# 4999
CIDRAP News does in-depth reporting on infectious disease issues five days a week, and consistently ranks among the best science and disease reporting you are going to find anywhere.
News Editor Robert Roos and staff science writer Lisa Schnirring are expert at taking complex subjects and presenting them in easily digestible reports.
In addition to their nightly news scan (NEWS SCAN: Global flu activity, novel flu vaccine, H1N1 attack rate, antimicrobial resistance, cruise ship outbreak) and a short feature story on a listeria-related recall in Texas, last night there were two other stories of note.
First, a look at yesterday’s big story that I also wrote about in Eurosurveillance On Recently Isolated H1N1 Mutations.
This report concerns a slightly `drifted’ version of last year’s swine flu virus has been detected in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, something that has been fully expected since the emergence of the virus 18 months ago.
This has, nonetheless, sparked a fair amount of online speculation and media attention.
Lisa Schnirring brings us the details, including commentary from some well-respected influenza experts, in:
Study: 2009 H1N1 variant gained a foothold in three countries
Lisa Schnirring
Staff Writer
Oct 21, 2010 (CIDRAP News) – Laboratory experts from Australia and Singapore have identified changes in the 2009 H1N1 flu virus that they say don't seem to make the vaccine less effective but bear watching.
Researchers first identified the genetic variants in April 2010 in Singapore, where they became more common, spreading to New Zealand and Australia during their winter flu seasons.
The group described its findings in today's issue of Eurosurveillance. Other experts contacted by CIDRAP News said the findings are not surprising.
The second report comes from the pen of news editor Robert Roos, and it covers some of the subjects discussed in yesterday’s Influenza Press Conference from the IDSA’s 48th Annual meeting held in Vancouver this year.
IDSA studies report on range of flu issues
Robert Roos
Oct 21, 2010 (CIDRAP News) – Influenza reports presented at the Infectious Diseases Society of America's (IDSA's) annual conference today shed light on a range of topics, including vaccine acceptance among healthcare workers (HCWs) and risk factors for hospitalization in small children.
IDSA members discussed their reports in a press teleconference today from the meeting site in Vancouver, B.C., and the organization also released abstracts online.
You can watch this hour-long influenza press conference online (along with others from this conference), in the multi-media section of Medpagetoday at this link.
Some Highlighted Abstracts from the IDSA press release:
- #1430 Child and Household Risk Factors for Hospitalization with Laboratory-Confirmed Influenza Among Children Aged 6-59 Months – United States 2005-2008 [Full Abstract]
- #871 Safety of the 2009 H1N1 Influenza Vaccine in Pregnant Women [Full Abstract]
- #1346 Factors Influencing Acceptance of H1N1 Influenza Vaccine in Pregnancy [Full Abstract]
- #1344 Improving Influenza Vaccination Rates for Healthcare Workers [Full Abstract]
- #758 A Population-Based Study of Neurologic Manifestations of Severe Influenza A (H1N1) 2009 in California [Full Abstract]
- #868 All On the Line: Attitudes Toward Mandatory Influenza Vaccination Among Health Care Workers [Full Abstract]
- #869 Mandatory Influenza Vaccination of Health Care Workers: A Five Year Experience [Full Abstract]
IDSA news conferences schedule for yesterday and today include:
Thursday, October 21
8:30 a.m. PT Overview (no teleconference option)
9:30 a.m. PT HIV
10:30 a.m. PT Global Health
11:45 a.m. PT Influenza
Friday, October 22
8:30 a.m. PT Pediatrics
9:45 a.m. PT Foodborne and Related Diseases
11:00 a.m. PT Emerging infections
Noon PT Antibiotics
So you can expect more news to emerge from this annual meeting today, and over the weekend.
