Articles: pandemics.
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Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci. · Jan 2014
ReviewAfter 2015: infectious diseases in a new era of health and development.
Running over timescales that span decades or centuries, the epidemiological transition provides the central narrative of global health. In this transition, a reduction in mortality is followed by a reduction in fertility, creating larger, older populations in which the main causes of illness and death are no longer acute infections of children but chronic diseases of adults. Since the year 2000, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have provided a framework for accelerating the decline of infectious diseases, backed by a massive injection of foreign investment to low-income countries. ⋯ With a view to the future, this review spotlights five aspects of the fight against infection beyond 2015, when the MDGs will be replaced by a new set of goals for poverty reduction and sustainable development. These aspects are: exploiting the biological links between infectious and non-infectious diseases; controlling infections among the new urban majority; enhancing the response to international health threats; expanding childhood immunization programmes to prevent acute and chronic diseases in adults; and working towards universal health coverage. By scanning the wider horizon now, infectious disease specialists have the chance to shape the post-2015 era of health and development.
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Hum Vaccin Immunother · Jan 2014
Clinical TrialImmunogenicity and safety of an inactivated 2012/2013 trivalent influenza vaccine produced in mammalian cell culture (Optaflu®): an open label, uncontrolled study.
The present study aimed to evaluate immunogenicity and safety of the 2012/2013 seasonal influenza vaccine (Optaflu(®)) after the World Health Organization recommended two new strains for the composition. ⋯ In this trial, 126 subjects (63 adults ≥18 to ≤60 y, 63 elderly ≥61 y) were vaccinated with a single dose Optaflu(®) containing each of the three virus strains recommended for the 2012/2013 season (A/California/7/2009(H1N1)-like strain, A/Victoria/361/2011(H3N2)-like strain, and B/Wisconsin/1/2010-like strain). Immunogenicity was assessed by hemagglutinin inhibition (HI) and single radial hemolysis (SRH) assays on day 22, the safety profile was investigated throughout the whole study period.