LATEST ESWI NEWS

Coronavirus, flu and RSV colliding in the fall: conclusions of ESWI’s webinars and recommendations

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ESWI organised four webinars in June 2020 to address these questions and discuss them amongst peers, clinicians and policymakers.

INFLUENZA AND RSV IN A COVID-19 WORLD

CLINICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF COVID-19, INFLUENZA AND RSV

INTERVENTION STRATEGIES FOR COVID-19, INFLUENZA AND RSV

CORNERSTONES OF PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS AND URGENT ACTIONS

The following is a summary of the main conclusions and recommendations from each of the four webinars.

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ESWI Young Scientist Awards 2020

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The fifth edition of the ESWI Young Scientist Best Body Of Work award goes to Dr. Robert de Vries, Utrecht University, The Netherlands for his substantial accomplishments to date in the field of understanding influenza virus dynamics.

The first edition of the ESWI Young Scientist Innovative Award, a research grant supported by Seqirus, goes to Dr. Kirsty Short, University of Queensland, Australia, for her innovative research in vaccine development.

Both Dr. de Vries and Dr. Short will receive an invitation to give a keynote lecture during the Young Scientists Plenary session at the 7th ESWI Influenza Conference in Valencia, Spain (13-16 September).

Stimulating the careers of promising researchers being one of ESWI’s objectives, several applicants have been invited to co-chair a scientific session at the 2020 Valencia  Conference.

 

 

Influenza Preparedness Stakeholder Conference: meeting report and video summary of stakeholder debate available

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100 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. The video-recorded lectures of the meeting are freely available on ESWI TV. Click here to watch the lectures.

The meeting report and a video summary of the stakeholder debate are now available for download.

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ESWI Summit on Influenza Vaccination Programs for Healthcare Professionals

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The 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.

Joint ESPID/ESWI symposium at ESPID 2019 (8 May 2019)

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During 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:

  • Ana Mosterin (Cambridge University) on “Influenza B and the rationale for Quadrivalent vaccines”
  • Abdullah Brooks (Johns Hopkins) on “Childhood flu vaccination in underprivileged areas: challenges and solutions”
  • Ed Belongia (Marshfield Clinic Research Institute) on “Vaccine effectiveness against H3N2 influenza virus in children”.

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

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On 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-flu community

Diabetes/Influenza Community established

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ESWI 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:

  • The International Diabetes Federation (IDF Europe)
  • Foundation of European Nurses in Diabetes (FEND)
  • Pharmacist Group to the European Union (PGEU)
  • Diabetes UK
  • Primary Care Diabetes Europe (PCDE)
  • Immunology of Diabetes Society (IDS)
  • European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD)
  • Nurse Practitioner Healthcare Foundation (NPHF)
  • American association of diabetes educators (AADE)
  • American Pharmacists Association (APhA)

diabetes-flu community

ESWI participates in the Influenza Diabetes Task Force and helps launching the first International Campaign to better Protect People with Diabetes against Influenza

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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).