Preliminary results of European vaccine effectiveness study show decreased protective effect of the seasonal influenza vaccine in 2011/2012 season. ECDC Director Marc Sprenger calls for action.
In the autumn of 2011 a United States Government body, the NSABB established under the National Institutes of Health considered two scientific papers describing experimental work manipulating avian influenza viruses.
ECDC and the European Respiratory Society (ERS) have developed 21 patient-centred standards that aim to guide clinicians and public health workers in their daily work to ensure optimal diagnosis, treatment and prevention of tuberculosis (TB) in Europe. Nearly 74 000 reported TB cases in the EU/EEA in 2010 clearly show that tuberculosis remains a public health challenge across the region.
A pair of linked papers from Finland concerning the above topic, one epidemiological and the second combining both clinical and epidemiological were published on March 28th in the open access journal, PLoS One.(1,2).
This study found a marked reduction in vaccine serotype carriage after PCV7 implementation. The overall pneumococcal, H. influenzae and S. aureus carriage decreased slightly, but not significantly.
In a hearing at the European Parliament in Brussels, ECDC Director Marc Sprenger underlined the importance of sufficient resources at national level to diagnose and adequately treat tuberculosis.
To mark World Tuberculosis Day on 24 March 2012, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the WHO Regional Office for Europe publish their joint report, Tuberculosis surveillance and monitoring in Europe 2012.