Lancet
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The influenza A (H1N1) 2009 monovalent vaccination programme was the largest mass vaccination initiative in recent US history. Commensurate with the size and scope of the vaccination programme, a project to monitor vaccine adverse events was undertaken, the most comprehensive safety surveillance agenda in the USA to date. The adverse event monitoring project identified an increased risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome after vaccination; however, some individual variability in results was noted. Guillain-Barré syndrome is a rare but serious health disorder in which a person's own immune system damages their nerve cells, causing muscle weakness, sometimes paralysis, and infrequently death. We did a meta-analysis of data from the adverse event monitoring project to ascertain whether influenza A (H1N1) 2009 monovalent inactivated vaccines used in the USA increased the risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome. ⋯ US Federal Government.
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Global under-5 mortality has fallen rapidly from 12 million deaths in 1990, to 6·9 million in 2011; however, this number still falls short of the target of a two-thirds reduction or a maximum of 4 million deaths by 2015. Acceleration of reductions in deaths due to pneumonia and diarrhoea, which together account for about 2 million child deaths every year, is essential if the target is to be met. ⋯ These rates are those at which preventable deaths have been avoided. Increasing of awareness of the size of the problem; strengthening of leadership, intersectoral collaboration, and resource mobilisation; and increasing of efficiency through the selection of the optimum mix of a growing set of cost-effective interventions depending on local contexts are the priority actions needed to achieve the goal of ending preventable deaths from pneumonia and diarrhoea by 2025.