Fearing that the fall flu season in combination with the return of children to school could trigger a spike in swine flu cases, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has begun clinical trials of candidate vaccines against the pandemic influenza (H1N1) virus. The JCI spoke with Mark Mulligan (Figure 1), professor of medicine at Emory University School of Medicine and principa...

UNLABELLED New vaccine technologies are being investigated for their ability to elicit broadly cross-protective immunity against a range of influenza viruses. We compared the efficacies of two intranasally delivered nonreplicating influenza virus vaccines (H1 and H5 S-FLU) that are based on the suppression of the hemagglutinin signal sequence, with the corresponding H1N1 and H5N1 cold-adapted (...

BACKGROUND For tumor vaccine-based immunotherapy of cancer, the expansion of tumor antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) in the patients by blocking induced regulatory T (Treg) cells is the most important objective now. Fludarabine (FLU), a known anticancer drug, has been shown to downregulate Treg cells in vivo in chronic leukemia patients. Melanoma tumor antigen Mart-1(27-35)-specifi...

OBJECTIVES Notwithstanding decades of efforts to increase the uptake of seasonal influenza (flu) vaccination among European healthcare workers (HCWs), the immunisation rates are still unsatisfactory. In order to understand the reasons for the low adherence to flu vaccination, a study was carried out among HCWs of two healthcare organisations in Liguria, a region in northwest Italy. METHODS A ...

Editorial F primary care physicians practicing in temperate regions of the United States, winter heralds the “flu season.” And, we know that influenza epidemics can be deadly. During the period between 1990 and 1999, the average annual rate was 36,000 deaths attributed to influenza and its complications.2 Moreover, influenza viruses are responsible for worldwide increased illness and death rate...

This Perspective discusses the following study published in PLoS Medicine: Skowronski DM, De Serres G, Crocroft N, Janjua NZ, Boulianne N, et al. (2010) Association between the 2008-09 Seasonal Influenza Vaccine and Pandemic H1N1 Illness during Spring-Summer 2009 : Four Observational Studies from Canada. PLoS Med 7(4): e1000258. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000258. In three case-control studies an...

CASE REPORT Miller Fisher Syndrome (MFS) is the most frequent variant of the Guillain-Barré Syndrome. It is characterised by the classic triad of ophthalmoplegia, ataxia and areflexia. We present a case of a patient who developed these clinical findings 5 days after flu vaccination. DISCUSSION Miller Fisher Syndrome is an unusual condition seen in ophthalmologic clinical practice. Although re...

Development of an effective COVID-19 vaccine is widely considered as one the best paths to ending current health crisis. While ability distribute a in short-term remains uncertain, availability alone will not be sufficient stop disease spread. Instead, policy makers need overcome additional hurdle rapid widespread adoption. In large-scale nationally representative survey ( N = 34,200), work ide...

• Changes in health behavior because of COVID-19 may invalidate CDC flu data. This survey 5385 U.S. adults shows far higher flu-like illnesses than expected. data supports the use collected during pandemic. The Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network (ILINet) can indicate presence novel, widespread community pathogens. Comparing week-to-week reported influenza-like illness percentages ident...

This study provides causal evidence on the health and economic consequences of a broad-scope vaccination program. The Ontario Influenza Immunization Campaign (introduced in 2001) expanded the scope of vaccine coverage to the full population. By using the timing of this campaign and exogenous variation in vaccine quality, I am able to causally link higher vaccination rates to decreases in lost w...