In 2003, an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza occurred in The Netherlands. The avian H7N7 virus causing the outbreak was also detected in 88 humans suffering from conjunctivitis or mild respiratory symptoms and one person who died of pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome. Here we describe a mouse model for lethal infection with A/Netherlands/219/03 isolated from the fata...

There is a constant threat of zoonotic influenza viruses causing a pandemic outbreak in humans. It is virtually impossible to predict which virus strain will cause the next pandemic and it takes a considerable amount of time before a safe and effective vaccine will be available once a pandemic occurs. In addition, development of pandemic vaccines is hampered by the generally poor immunogenicity...

1 Coordinator, Risk Containment, Mapping and Drug Resistance, Communicable Diseases Surveillance and Response, World Health Organization, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland (email: [email protected]). Correspondence should be sent to this author. 2 Project Leader, Global Influenza Programme, Communicable Diseases Surveillance and Response, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland. Ref. No. 04-012...

abstract background and aims: vaccination of poultry has a major impact on the prevention and control of avian influenza viruses. nanobiotechnology techniques provide a new approach for improvement of influenza vaccine efficacy. in this study, efficacy of an inactivated nano-adjuvant vaccine developed based on an endemic h9n2 virus was evaluated in spf chickens. materials and methods: in each t...

Development of effective and immunogenic vaccines against highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 viruses with the potential to cause a pandemic is a public health priority. The global demand for a vaccine cannot be met in the event of an influenza pandemic because of the limited capacity to manufacture egg-derived vaccines as well as potential problems with the availability of embryonated eggs....

Highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAIV) of subtype H5N1 not only cause a devastating disease in domestic chickens and turkeys but also pose a continuous threat to public health. In some countries, H5N1 viruses continue to circulate and evolve into new clades and subclades. The rapid evolution of these viruses represents a problem for virus diagnosis and control. In this work, recombin...

Despite efforts to increase the number of doses of influenza vaccine produced and distributed in the United States, there have been disruptions in the production and distribution of the trivalent influenza vaccine during five of the last six years. These delays and shortages have highlighted some of the limitations of our vaccine supply system and have contributed toward concerns that the natio...

BACKGROUND A mass vaccination has been implemented to prevent the spread of 2009 pandemic influenza virus in China. Highly limited information is available on whether this vaccine induces cross-reactive neutralization antibodies against other subtypes of influenza viruses. METHODS We employed pseudovirus-based assays to analyze heterosubtypic neutralization responses in serum samples of 23 re...

Abstract : Avian influenza virus (AIV) infection is a major cause of influenza mortality in birds and can cause human mortality and morbidity. Although the risk of infection with avian influenza virus (AIV) is generally low for most people, the pathogenic virus can cross the species barrier and acquires the ability to infect and be transmitted among the human population; therefore the ra...

BACKGROUND The immune-related evolution of influenza viruses is exceedingly complex and current vaccines against influenza must be reformulated for each influenza season because of the high degree of antigenic drift among circulating influenza strains. Delay in vaccine production is a serious problem in responding to a pandemic situation, such as that of the current H1N1 strain. Immune escape i...