Women who are pregnant are more likely to have severe disease and hospitalisation with either seasonal or pandemic influenza, compared to the general population or compared to non-pregnant women of the same age group. During pandemics, the mortality rate for pregnant women is higher than non-pregnant women. However, this is not the case with seasonal influenza unless the strain is particularly severe (WHO 2010).
The internet deals a lot with flu, but mostly talks about care and little about prevention. This is the result of a study made by Voices from the Blogs, a spin-off of the University of Milan, on the web-sentiment on influenza and vaccination in Italy.
An increasing perception of the importance of gender differences is moving scientists to study these aspects in the different branches of medicine. In immunology, for example, a new awareness is emerging that women and men’s defences do not react to infections and vaccines in the same way. Katie Flanagan, senior lecturer of the Department of Immunology at Monash University, in Melbourne, Australia, tells ASSET what is the state-of-the-art knowledge and evidence in this field so far.
In 2009 A(H1N1) pandemic, vaccines were ready and could be supplied only when the peak of the pandemic was already decreasing in most European countries, discouraging people from getting vaccinated. Since the disease was not as severe as it was feared in the beginning, the consequences of this delay were not that serious, even if some lives could have been saved if the vaccines were available in advance. Ebola vaccine also arrived to West Africa when the epidemic was over, while a zika vaccine is still very far away. According to Thomas Breuer, however, GSK Chief Medical Officer, in case of another flu pandemic, a better cooperation among stakeholders and new technologies could accelerate the production and supply of new vaccines.
While USA recommend universal flu vaccination for 6 months age, some European countries have different strategies, targeting only children with chronic diseases. Susanna Esposito, professor of Paediatrics at the University of Milan, Italy and president of WAIDID (World Association for Infectious Diseases) advocates for a wider coverage against influenza in healthy children as well.
While the number of human cases of H7N9 bird flu is rising in China, and H5N1 is a persistent threat, different strategies of prevention are being considered. In a “one health” approach, vaccination of poultry is one of the possibilities, according to Ivan Hung, Clinical Associate Professor and Honorary Consultant in the Department of Medicine at the Queen Mary Hospital of the University of Hong Kong.
Living poultry markets, common in China and in other eastern countries, are a typical example of how societal factors can be relevant in the spread of infectious diseases. A science-with-and-for-society approach should therefore find a way to solve this problem without fostering people hostility towards authorities. Even if central slaughters would be the simplest solutions, people would not accept them. Ivan Hung, Clinical Associate Professor and Honorary Consultant in the Department of Medicine at the Queen Mary Hospital of the University of Hong Kong, explains how this issue can be dealt with, in the fight against H7N9 bird flu virus and other new strains.
Flutrackers is an online platform that gather information about infectious diseases from journals, news sources and citizens around the world. It was started in 2006 by a diverse group of volunteers, initially interested in investigating seasonal influenza, novel influenza, and chikungunya. In later years, we expanded our range by including other health threats such as the Ebola and Zika viruses, and drug resistant bacteria.
