LATEST ESWI NEWS

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).

SAVE THE DATE for the 7th ESWI Influenza Conference: 13 – 16 September 2020

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The 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

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“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

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People 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 Best Presentation Awards: congrats to the laureates!

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ESWI actively encourages the careers of promising influenza researchers. As part of that endeavour it disseminates awards for the best oral and the best poster presentation by a young scientist at its triennial ESWI Influenza Conferences.

During the recent  6th ESWI Influenza Conference in Riga, session chairs and co-chairs had been asked to evaluate Young Scientists contributions and from the collected scores, two laureates have been selected:

  • Best Oral Presentation Award 2017 goes to Bernadeta Dadonaite, University of Oxford, for her talk entitled “Analysis of the higher order RNA structures present inside the Influenza A virus genome”
  • Best Poster Presentation Award 2017 goes to Carina Conceiçao, University of Edinburgh, for her poster entitled “Avian Influenza A virus budding morphology: spherical or filamentous?”

Both prize winner will receive an official certificate. They will also receive free registration, travel and accommodation for the 7th ESWI Influenza Conference in 2020. In early 2020, they will be invited to submit an abstract of their latest influenza research, which will be assessed by the Conference Programme Committee in view of selecting the speakers for the 2020 Young Scientists Plenary Session.

Congratulations to Bernadeta and Carina!

Roundtable on influenza prevention strategies for people with diabetes

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On 25 October 2017, the diabetes community joined forces to pave the way towards an improved protection of diabetes patients. In fact, patient organizations, healthcare professionals and academic experts assembled in Leuven, Belgium, for a roundtable discussion organized by the Foundation of European Nurses in Diabetes (FEND) and ESWI. The main take home messages of this important event have now been summarized in this easy-to-grasp fact sheet.

Benefits of flu vaccination for persons with diabetes mellitus: A review

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People with diabetes face a higher risk for influenza and its complications. National and international guidelines therefore advise that diabetes patients be annually vaccinated against influenza.

The evidence that underpins these guidelines has long been fragmented and underexposed. Consequently, attention for the impact of influenza on diabetes patients is low and so is the influenza vaccine uptake in this group, despite WHO’s target to routinely vaccinate 75% of all people at high risk. It was therefore high time to assemble all currently available data about the impact of influenza on diabetes patients and to review current influenza prevention strategies. ESWI has undertaken this important endeavour and in its recently paper (published in Vaccine Journal on 12 September 2017), ESWI has reviewed the scientific base for recommending routine vaccination of diabetes patients against influenza.

Latest advances in the FP7 FLUNIVAC project

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The FP7 FLUNIVAC project aims to pave the way to the development of a universal influenza vaccine. ESWI is FLUNIVAC’s communication partner and has now prepared a brand new version of the FLUNIVAC newsletter, highlighting the project’s recent advances. The newsletter is available here. Feel free to disseminate the document to anyone you think might be interested.