Articles: pandemics.
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In this paper, I examine the goals for pandemic public communication as outlined in two Canadian plans for pandemic planning and infection control. I critique these strategies by drawing on Foucault's notions of governmentality and biopower. My argument is that the public health communication campaign goals reviewed rest upon a particular conceptualization of health in the context of pandemic planning as an individual/family duty, and that scientific/medical expert knowledge is most appropriate for guiding pandemic planning. This study contributes to a sociological understanding of how pandemic preparedness and infection control are represented in Canadian pandemic plans, how public health shapes pandemic communication messages in Canada, and the implications of those messages for subjectivity and notions of citizenship.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Long-term immunogenicity of an AS03-adjuvanted influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 vaccine in young and elderly adults: an observer-blind, randomized trial.
This study (NCT00979602) evaluated the immunogenicity and relative protective efficacy of one dose of influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 vaccine with or without AS03 (an α-tocopherol oil-in-water emulsion based Adjuvant System). ⋯ A single dose of either adjuvanted or non-adjuvanted influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 vaccine induced protective HI antibody levels against the A/California/7/2009 strain that persisted through Month 6 in the 18-64 years population.
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The recent emergence of severe human illness caused by avian-origin influenza A(H7N9) viruses in China has precipitated a global effort to rapidly develop and test vaccine candidates. To date, non-A(H7N9) H7 subtype influenza vaccine candidates have been poorly immunogenic and difficulties in production of A(H7N9) virus seed strains have been encountered. A candidate recombinant A(H7N9) vaccine consisting of full length, unmodified hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) from the A/Anhui/1/2013 and the matrix 1 (M1) protein from the A/Indonesia/05/2005 (H5N1) were cloned into a baculovirus vector. ⋯ The non-homologous H7 vaccine induced both H7N3 and H7N9 HAI but no N9 anti-NA antibodies. A lethal murine wild-type A/Anhui/1/2013 (H7N9) challenge demonstrated 100% survival of all animals receiving A(H7N9) and A(H7N3) vaccine, versus 0% survival in A(H5N1) vaccine and placebo groups. Together, the data demonstrate that recombinant H7N9 vaccine can be rapidly developed that was immunogenic and efficacious supporting testing in man as a pandemic influenza H7N9 vaccine candidate.
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Influenza Other Respi Viruses · Sep 2013
The first, second and third wave of pandemic influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 in North Denmark Region 2009-2011: a population-based study of hospitalizations.
Denmark experienced three waves of the new pandemic influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 from July 2009 to February 2011. The aim of the study was to describe the epidemiology and clinical characteristics of hospitalized patients in a defined population of North Denmark Region with a mixed urban and rural community of 579,000 inhabitants. ⋯ Patients hospitalized with pandemic influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 were predominantly children and younger adults, and only a few patients were >65 years. The third wave was the most severe taking the number and percentage of patients admitted to ICUs and 30-day mortality into consideration. We observed that the incidence of hospitalizations as well as clinical severity among younger adults did not decline from the second to the third wave.