Fanny Chereau, EPIET fellow from cohort 2016, was deployed with GOARN (Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network) to support the response to the plague outbreak in Madagascar, on October 2017.
Influenza vaccination coverage among high-risk groups has dropped in the European Region over the last seven years, and half the countries report a decrease in the number of vaccine doses available.
This practical course covered outbreak investigation, pandemic planning, recent developments in respiratory pathogen biology and therapy, and focused around two practical scenarios in which participants could gain experience in managing an acute epidemic.
This practical course will cover outbreak investigation, pandemic planning, recent developments in respiratory pathogen biology and therapy, and will focus around two practical scenarios in which participants will gain experience in managing an acute epidemic. Research during an epidemic and ethical aspects will also be covered.
Location:Amsterdam, Netherlands
Organized by:The course is co-organised by ECDC and European Respiratory Society.
Since 23 August 2017 there is an ongoing epidemic of plague in Madagascar. As of 20 October 2017 WHO has reported 1 365 cases and 106 deaths leading to 8 % case fatality. Nine hundred and fifteen (67%) cases are pneumonic plague cases. The high proportion of pneumonic plague among cases is of concern, indicating that droplet transmission is a driver of the spread of plague in Madagascar beyond the areas that have been considered as endemic for bubonic plague to date. In the last weeks, the number of new confirmed cases seem to be plateauing, indicating that the outbreak is gradually being controlled.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended the composition of the trivalent influenza vaccine for the southern hemisphere winter 2018 influenza season in a report published 28 September 2017.
In November 2014, the Pharmacovigilance Centre of Netherlands (Lareb) provided an updated overview of Dutch cases of narcolepsy reported to have a link to Pandemrix.
This is the first published study where an attempt has been made to understand the possible biological mechanisms behind development of narcolepsy following vaccination with Pandemrix™.
During the 1918-1920 influenza pandemic all populations experienced an increase in influenza related deaths. However that mortality varied considerably between different locations and demographic subgroups.
This small study performed at two tertiary care teaching hospitals in New York, compares and evaluates the risk of Influenza A (H1N1) pdm09 infection among front line health care professionals and non health care professionals in the 2009 pandemic.