In late March, 2011 ECDC reported that the Swedish Medical Product Agency published preliminary results from an on-going cohort study involving 5.3 million people, where 67% of children and adolescents and 51.0% of adults were vaccinated with Pandemrix.
ECDC and WHO Europe jointly release “MESSAGE - MEaSles and rubella Self Assessment GEnerating tool” for public health experts, to facilitate assessment of the progress made towards measles and rubella elimination.
ECDC Director Marc Sprenger at the European Parliament Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) stressed the importance of the EU’s continuous commitment in the fight against hepatitis B and hepatitis C.
A double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-escalation, phase 1 study was performed in 60 healthy subjects between 18 and 49 years of age. The two-dose regimen induced the development of neutralizing antibodies in high percentages of the subjects (from 88% to 100% of subjects depending on antigen content)”.
In recent years there have been a series of arguments and findings suggesting that Statins (HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors) which used widely to lower cholesterol levels may also be important in reducing the risk associated with severe infective conditions.
The authors retrospectively analyzed hepatitis A virus (HAV) seroprevalence in travellers who had been born and lived at least 1 year in a developing country, wanted to travel to a hepatitis A endemic area, and consulted at the vaccination centre of the Institut Pasteur of Paris between September 1, 2008 and February 28, 2010. HAV seroprevalence was 82.4 % for a population of 646 immigrants for whom data were available
ECDC was pleased that the Government of Romania extended an invite to meet health care workers who are working with the Roma population. ECDC Director, Marc Sprenger, as head of the delegation shares three lesson.
During a recent country visit to Romania, ECDC emphasised the key issues for TB control. Following the invitation of the Romania Ministry of Health, ECDC disease experts, led by ECDC Director Marc Sprenger, visited the Marius Nasta Institute, which historically has been in the front line for TB control in the country.
The heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) targets seven of the more than 92 pneumococcal serotypes. Concerns have been raised that non-vaccine serotypes (NVTs) could increase in prevalence and reduce the benefits of vaccination. Indeed, among asymptomatic carriers, the prevalence of NVTs has increased substantially, and consequently, there has been little or no net change in the bacterial carriage prevalence.