Introduction Accurately gauging the health status of a population during an event of public health significance (e.g. hurricanes, H1N1 2009 pandemic) in support of emergency response and situation awareness efforts can be a challenge for established public health surveillance systems in terms of geographic and population coverage as well as the appropriateness of health indicators. The demand f...

BACKGROUND Influenza virus A(H1N1)pdm09 first appeared in Israel in late April 2009, disappeared in mid-March 2010, and reappeared in late October 2010. Symptoms were mostly mild without need for medical care. OBJECTIVES To provide targets for future pandemic preparedness and response by evaluating the dynamics and cumulative incidence of A(H1N1)pdm09 infection, the virus-specific seroprevale...

BACKGROUND The response to the next influenza pandemic will likely include extensive use of antiviral drugs (mainly oseltamivir), combined with other transmission-reducing measures. Animal and in vitro studies suggest that some strains of influenza may become resistant to oseltamivir while maintaining infectiousness (fitness). Use of antiviral agents on the scale anticipated for the control of ...

background: the clinical manifestations and outcome of influenza infection differ between various patients in the world. the purpose of this study was to assess the clinical manifestations of patients with confirmed or suspected novel h1n1 flu infection in sari, north of iran. methods: from september 2009 to january 2010, the patients’ data were collected by retrospective chart review of medica...

PROBLEM Improving pandemic planning and preparedness is a challenge in Europe, a diverse region whose regional bodies (the Regional Office for Europe of the World Health Organization [WHO], the European Commission and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control) have overlapping roles and responsibilities. APPROACH European pandemic preparedness indicators were used to develop an a...

Outbreak of a destructive pandemic influenza threatens to disrupt societies worldwide. International agencies and national governments have prepared plans and recommendations, but it is often decision-makers with the local authorities that are responsible for implementing the response. A central issue for these decision makers is what interventions are available and effective for the specific l...

BACKGROUND No examination of simultaneous vaccination against pandemic H1N1 and the seasonal influenza virus strains, in children with cancer receiving chemotherapy, are yet published. We investigated the immunogenicity of a whole-virion, inactivated, adjuvanted pandemic H1N1, and seasonal influenza vaccines administered simultaneously to children with cancer undergoing chemotherapy. PROCEDUR...

European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) countries reported surveillance data on 2009 pandemic influenza A(H1N1) cases to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) through the Early Warning and Response System (EWRS) during the early phase of the 2009 pandemic. We describe the main epidemiological findings and their implications in respect to the second wave of t...

On 10 August, following advice from the Emergency Committee the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the world is no longer in phase 6 of influenza pandemic alert. Margaret Chan, the WHO Director-General, stated that the Committee based its assessment on the global situation and on reports from countries that are currently experiencing influenza epidemics. While noting the epidemics wi...

The 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic posed challenges for governments worldwide. Strategies designed to limit community transmission, such as antiviral deployment, were largely ineffective due to both feasibility constraints and the generally mild nature of disease, resulting in incomplete case ascertainment. Reviews of national pandemic plans have identified pandemic impact, primarily linked to me...