As it was proved during 2009 A(H1N1) pandemic, vaccinating pregnant women against flu is usually safe and can protect both mother and children. Vaccination against whooping cough is recommended as well, while vaccines with live virus, such as nasal spray flu vaccine, measles and rubella, should not be used in these cases. Thomas Breuer, GSK Senior Vice president, Chief Medical Officer, Vaccines, tells ASSET about a new approach to protect babies against a dangerous infection such as SRV (syncytial respiratory virus), by immunising mothers during pregnancy with a vaccine which is currently under study at GSK.
During the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) developed an application that allowed people to share information on the spread of the contagion, which proved to be very useful to monitor the situation. Now that the Zika virus outbreak is raising concerns, would it be possible to use a similar approach? Some weeks ago, the experts of the CDC argued that developing an app to track the spread of Zika virus would not be as effective as it was with Ebola.
Declaring an emergency is a dirty work, but someone has to do it. When facing a serious threat to global public health, even if complete evidence is lacking, someone has to take the responsibility to push the red button that activates a chain of coordinated actions (such as cooperation among states and research on vaccines). Choosing to do this, the risk of giving a false alarm is unavoidable.
The Zika virus has been recently identified in Europe after having spread in Brazil, where its first infection was confirmed in March 2015. Despite being relatively mild, this virus is now making headlines, as it could be responsible of a large increase of microcephaly among infants. A connection that pushed Brazil to declare Zika a public health emergency.
WHO. 2015 Dec 18. Pandemic influenza preparedness: sharing of influenza viruses and access to vaccines and other benefits - Report of the Special Session of the Pandemic Influenza. Preparedness Framework Advisory Group
The European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for research cofunds ASSET project, a resource in case of infectious threats.
ASSET project provides public health authorities with resources, suggestions and tools that could help to draw and review pandemic and epidemic preparedness plans, both national and transnational - introducing Science-in-Society issues, such as those related to ethics and gender.
It makes available a qualified and diverse network of experts in disaster management, public health and risk communication.
A bridge between stakeholders, public health authorities and general public, also through social media in order to encourage listening, improve dialogue, facilitate mutual learning and enhance mobilization.
Just in case.
The consideration of sex and gender are not the most obvious issues that come to mind when discussing epidemics and pandemics. However, sex and gender have an important impact on these issues, since barriers to pandemic preparedness and risk behaviour can often be better understood when viewed from a sex and gender perspective.
Both gender and sex have an impact on experiences and behaviours relating to pandemics, epidemics and vaccination. The difference between sex and gender can be confusing, and the two words are often incorrectly used interchangeably.
The ASSET consortium will award three European health professionals in the primary health sector (preferably GPs or groups of GPs) with a 3,000€ educational grant each. Participation to the award is restricted to health professionals in the primary health sector (GPs or groups of GPs) who have implemented an activity or intervention to:
