Influenza Humans Commons^™

Preparedness Of Hospitals In The Republic Of Ireland For An Influenza Pandemic, An Infection Control Perspective, Mary Reidy, Fiona Ryan, Dervla Hogan, Seán Lacey, Claire Buckley

Department of Mathematics Publications

When an influenza pandemic occurs most of the population is susceptible and attack rates can range as high as 40–50 %. The most important failure in pandemic planning is the lack of standards or guidelines regarding what it means to be ‘prepared’. The aim of this study was to assess the preparedness of acute hospitals in the Republic of Ireland for an influenza pandemic from an infection control perspective.

Emergence Of Multidrug Resistant Influenza A(H1n1)Pdm09 Virus Variants In An Immunocompromised Child Treated With Oseltamivir And Zanamivir., Daisuke Tamura, Roberta L. Debiasi, Margaret Okomo-Adhiambo, Vasiliy P. Mishin, Angela P. Campbell, Brett Loechelt, Bernhard L. Wiedermann, Alicia M. Fry, Larisa V. Gubareva

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

Prolonged treatment of an immunocompromised child with oseltamivir and zanamivir for A(H1N1)pdm09 virus infection led to the emergence of viruses carrying H275Y and/or E119G in the neuraminidase. When phenotypically evaluated by neuraminidase inhibition, the dual H275Y-E119G substitution caused highly reduced inhibition by four neuraminidase inhibitors including oseltamivir, zanamivir, peramivir and laninamivir.

Whom Do You Trust? Doubt And Conspiracy Theories In The 2009 Influenza Pandemic, Shawn Smallman

International & Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

The 2009 pandemic of H1N1 influenza led people around the globe to create narratives about the epidemic defined by the question of trust; these narratives ranged from true conspiracy theories to simply accounts in which mistrust and betrayal formed a motif. In particular, most of these narratives reflected a fear of capitalism and globalization, although in specific regions, other issues—such as religion—played a more central role. These stories were not unique to the H1N1 pandemic but rather have appeared with every contemporary outbreak of infectious disease. This paper will examine conspiracy theories and moral panics related to the H1N1 pandemic …

Detecting Signals Of Seasonal Influenza Severity Through Age Dynamics, Elizabeth C Lee, Cécile Viboud, Lone Simonsen, Farid Khan, Shweta Bansal

Global Health Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Measures of population-level influenza severity are important for public health planning, but estimates are often based on case-fatality and case-hospitalization risks, which require multiple data sources, are prone to surveillance biases, and are typically unavailable in the early stages of an outbreak. To address the limitations of traditional indicators, we propose a novel severity index based on influenza age dynamics estimated from routine physician diagnosis data that can be used retrospectively and for early warning.

METHODS: We developed a quantitative 'ground truth' severity benchmark that synthesizes multiple traditional severity indicators from publicly available influenza surveillance data in the United …

A Global Map Of Hemispheric Influenza Vaccine Recommendations Based On Local Patterns Of Viral Circulation, Wladimir J. Alonso, Christine Yu, Cecile Viboud, Stephanie A. Richard, Cynthia Schuck-Paim, Lone Simonsen, Wyller A. Mello, Mark A. Miller

Global Health Faculty Publications

Both the Northern and the Southern Hemisphere annual WHO influenza vaccine recommendations are designed to ensure vaccine delivery before the winter-time peak of viral circulation in each hemisphere. However, influenza seasonal patterns are highly diverse in tropical countries and may be out of phase with the WHO recommendations for their respective hemisphere. We modelled the peak timing of influenza activity for 125 countries using laboratory-based surveillance data from the WHO’s FLUNET database and compared it with the influenza hemispheric recommendations in place. Influenza vaccine recommendations for respectively 25% and 39% of the Northern and Southern Hemisphere countries were out of …

The Effects Of Vitamin D Supplementation On Influenza, Jonah M. Spoerndle

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Recently the role of vitamin D in other non-classical capacities has been evaluated. One of these non-classical vitamin D roles is assisting in maintaining proper immune system health. One disease that has a great effect on the immune system is influenza. Vitamin D helps to prevent and limit influenza by moderating the inflammatory cytokines as well as promoting the production of monocytes that help destroy the invading materials. Through the use of vitamin D supplementation the recommended daily amount of vitamin D can be assured and optimal health could be achieved. The purpose of this project was to design a …