The Influenza Diabetes Task Force, a newly founded international alliance of organizations dedicated to the protection of people with diabetes against influenza, launches a campaign on influenza & diabetes. It is the first multi-stakeholder international campaign advocating for the need to increase influenza vaccination rates among people with diabetes worldwide. The campaign will start at the beginning of the 2018-2019 Influenza season.
Microlearning Videos by International Experts to Educate about Influenza & Diabetes
Because the risks of influenza for people with chronic diseases can no longer be understated, respected members of the Influenza and Diabetes community developed 6, 30 seconds to 3 minutes micro-learning videos to educate on the link between influenza and diabetes. These videos are freely accessible at https://idc.mytonomy.com.
“The videos are short and engaging. They provide reliable and accessible information on influenza & diabetes, the flu vaccine, and how we can, as healthcare professionals, talk to our patients about getting vaccinated against influenza. I am proud to be part of this sound initiative that contributes to improving collective knowledge about influenza and diabetes.”, said Prof. Ab Osterhaus, Chairman of the European Scientific Working Group on Influenza.
A Campaign Targeting Healthcare Professionals to Achieve Better Protection of At-Risk Patients
Healthcare professionals have a privileged relationship with patients and are at high risk of being exposed to the influenza virus. For that reason, the first international Influenza & Diabetes Campaign is targeting clinicians. “All members of the healthcare team have an important role to play in preventing disease. Getting vaccinated ourselves and encouraging our patients to get the yearly vaccine is a smart step that we can all take to boost our immune protection against influenza. This simple message is at the heart of the Influenza & Diabetes International Campaign.” said Phyllis Zimmer, Founder and Chairman of the Nurse Practitioner Healthcare Foundation.
About Influenza & Diabetes
Influenza is a highly contagious respiratory illness. Anyone can get influenza, but some people have a much higher risk of getting very ill from the infection. People with diabetes are 3-6 times more likely to be hospitalized during influenza epidemics[1]. They also have a much higher rate of death associated with an influenza infection[2]. Moreover, studies have shown that influenza can make diabetes difficult to manage. This is why yearly influenza vaccination is recommended by the World Health Organization for high risk patients, including those with diabetes.
[1]Bouter KP, Diabetes Res Clin Pract 1991;12:61-8. Allard R, Diabetes Care 2010;33:1491-3.
[2]https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/influenza-the-green-book-chapter-19(p4).
ESWI Summit on Influenza Vaccination Programs for Healthcare Professionals
/in News /by davidThe question of flu vaccination for healthcare professionals is an urgent and highly relevant one. After all, the devastating impact of flu is widely recognized, and flu vaccines are estimated to prevent thousands of admissions and millions of illnesses with current usage. At risk groups are well defined. Health care professionals work with the patients at risk on a daily basis. Annual vaccination is widely recommended to reduce the risk of healthcare acquired influenza. Why then is it so difficult to achieve influenza vaccine uptake levels in healthcare workers that would reduce or eliminate the risk of transmitting the disease?
In its 2019 Science Policy Influenza Summit, ESWI will attempt to answer that question in close collaboration
with its partner organizations. Together, we aim to develop a list of actions to stimulate the implementation of vaccination policies for health care professionals.
The meeting will be held in Marseille, France, on 20 November 2019, at the occasion of the 12th European Public Health Conference. For more information, click here.
Influenza Preparedness Stakeholder Conference on ESWI TV
/in News /by david100 years ago, an influenza pandemic stunned the world, killing more than 50 million people worldwide. The world remains vulnerable to such outbreaks, and due to the fast evolution of the influenza virus, globalization and intercontinental travel, outbreaks on the scale and severity of the 1918 pandemic would have a devastating effect today. But lessons learned from the past century of research and international cooperation should help prepare the world for future pandemics.
ESWI, in partnership with the Centre on Global Health Security at Chatham House, organized the Influenza Preparedness Stakeholder Conference on the Centenary of the 1918 Pandemic to provide an opportunity to review the advances made over the past 100 years, evaluate current preparedness levels and discuss the pathways required to improve policy engagement.
The conference was held on 22 January 2019, and the video-recorded lectures of the meeting are now freely available at ESWI TV. Click here to watch the lectures.
Joint ESPID/ESWI symposium at ESPID 2019 (8 May 2019)
/in News /by davidDuring the 37th annual meeting of the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases (ESPID), ESWI and ESPID will organize a joint symposium on “Influenza vaccines for children: current issues and developments”.
Confirmed symposium speakers include:
The symposium will be held during ESPID 2019 on 8 May 2019 in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Visit the ESPID 2019 website.
Bringing Childhood Influenza Vaccination to the Next Level: Summit report now available
/in News /by davidOn 28 September 2018, ESWI brought together 60 influenza stakeholders for a day of presentations and debates on paediatric influenza vaccination. The aim of the meeting was to bring childhood influenza vaccination to the next level and to that end ESWI organized a stakeholders table for partner organizations, combined with a number of scientific contributions, Q&A and debate. The event was available via live stream video, reaching 590 viewers worldwide, many of whom weighed in on the discussions via Twitter and e-mail.
The report of the lectures and the discussions held at the Summit can now be downloaded here.
Diabetes/Influenza Community established
/in News /by davidESWI proudly facilitated the formation of a diabetes/influenza community on 8 November 2018 in Leuven. The group’s action plan is currently under preparation and ESWI looks forward to implementing it in close collaboration with our partners:
ESWI participates in the Influenza Diabetes Task Force and helps launching the first International Campaign to better Protect People with Diabetes against Influenza
/in News /by davidThe Influenza Diabetes Task Force, a newly founded international alliance of organizations dedicated to the protection of people with diabetes against influenza, launches a campaign on influenza & diabetes. It is the first multi-stakeholder international campaign advocating for the need to increase influenza vaccination rates among people with diabetes worldwide. The campaign will start at the beginning of the 2018-2019 Influenza season.
Microlearning Videos by International Experts to Educate about Influenza & Diabetes
Because the risks of influenza for people with chronic diseases can no longer be understated, respected members of the Influenza and Diabetes community developed 6, 30 seconds to 3 minutes micro-learning videos to educate on the link between influenza and diabetes. These videos are freely accessible at https://idc.mytonomy.com.
“The videos are short and engaging. They provide reliable and accessible information on influenza & diabetes, the flu vaccine, and how we can, as healthcare professionals, talk to our patients about getting vaccinated against influenza. I am proud to be part of this sound initiative that contributes to improving collective knowledge about influenza and diabetes.”, said Prof. Ab Osterhaus, Chairman of the European Scientific Working Group on Influenza.
A Campaign Targeting Healthcare Professionals to Achieve Better Protection of At-Risk Patients
Healthcare professionals have a privileged relationship with patients and are at high risk of being exposed to the influenza virus. For that reason, the first international Influenza & Diabetes Campaign is targeting clinicians. “All members of the healthcare team have an important role to play in preventing disease. Getting vaccinated ourselves and encouraging our patients to get the yearly vaccine is a smart step that we can all take to boost our immune protection against influenza. This simple message is at the heart of the Influenza & Diabetes International Campaign.” said Phyllis Zimmer, Founder and Chairman of the Nurse Practitioner Healthcare Foundation.
About Influenza & Diabetes
Influenza is a highly contagious respiratory illness. Anyone can get influenza, but some people have a much higher risk of getting very ill from the infection. People with diabetes are 3-6 times more likely to be hospitalized during influenza epidemics[1]. They also have a much higher rate of death associated with an influenza infection[2]. Moreover, studies have shown that influenza can make diabetes difficult to manage. This is why yearly influenza vaccination is recommended by the World Health Organization for high risk patients, including those with diabetes.
[1]Bouter KP, Diabetes Res Clin Pract 1991;12:61-8. Allard R, Diabetes Care 2010;33:1491-3.
[2]https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/influenza-the-green-book-chapter-19(p4).
SAVE THE DATE for the 7th ESWI Influenza Conference: 13 – 16 September 2020
/in News /by davidThe 7th ESWI Influenza Conference will take us to the vibrant city of Valencia, Spain’s third largest city, from 13 to 16 September 2020. The 7th ESWI Influenza Conference will offer you four days of expert lectures, symposia and workshops on all aspects of influenza and will be the world’s premier influenza meeting in 2020. Kindly save the dates in your calendar now. More information will soon be available on ESWI’s conference website: https://eswi.org/influenzaconferences/
SAVE THE DATE: Stakeholder Roundtable on Influenza Pandemic Preparedness on 22 January 2019
/in News /by david“Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards”, Norwegian philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once said. And we could not agree more. That is precisely why ESWI will commemorate the centenary of the 1918-19 influenza pandemic outbreak with a stakeholder roundtable gathering on 22 January 2019 in London. Chatham House kindly agreed to co-host the meeting at their premises.
The aim of the meeting is to prepare for the next influenza pandemic by providing an overview of the scientific basis for pandemic preparedness and exploring pathways to improve policy engagement. This meeting will certainly provide a unique opportunity for discussion between key players and participants in pandemic preparedness and response.
A preliminary meeting agenda is available here. More information will be made available on this website in the coming months.
Influenza and diabetes patients: new infographics
/in News /by davidPeople with diabetes still face a higher risk for influenza and its complications. National and international guidelines therefore advise that diabetes patients be annually vaccinated against influenza. But the attention for the impact of influenza on diabetes patients is low and so is the influenza vaccine uptake in this group, despite the scientific evidence that influenza vaccination is beneficial for people with diabetes and WHO’s recommendation to routinely vaccinate 75% of all people at high risk.
To help increase influenza vaccination coverage, ESWI has now developed infographics that illustrate the risks of influenza infection for people with diabetes and the possible strategies to prevent such infection. Feel free to download and disseminate.
ESWI’s 2017 activity report
/in News /by davidESWI’s aim is to reduce the burden of influenza in Europe and it takes an impressive lot of actions to achieve that goal. Here’s our 2017 activity report.