Influenza is a vaccine preventable disease that causes severe illness and excess mortality in humans. Licensed influenza vaccines induce humoral immunity and protect against strains that antigenically match the major antigenic components of the vaccine, but much less against antigenically diverse influenza strains. A vaccine that protects against different influenza viruses belonging to the sam...

In this study, we present an application paradigm in which an unsupervised machine learning approach is applied to the high-dimensional influenza genetic sequences to investigate whether vaccine is a driving force to the evolution of influenza virus. We first used a visualization approach to visualize the evolutionary paths of vaccine-controlled and non-vaccine-controlled influenza viruses in a...

BACKGROUND A high-dose trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine was licensed in 2009 by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the basis of serological criteria. We sought to establish whether high-dose inactivated influenza vaccine was more effective for prevention of influenza-related visits and hospital admissions in US Medicare beneficiaries than was standard-dose inactivated influenza...

Preinfluenza periods have been used to test for uncontrolled confounding in studies of influenza vaccine effectiveness, but some authors have claimed that confounding differs in preinfluenza and influenza periods. We tested this claim by comparing estimates of the vaccine-mortality association during the 2009/2010 influenza year, when there was essentially no circulation of seasonal influenza i...

We have been now experiencing the first pandemic in the 21st century by a 2009 novel influenza A (H1N1) virus infection. The use of effective vaccination is the most reliable prophylactic measures against influenza virus infection. Hemagglutinin (HA) of surface viral glycoproteins plays a principal role as immunogenecity induced by natural infection or vaccination in our bodies. A split-product...

Since influenza may be prevented by vaccine, development and successful implementation of public health programs to prevent spread of a potential avian influenza strain relies upon vaccination as a strategic cornerstone. Although both the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)† and the World Health Organization (WHO) highlight the role of influenza vaccination as the core of an effective...

INTRODUCTION Because of variability in published A(H1N1)pdm09 influenza vaccine effectiveness estimates, we conducted a study in the adults belonging to the risk groups to assess the A(H1N1)pdm09 MF59-adjuvanted influenza vaccine effectiveness. METHODS VE against influenza and/or pneumonia was assessed in the cohort study (n>25000), and vaccine effectiveness against laboratory-confirmed A(H1N...

The Korean influenza national immunization program was first established as an interim program in 1997, administering the influenza vaccine to low-income elderly adults. In 2005, the program assumed its present form of providing free influenza vaccination to adults aged ≥65 years. After turning over the influenza vaccination for elderly adults to the private sectors in 2015, the influenza vacci...

Findings concerning influenza vaccine efficacy in young, healthy adults are inconsistent. A high incidence of influenza in the winter of 1995 provided an opportunity to study the efficacy of influenza vaccine among young, healthy military personnel. Influenza activity was confirmed by isolation of influenza A and B viruses from nasopharyngeal swab specimens from hospitalized soldiers. Self-admi...

BACKGROUND Limitations of the current annual influenza vaccine have led to ongoing efforts to develop a 'universal' influenza vaccine, i.e., one that targets a ubiquitous portion of the influenza virus so that the coverage of a single vaccination can persist for multiple years. OBJECTIVES To estimate the economic value of a 'universal' influenza vaccine compared to the standard annual influen...