Since its introduction in the 1990s, the main aim of combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV has been to halt the progression of the infection, maintaining the health of the HIV-positive person taking treatment. In addition to this, the impact of treatment as prevention has been well described.

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.

This study updates previous work on modelling the incidence of varicella and Herpes Zoster (HZ) following the introduction of childhood varicella vaccination.

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.

Emerging and resurging vector-borne diseases cause significant morbidity and mortality, especially in the developing world. We focus on how advances in mapping, Geographic Information System, and Decision Support System technologies, and progress in spatial and space time modeling, can be harnessed to prevent and control these diseases.

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 authors review some of the different systems that are used for assessing vaccination coverage within and outside the EU in order to explore the need for improving vaccination coverage data quality.

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is an intestinal infection usually acquired in hospital settings, after antibiotic treatment. The clinical spectrum of CDI ranges from mild diarrhoea to severe life-threatening pseudomembranous colitis. In the recent years, an increased incidence of CDI has been reported in Europe and worldwide.