Articles: pandemics.
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To investigate whether an adjuvanted pandemic A/H1N1 2009 influenza vaccine in pregnancy was associated with an increased risk of fetal death. ⋯ This large cohort study found no evidence of an increased risk of fetal death associated with exposure to an adjuvanted pandemic A/H1N1 2009 influenza vaccine during pregnancy.
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Brain & development · Jan 2012
Comparative StudyAcute encephalopathy with 2009 pandemic flu: comparison with seasonal flu.
To clarify the features of acute encephalopathy associated with 2009 pandemic flu. We identified 51 patients with acute encephalopathy with seasonal flu from the data base accumulated by Tokai Pediatric Neurology Society. We also collected 10 patients with acute encephalopathy with 2009 pandemic flu. ⋯ Various degrees of neurologic sequelae including death were observed in 32% of the patients in the seasonal flu group, and in 50% in the 2009 pandemic flu groups. The analyses of patients with ages of 6years or older revealed that moderate or more severe sequelae were more frequent in patients with 2009 pandemic flu. Acute encephalopathy with 2009 pandemic flu occurred mainly among children with 6years of age or older, and the outcome was worse in this age group compared with acute encephalopathy with seasonal flu.
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2009 pandemic influenza A/H1N1 (A(H1N1)pdm09) was first detected in the United States in April 2009 and resulted in a global pandemic. We conducted a serologic survey to estimate the cumulative incidence of A(H1N1)pdm09 through the end of 2009 when pandemic activity had waned in the United States. ⋯ By December 2009, approximately one-fifth of the US population, or 61.9 million persons, may have been infected with A(H1N1)pdm09, including around half of school-aged children.
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Global public health · Jan 2012
The securitisation of pandemic influenza: framing, security and public policy.
This article examines how pandemic influenza has been framed as a security issue, threatening the functioning of both state and society, and the policy responses to this framing. Pandemic influenza has long been recognised as a threat to human health. ⋯ This article addresses the construction of pandemic influenza as a threat. Drawing on the work of the Copenhagen School, it examines how it was successfully securitised at the turn of the millennium and with what consequences for public policy.
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The World Health Organization and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control have highlighted the importance of establishing systems to monitor severe influenza. Following the H1N1 (2009) influenza pandemic, a sentinel network of 23 Trusts, the UK Severe Influenza Surveillance System (USISS), was established to monitor hospitalisations due to confirmed seasonal influenza in England. This article presents the results of the first season of operation of USISS in 2010/11. ⋯ The Health Protection Agency successfully established a sentinel surveillance system for severe influenza in 2010/11, detecting a rise in influenza cases mirroring other surveillance indicators. The data indicate an upward shift in the age-distribution of influenza A/H1N1 (2009) during the 2010/11 influenza season as compared to the 2009/10 pandemic. Systems to enable the ongoing surveillance of severe influenza will be a key component in understanding and responding to the evolving epidemiology of influenza in the post-pandemic era.