Maternal flu shots protect newborns: U.S. study

jerry submitted, created time 2 months 4 days (www.reuters.com)

Flu shots given to pregnant women a month or more before delivery will prevent most cases of influenza during the first six months of their babies' lives, researchers said.

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Drop of Flu Vaccine Under Tongue Bars Infection

Sue Wu submitted, created time 9 months 3 weeks (www.washingtonpost.com)

A drop of vaccine placed under the tongue might one day ward off the flu.

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First trial of a universal flu vaccine has begun

DanyC submitted, created time 1 year 4 months (www.reutershealth.com)

Human clinical trials of a universal flu vaccine that could protect against all `A' strains of the influenza virus has been started, Acambis Plc, a British biotech company said.

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Influenza pandemic intervention planning using InfluSim: pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical interventions

Scarlett submitted, created time 1 year 4 months (www.biomedcentral.com)

Pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical measures should not be used exclusively. The protraction of the pandemic wave is essential to win time while waiting for vaccine development and production. However, it is the height of the peak of an epidemic which can easily overtax general practitioners, hospitals or even whole public health systems, causing bottlenecks in basic and emergency medical care.

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Optimizing the Dose of Pre-Pandemic Influenza Vaccines to Reduce the Infection Attack Rate

addict submitted, created time 1 year 5 months (medicine.plosjournals.org)

The recent spread of avian influenza in wild birds and poultry may be a precursor to the emergence of a 1918-like human pandemic. Therefore, stockpiles of human pre-pandemic vaccine (targeted at avian strains) are being considered. For many countries, the principal constraint for these vaccine stockpiles will be the total mass of antigen maintained. We tested the hypothesis that lower individual doses (i.e

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U.S. Health Advisers Say FluMist Is Safe

badboy submitted, created time 1 year 6 months (hosted.ap.org)

"Toddlers may soon be able to get their flu vaccine by a spritz to the nose instead of a jab to the skin.

Federal health advisers unanimously agreed Wednesday that a nasal spray flu vaccine both is safe and works in children 2 and older. The vaccine, made by MedImmune Inc., is called FluMist."

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WHO may set up bird flu vaccine stockpile for poor

medal submitted, created time 1 year 6 months (www.alertnet.org)

"The World Health Organisation (WHO) is considering building a stockpile of up to 60 million vaccine doses to be used by developing nations to counter any influenza pandemic, its top bird flu official said on Wednesday."

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The generation of influenza outbreaks by a network of host immune responses against a limited set of antigenic types

addict submitted, created time 1 year 6 months (www.pnas.org)

It is commonly believed that influenza epidemics arise through the incremental accumulation of viral mutations, culminating in a novel antigenic type that is able to escape host immunity. Successive epidemic strains therefore become increasingly antigenically distant from a founding strain. Here, we present an alternative explanation where, because of functional constraints on the defining epitopes, the virus population is characterized by a limited set of antigenic types, all of which may be continuously generated by mutation from preexisting strains and other processes

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New research shows that flu is a trigger of heart attacks

julie submitted, created time 1 year 7 months (www.biologynews.net)

"Doctors need to take concerted action to ensure that people who are at risk of heart disease receive the influenza vaccine every autumn, according to the authors of a new report published today (Wednesday 18 April) in the European Heart Journal. Their research shows that influenza epidemics are associated with a rise in deaths from heart disease and that flu can actually trigger the heart attacks that result in death."

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