomes attributable to the infection.

The 1918 pandemic continues to provide a rich source of studies of the clinical impact of those novel viruses which between 1918 and 1920 killed up to 50 million people world-wide. These two recent studies first shows autopsy results among military recruits who died from the first influenza pandemic of the 20th century and the second suggests the impact on births.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently recommended using the same three flu strains in next year's Southern Hemisphere (SH) vaccine as are in the current Northern Hemisphere vaccine and were used last year in southern hemisphere countries.

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.

​Following an earlier consultation document issued in March 2011 the UK’s Secretary of State for Health, along with the UK’s developed administrations (N. Ireland, Scotland and Wales) published a new influenza pandemic strategy on 10 November.

Facemasks and good hand hygiene to reduce influenza transmission in households – Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial in Germany