Four Canadian studies have suggested that receipt of seasonal influenza vaccine increased the risk of laboratory-confirmed infection with 2009 pandemic influenza A(H1N1). During the influenza season of 2009 in Victoria, Australia, this virus comprised 97% of all circulating influenza viruses for which sub-typing was available. We found no evidence that seasonal influenza vaccine increased the r...

Following the global spread of pandemic influenza A(H1N1)2009, several pandemic vaccines have been rapidly developed. The United Kingdom and many other countries in the northern hemisphere implemented seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccine programmes in October 2009. We present the results of a case–control study to estimate effectiveness of such vaccines in preventing confirmed pandemic influ...

We study the impact of the 1918 influenza pandemic on short- and medium-term economic performance in Sweden. The pandemic was one of the severest and deadliest pandemics in human history, but it has hitherto received only scant attention in the economic literature--despite representing an unparalleled labour supply shock. In this paper, we exploit seemingly exogenous variation in incidence rate...

From June 2009 through December 2009, Haiti conducted sentinel surveillance for influenza. 499 samples were collected and tested using real-time RT-PCR. 197 (39.5%) were positive for influenza, including 95 (48%) pandemic (H1N1) 2009, 57 (29%) seasonal influenza A and 45 (23%) influenza B. The median age of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 cases was 21.7; two-thirds of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 cases were in pa...

Exercise Paton was a New South Wales-wide simulation exercise conducted on 30 November 2006, to test the response of New South Wales emergency departments (EDs), multi-purpose services* (MPSs), and public health units to the presentation of single cases of pandemic influenza during the early stages of a pandemic. The exercise followed the release of the New South Wales policy document to guide ...

BACKGROUND Previous exposures to flu and subsequent immune responses may impact on 2009/2010 pandemic flu vaccine responses and clinical symptoms upon infection with the 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza strain. Qualitative and quantitative differences in humoral and cellular immune responses associated with the flu vaccination in 2009/2010 (pandemic H1N1 vaccine) and natural infection have not yet ...

The pandemic H1N1/09 emerged rapidly in Korea. Here, we describe the clinical characteristics of outpatients in Seoul, Korea who were infected in the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. We reviewed the cases of outpatients with pandemic H1N1/09 who visited a tertiary care teaching hospital between September 1 and December 31, 2009. Infection with pandemic H1N1/09 was confirmed by molecular tests. Of a total of...

A total of 54 Vibrio parahaemolyticus strains including pandemic O3:K6 strains and newly emerged O4:K68, O1:K25, O1:K26, and O1:K untypeable strains (collectively referred to as the "pandemic group") were examined for their pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and arbitrarily primed PCR (AP-PCR) profiles and for the presence or absence of genetic marker DNA sequences, toxRS/new or orf8, that...

To the Editor: Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 first appeared in March 2009 in Mexico. In June 2009, it was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (1). Influenza A virus (H1N1) caused a pandemic in 1918–1919; estimated deaths were ≈100 million worldwide (2). Symptoms of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 are similar to those of seasonal influenza (fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills, a...

Laboratory tests that reliably confirm infection with a novel influenza strain are a major component of pandemic planning. Combined nose and throat swabs are the most practical respiratory tract sample to safely obtain from patients. As nucleic acid tests are sensitive, specific and rapid, they will be the diagnostic test of choice during a pandemic. Virus isolation (in laboratories with Physic...