A multinational European team has reported the isolation of a human monoclonal antibody that can seemingly bind to and neutralize representative of all the known sub-types classes of influenza A haemagglutinins (HAs). This is the first such report of such an antibody.
EMA recommends restricting use in persons under 20 years of age Pandemrix to be used only in the absence of seasonal trivalent influenza vaccines, following link to very rare cases of narcolepsy in young people. Overall benefit-risk remains positive.
On 21 July 2011 the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) issued its opinion on the review of Pandemrix® and reports on narcolepsy. The CHMP recommended that in persons under 20 years of age Pandemrix® may only be used if the recommended seasonal trivalent influenza vaccine is not available and if immunisation against H1N1 is still needed (e.g. in persons at risk of the complications of infection).
The European Food Standard Agency has recently published a call for proposals for a methodological framework for potentially pandemic influenza strains.
This large national cohort study followed-up pregnant women admitted to hospital and found to have laboratory-confirmed influenza A(H1N1) 2009 infection during the autumn-winter wave of the 2009 pandemic. The main objective was determining any adverse pregnancy outcomes attributable to the infection.
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.
The report indicates that resistance to antimicrobials was observed in zoonotic bacteria, such as Salmonella and Campylobacter, which may cause infectious diseases transmissible between animals and humans and which can be found in foods.
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has issued a new report from its Task Force on the Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) outbreak in Germany and France. The Task Force has now concluded that one lot of fenugreek seeds imported from Egypt and used to produce sprouts is the most likely common link between the two outbreaks. EFSA continues to advise consumers not to grow sprouts for their own consumption and not to eat sprouts or sprouted seeds unless they have been cooked thoroughly.
In his speech to the Informal Health Council on 5th July, ECDC Director Marc Sprenger outlined the lessons learnt from the EHEC/STEC outbreak in EU, as well as the need to strengthen EU cooperation against epidemics.