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.
On 3 October 2011 European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and representatives of the European Vaccine Manufacturers met at ECDC in Stockholm for a regular scheduled meeting about the use of vaccines for prevention of seasonal and pandemic influenza. ECDC Director Marc Sprenger opened the meeting and ECDC influenza experts held different presentations, such as burden of influenza disease in the EU, risk groups for severe influenza disease, personal protective measures, pandemic influenza preparedness, seasonal influenza vaccines, communication.
The Declarations of Interest for ECDC Influenza Staff and the ECDC Director are available here under ECDC Transparency.
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.
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.
This paper serves as a gateway review of several field and epidemiological investigations conducted across the United States (US) which have been compiled as a special supplement in a January 2011 number of the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal.
The journal Critical Care Medicine has recently published a supplement of open access articles on the experience in intensive care units during the 2009 pandemic of influenza.
The first study, conducted in Europe during the 2009 pandemic addressed several objectives concerning the pathogenesis of the disease caused by the influenza A(H1N1) 2009 viruses.
While there have been some early descriptive reports of school outbreaks, for example a number published in Eurosurveillance from France and the UK this study is unusual in combining modelling, social network theory and ‘shoe-leather epidemiology’.
This review published by the WHO aims at answering important questions among the Known Unknowns areas which were unclear at the beginning of the 2009 pandemic