Suchergebnisse

The influenza virus circulates continuously, causing regional epidemics and outbreaks, leading to thousands of deaths. For instance, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data statistics, more than 13 million flu cases were recorded so far in the 2019-20 timeframe. The changing character of the virus is compelling an annual change in the vaccine strain to match the influenza virus strain worldwide. The increasing prevalence of influenza epidemics and seasonal outbreaks is likely to expand the product sales during the projected period. There are numerous licensed seasonal influenza vaccines recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and other governmental organizations to help fight the disease in the current market scenario. Governments have focused on advising people to get vaccinated early to provide maximum protection during the flu season. Moreover, pharmaceutical companies are continually facing new challenges in developing a suitable vaccine against a particular strain. Therefore, the rising demand for effective flu vaccines is anticipated to surge the global market. The coronavirus pandemic naturally impacted the routine immunization programs and campaigns conducted worldwide in developing and developed countries. However, Flu vaccination rates have gone up considerably during the pandemic owing to factors such as push from health experts/health departments as well as extension/expansion of various government programs that provide free vaccination against the flu. Additionally, growing awareness among the public about the higher risk of getting infected with COVID-19 if the flu weakens the immune system is also another factor contributing to the uptake of flu vaccines. For instance, according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), as of May, over 189.4 million flu vaccines for the 2020-2021 flu season have been distributed in the U.S compared to 174 million in the 2019-2020 season. Growing prevalence ...

• Deputy State Commissioner Matthias Nicoll advises the state department of health is now producing a new vaccine against influenza that will be ready for general distribution in two weeks• New vaccine contains cultures from old and recent outbreaks of the influenza bacilli• Vaccine inoculations to be given in the same manner as typhoid fever• Department records indicate there are now 13,655 cases of influenza in the state• Forty-six nurses and fourteen doctors dispatched to thirteen infected centers to help combat the disease• Syracuse has been provided with fourteen nurses and five doctors from the State Dept.• Oswego has been provided with nine nurses• Ithaca and Fulton have been provided with five nurses; Fulton also has two additional doctors• Maybrook has been provided with four nurses• Saratoga and Schuylerville (serious epidemic stage) have been provided with two extra nurses• One doctor has been sent to Maybrook, Schuylerville, Bergen and Hartford• Yesterday, Schenectady appealed to state military census bureau and within five hours was provided a list of names and addresses of every trained nurse between the ages of 20-40, and women with public health nursing experience, Red Cross work, and hospital supplied work ; Newspaper article ; 2

Globally there are an estimated 3–5 million cases of severe influenza illness every year, resulting in 250,000–500,000 deaths. At the World Health Assembly in 2003, World Health Organization (WHO) resolved to increase influenza vaccine coverage rates (VCR) for high-risk groups, particularly focusing on at least 75% of the elderly by 2010. But systematic worldwide data have not been available to assist public health authorities to monitor vaccine uptake and review progress toward vaccination coverage targets. In 2008, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations Influenza Vaccine Supply task force (IFPMA IVS) developed a survey methodology to assess global influenza vaccine dose distribution. The current survey results represent 2011 data and demonstrate the evolution of the absolute number distributed between 2004 and 2011 inclusive, and the evolution in the per capita doses distributed in 2008–2011. Global distribution of IFPMA IVS member doses increased approximately 86.9% between 2004 and 2011, but only approximately 12.1% between 2008 and 2011. The WHO's regions in Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO), Southeast Asian (SEARO) and Africa (AFRO) together account for about 47% of the global population, but only 3.7% of all IFPMA IVS doses distributed. While distributed doses have globally increased, they have decreased in EURO and EMRO since 2009. Dose distribution can provide a reasonable proxy of vaccine utilization. Based on the dose distribution, we conclude that seasonal influenza VCR in many countries remains well below the WHA's VCR targets and below the recommendations of the Council of the European Union in EURO. Inter- and intra-regional disparities in dose distribution trends call into question the impact of current vaccine recommendations at achieving coverage targets. Additional policy measures, particularly those that influence patients adherence to vaccination programs, such as reimbursement, healthcare provider knowledge, attitudes, practices, and communications, are required for VCR targets to be met and benefit public health.

Pandemic influenza is an international public health concern. In light of the persistent threat of H5N1 avian influenza and the recent pandemic of A/H1N1swine influenza outbreak, public health agencies around the globe are continuously revising their preparedness plans. The A/H1N1 pandemic of 2009 demonstrated that influenza activity and severity might vary considerably among age groups and locations, and the distribution of an effective influenza vaccine may be significantly delayed and staggered. Thus, pandemic influenza vaccine distribution policies should be tailored to the demographic and spatial structures of communities. Here, we introduce a bi-criteria decision-making framework for vaccine distribution policies that is based on a geospatial and demographically-structured model of pandemic influenza transmission within and between counties of Arizona in the Unites States. Based on data from the 2009–2010 H1N1 pandemic, the policy predicted to reduce overall attack rate most effectively is prioritizing counties expected to experience the latest epidemic waves (a policy that may be politically untenable). However, when we consider reductions in both the attack rate and the waiting period for those seeking vaccines, the widely adopted pro rata policy (distributing according to population size) is also predicted to be an effective strategy.

Through its Global Action Plan for Influenza Vaccines (GAP), the World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with the United States Department of Health and Human Services has produced a checklist to support policy-makers and influenza vaccine manufacturers in identifying key technological, political, financial, and logistical issues affecting the sustainability of influenza vaccine production. This checklist highlights actions in five key areas that are beneficial for establishing successful local vaccine manufacturing. These five areas comprise: (1) the policy environment and health-care systems; (2) surveillance systems and influenza evidence; (3) product development and manufacturing; (4) product approval and regulation; and (5) communication to support influenza vaccination. Incorporating the checklist into national vaccine production programmes has identified the policy gaps and next steps for countries involved in GAP's Technology Transfer Initiative. Lessons learnt from country experiences provide context and insight that complement the checklist's goal of simplifying the complexities of influenza prevention, preparedness, and vaccine manufacturing.

Details are given of a number of experiments, carried out in 1957 in Japan among high school students, factory workers and student nurses and in military camps, to test the efficacy of Asian influenza vaccine at various strengths and doses and prepared from different virus strains. The Asian influenza virus strains used were A/Adachi/2/57, A/Kumamoto/Y5/57 and A/Kumamoto/K9/57. Results were tested by the haemagglutination-inhibition reaction.

AbstractWe propose a holistic framework based on state‐of‐the‐art methods in machine learning and optimization to prescribe influenza vaccine composition that are specific to a region, or a country based on historical data concerning the rates of circulation of predominant viruses. First, we develop a tensor completion formulation to predict rates of circulation of viruses for the next season based on historical data. Then, taking into account the uncertainty in the predicted rates of circulation of predominant viruses, we propose a novel robust prescriptive framework for selecting suitable strains for each subtypes of the flu virus: Influenza A (H1N1 and H3N2) and B viruses for production. Through numerical experiments, we show that our proposed vaccine compositions could potentially lower morbidity by 11–14% and mortality by 8–11% over vaccine compositions proposed by World Health Organization (WHO) for Northern Hemisphere, and lower morbidity by 8–10% and mortality by 6–9% over vaccine compositions proposed by U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for United States, and finally, lower morbidity by 10–12% and mortality by 9–11% over vaccine compositions proposed by European Medicines Agency (EMA) for Europe.

The development of broadly reactive influenza vaccines raises the need to identify the most appropriate immunoassays that can be used for the evaluation of so‐called universal influenza vaccines and to explore a path towards the standardisation of such assays. More than fifty experts from the global influenza vaccine research and development field met to initiate such discussion at a workshop co‐organised by the EDUFLUVAC consortium, a European Union funded project coordinated by the European Vaccine Initiative, and the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, USA. The workshop audience agreed that it was not possible to establish a single immunoassay for "universal" influenza vaccines because the current approaches differ in the vaccines' nature and immunogenicity properties. Therefore, different scientific rationales for the immunoassay selection are required. To avoid dilution of efforts, the choice of the primary evaluation criteria (eg serological assays or T‐cell assays) should drive the effort of harmonisation. However, at an early phase of clinical development, more efforts on exploratory assessments should be undertaken to better define the immune profile in response to immunisation with new vaccines. The workshop concluded that each laboratory should aim towards validation of the appropriate immunoassays used during the entire process of vaccine development from antigen discovery up to establishment of correlates of protection, including the different steps of quality control (eg potency assays), animal studies and human clinical development. Standardisation of the immunoassays is the ultimate goal, and there is a long way to go.

AbstractWe study different contract mechanisms between a vaccine manufacturer (VM) and a vaccine procurement agency (VPA) to coordinate the two‐peak influenza vaccine supply chain. Motivated by the prevalent industry contracts, we study two hybrid contracts under budget constraints, which allow flexibility in deciding the contractual parameters between the VM and the VPA. We consider the case of both private (for‐profit) and public (not‐for‐profit) VPA and the impact of different objectives, such as profit and vaccine coverage, on contract choice. We show that for public VPAs or for private VPAs with low available budget, both hybrid contracts are equally preferred by VM and VPA. However, under high budget, the preferences of VPA and VM will differ. We then extend our models to consider the case of both private and public VPA coexisting in the market under both budget and vaccine availability constraints. Contrary to intuition, we find that the vaccine coverage provided by the public VPA is not always higher than the vaccine coverage provided by the private VPA, with the private VPA providing greater vaccine coverage under conditions of low budget and low vaccine availability. Our findings have important policy implications for governments of emerging economies with limited budget for mass vaccination programs.

Data were pooled from three Australian sentinel general practice influenza surveillance networks to estimate Australia-wide influenza vaccine coverage and effectiveness against community presentations for laboratory-confirmed influenza for the 2012, 2013 and 2014 seasons. Patients presenting with influenza-like illness at participating GP practices were swabbed and tested for influenza. The vaccination odds of patients testing positive were compared with patients testing negative to estimate influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) by logistic regression, adjusting for age group, week of presentation and network. Pooling of data across Australia increased the sample size for estimation from a minimum of 684 to 3,683 in 2012, from 314 to 2,042 in 2013 and from 497 to 3,074 in 2014. Overall VE was 38% [95% confidence interval (CI) 24-49] in 2012, 60% (95% CI 45-70) in 2013 and 44% (95% CI 31-55) in 2014. For A(H1N1)pdm09 VE was 54% (95% CI-28 to 83) in 2012, 59% (95% CI 33-74) in 2013 and 55% (95% CI 39-67) in 2014. For A(H3N2), VE was 30% (95% CI 14-44) in 2012, 67% (95% CI 39-82) in 2013 and 26% (95% CI 1-45) in 2014. For influenza B, VE was stable across years at 56% (95% CI 37-70) in 2012, 57% (95% CI 30-73) in 2013 and 54% (95% CI 21-73) in 2014. Overall VE against influenza was low in 2012 and 2014 when A(H3N2) was the dominant strain and the vaccine was poorly matched. In contrast, overall VE was higher in 2013 when A(H1N1)pdm09 dominated and the vaccine was a better match. Pooling data can increase the sample available and enable more precise subtype- and age group-specific estimates, but limitations remain. ; The Australian Sentinel Practices Research Network and the Melbourne WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza are supported by the Australian Government Department of Health. The Sentinel Practitioners Network of Western Australia is funded by the Western Australian Department of Health. The Victorian Sentinel Practice Influenza Network is funded by the Victorian Government Department of Health and Human Services.

Influenza virus still represents a considerable threat to global public health, despite the advances in the development and wide use of influenza vaccines. Vaccination with traditional inactivate influenza vaccines (IIV) or live-attenuated influenza vaccines (LAIV) remains the main strategy in the control of annual seasonal epidemics, but it does not offer protection against new influenza viruses with pandemic potential, those that have shifted. Moreover, the continual antigenic drift of seasonal circulating influenza viruses, causing an antigenic mismatch that requires yearly reformulation of seasonal influenza vaccines, seriously compromises vaccine efficacy. Therefore, the quick optimization of vaccine production for seasonal influenza and the development of new vaccine approaches for pandemic viruses is still a challenge for the prevention of influenza infections. Moreover, recent reports have questioned the effectiveness of the current LAIV because of limited protection, mainly against the influenza A virus (IAV) component of the vaccine. Although the reasons for the poor protection efficacy of the LAIV have not yet been elucidated, researchers are encouraged to develop new vaccination approaches that overcome the limitations that are associated with the current LAIV. The discovery and implementation of plasmid-based reverse genetics has been a key advance in the rapid generation of recombinant attenuated influenza viruses that can be used for the development of new and most effective LAIV. In this review, we provide an update regarding the progress that has been made during the last five years in the development of new LAIV and the innovative ways that are being explored as alternatives to the currently licensed LAIV. The safety, immunogenicity, and protection efficacy profile of these new LAIVs reveal their possible implementation in combating influenza infections. However, efforts by vaccine companies and government agencies will be needed for controlled testing and approving, respectively, these new vaccine methodologies for the control of influenza infections.

In 1918, a crude influenza vaccine made from chemically inactivated, mixed cultures of respiratory bacteria was widely used prior to the understanding that influenza was caused by a virus. Such vaccines contained no viral material and probably consisted largely of bacterial endotoxin. The Australian military used such a vaccine on Samoa in December 1918 and thought it was valuable. Post hoc analyses suggest that the mixed respiratory bacteria vaccine may have actually been of some benefit, but the mechanism of such protection is unknown. Although such a crude vaccine would not be considered in a modern setting, the rapid use of problematic vaccines still remains a risk when new influenza types suddenly appear, as in 1976 and 2009.

The appearance of the pandemic A/Hong Kong/1/68 (H3N2) influenzavirus strain provided an opportunity for a clinical field trial of influenza vaccines in Canada during the winter of 1968-69. As by November 1968 there were reports of influenza B activity and as supplies of A2/HK/68 vaccines were limited, it was decided to make a series of strictly randomized double-blind trials comparing A2/HK/68 vaccines not only with B/Mass/66 vaccines but also with a bivalent vaccine that was already in production and contained B/Mass/66 and A2/Mtl/68, the latter a strain isolated in Canada during January 1968. In 4 trials, a total of 13 729 military personnel and 4 795 primary schoolchildren were vaccinated. Reported vaccine reactions were less than 0.1% with zonally-purified vaccines and 2.6% with the "standard" aqueous killed bivalent vaccine. Three children had serious reactions. Surveillance detected an outbreak of influenza in the first two trials on the military. The 3 vaccines containing A2 strains gave similar clinical protection conservatively estimated at 42-55% but probably about 80%. The effectiveness of the A2/Mtl/68 vaccine, which was in production before the Hong Kong variant had been isolated, was unexpected. In the absence of a vaccine specific to a new pandemic strain, it should not be assumed that a vaccine made from another recent strain could not be useful.