The uptake of seasonal influenza vaccination in EU Member States has not reached the target levels in the 2009 Council Recommendations. This knowledge sharing workshop is intended to support communications activities surrounding national influenza vaccination campaigns, specifically campaigns targeting healthcare workers. The workshop will highlight good practices and success stories, as well as share encouraging and challenging experiences of the Member States’ campaigns. It will also discuss and consider ways ECDC can support Member States in their campaigns through the creation of a “community of practice”, and how best to achieve that via the existing platforms and tools.
Location:ECDC, Visiting address: Tomtebodavägen 11A, 171 65 Solna, Sweden. The meeting will be held in the ECDC main building in room 335.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has agreed on the recommended composition of the trivalent influenza vaccine for the northern hemisphere 2015-2016.
The WHO recommendations reflect the currently circulating viruses in the southern hemisphere, and the change of both A(H3N2) and B virus components is based on the available surveillance and virus characterisation data.
The results from three animal species all point in the same direction: it seems possible to develop influenza vaccine candidates with at least broader cross-protection and possibly universal ones using different technologies.
Since the previous update of the ECDC Rapid Risk Assessment on MERS-CoV (30 June 2015), 13 new cases and seven deaths have been reported globally from South Korea (4 cases and 4 deaths), Saudi Arabia (8 cases and 3 deaths) and the Philippines who reported a travel-related MERS case related to travel in the Middle East on 6 July 2015.
This new publication from Novartis in collaboration with public health and academic researchers in Finland and the US adds to the evidence-base on how narcolepsy might have been triggered in genetically susceptible individuals.