Influenza News

Interim estimates published Thursday in MMWR indicate that this season’s influenza vaccine has not been effective.

Text messaging showed promise as a surveillance tool to identify acute respiratory infections over a 5-year period in New York City, researchers found.

A new study reinforced that influenza vaccination protects children from serious illness even when vaccines are a poor match for circulating viruses.

Although influenza activity continues to increase in the United States, it remains low enough that the CDC does not consider the flu season to have started yet, a CDC expert said.

NEW YORK — In a video interview, John V. Williams, MD, explains to providers what they can expect from seasonal viruses like influenza, human metapneumovirus and respiratory syncytial virus this winter.

After going totally virtual last year, the 34th Annual Infectious Diseases in Children Symposium will be back, both online and in-person, on Nov. 21 and 22.

Influenza viruses and coronaviruses have both caused major pandemics. We asked Infectious Disease News Editorial Board Members Gitanjali Pai, MD, AAHIVS, FIDSA, an infectious disease physician at Memorial Hospital and Physicians Clinic in Stilwell, Oklahoma, and chief medical officer for the Oklahoma State Department of Health, and Raghavendra Tirupathi, MD, FACP, medical director for Keystone Infectious Diseases/HIV, chair of infection prevention at Summit Health and clinical assistant professor of medicine at Penn State University School of Medicine, which group of viruses they would eliminate, if possible, and why.

Year after year, experts say the best defense against seasonal influenza is getting vaccinated.

The FDA expanded the age indication of the only cell-based inactivated influenza vaccine approved for use in the United States to include children as young as age 6 months, the vaccine’s manufacturer announced Friday.

A cell-based influenza vaccine was 54% effective among children during three recent influenza seasons and provided protection regardless of previous vaccination status, according to the results of a randomized clinical trial.