“We’ve got an exaggerated expectation of what vaccines can actually do,” said study author Dr. Tom Jefferson, coordinator of the Cochrane Vaccines Field in Rome, Italy. “I’m hoping American and European taxpayers will be alerted and will start asking questions.”
The Ministry of Health in Indonesia has confirmed an additional three cases of human infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus. All three cases were fatal.
Pregnant women are likely to be offered flu vaccination in the later stages of pregnancy because of the strain that the illness could put on their heart and lungs in childbirth. The move is likely to cause concern among some pregnant women who are already anxious about advice that is offered on what foods and medications are safe.
Beginning with the winter season of 2004-2005, influenza vaccination has been recommended for all children 6 to 23 months old in the United States. However, its safety in young children has not been adequately studied in large populations. A study was conducted by Simon J. Hambidge to screen for medically attended events in the clinic, emergency department, or hospital after administration of trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine in children 6 to 23 months old.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has taken a significant step forward in the global effort to prepare for an influenza pandemic by publishing the Global Pandemic Influenza Action Plan to Increase Vaccine Supply. In developing this plan through a consensus of the world?s experts in influenza, immunization, vaccine research, and manufacturing, the WHO has set the world?s sights on the decisive path forward to increase the global capacity to produce pandemic influenza vaccine.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says its new global pandemic influenza action plan to increase vaccine supply requires immediate and sustained action and funding, if the world is to be prepared for an influenza pandemic.
“Asia has shown significant progress in preparing to fight the spread of the virus, but more help is needed to support Indonesia, where a majority of the country’s provinces have reported the presence of the disease”, United Nations official, David Nabarro.
AVI BioPharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: AVII), presented data and analysis from four NeuGene? antisense clinical studies at the second annual meeting of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society at Rockefeller University in New York. The studies showed that AVI-4557 inhibited the metabolic enzyme cytochrome P450 (CYP), a liver enzyme responsible for the metabolism or breakdown of approximately half of currently marketed drugs.
The results of a massive health simulation conducted this week will be studied to improve Australia’s response to any future disease outbreak, Health Minister Tony Abbott says. More than 1,000 state and federal government officials took part in the $4.1 million exercise to test how prepared Australia is for an outbreak of avian influenza, or bird flu.
Novartis (NYSE: NVS) announced today results of pivotal Phase III clinical trial data for its innovative cell culture-derived influenza vaccine demonstrating that it is highly capable of producing an immune response (“immunogenic”), one at least as strong as the traditional egg-derived influenza vaccine Aggripal? for each of the three influenza strains studied.