A recent article by Watanabe et al. in the Cell Host & Microbe journal describes an attempt to assess the risk of emergence of pandemic influenza viruses closely related to the 1918 influenza virus.
The final report of the FLURISK project by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) proposes a risk assessment framework to rank animal influenza strains according to their potential to infect humans.
The authors used a test-negative case control design to estimate the 2013/14 influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) in patients seen with influenza-like illness as outpatients in Spain during December 2013-January 2014.
On 8 January 2014, Canada reported a fatal imported case of influenza A(H5N1) infection. This is the first confirmed human case of H5N1 in North America.
On 14 August 2013 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was detected in poultry in Ostellato, Ferrara province, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. Influenza subtype A(H7N7) was confirmed.
On 14 August 2013 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was detected in poultry in Ostellato, Ferrara province, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. Influenza subtype A(H7N7) was confirmed.
Influenza vaccine experts from thirteen EU countries and invited guests from Canada and the US gathered for three days July 1-3, 2013 in Annecy, France to report and discuss obtained national and pooled multi-country seasonal influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) obtained in the 2012/2013 season. The meeting was co-organized by ECDC and Epiconcept.