abstract background: primary immunodeficiency diseases (pid) are heterogeneous group of inherited disorders mainly characterized by recurrent infections leading to several times hospital admissions. the economic impact of pid is a challenging issue; therefore, this study was designed to determine the medical costs of hospitalizations in this group of patients as an indicator of the direct cost ...

The report also highlights the use of smallpox in bioterrorism as a particularly worrying threat. Authorities around the world should work together to combat the kind of bioterrorism that occurred with the letters warning of anthrax after September 11 2001, it says. A flu pandemic would affect more than 1.5 billion people, or 25 per cent of the world's population. Even if the disease was mild i...

A decision taken with the intention of protecting society against attack by biological weapons could, perversely, increase the very same danger. That is the implication of a debate now raging in the USA over the support of research on pathogens that might be used by terrorists. An alleged shift in funding in the wake of the 9/11 disaster and the ‘anthrax letters’ sent during 2001 means that mor...

On 1 January, following agitation by journalists, opposition politicians and medical experts alike, the UK government launched a nationwide influenza awareness campaign. As morbidity and mortality figures rose during December, especially for H1N1 swine flu, ministers abandoned their pleas that there was no need for such a campaign, which would normally have started three months earlier. Even wh...