Science Media Centre

Tony Wall writes in the Sunday Star Times about virologist Lance Jennings, who helped develop NZ’s response to the AH1N1 pandemic last year, but who has been accused of not properly disclosing his affiliation with private drug companies. Jennings has said in answer that ties with such companies are not unusual, and that he disclosed [...]

Swine flu – lessons one year on This time last year, as Kiwis prepared to attend weekend dawn parade and RSA dinners in celebration of ANZAC Day, a public health issue was brewing that would quickly come to dominate headlines globally. In hindsight, it’s easy to for critics to take pot shots at the scale [...]

Australia’s Chief Medical Officer today told doctors in Australia to stop giving the seasonal flu vaccine to children under the age of five. The advice follows concerns the vaccine is adversely affecting children’s health after more than 20 children in Western Australia had adverse reactions including suffering from high fever and in some cases convulsions. [...]

UPDATED 12.30pm: A year ago this Saturday, Rangitoto College students returning from a school trip to Mexico were quarantined in home isolation, with suspected cases of H1N1 swine influenza. By the end of 2009, the strain of flu the students were infected with had swept the world, claiming the lives of 17,798 people, including 20 [...]

Martin Johnston writes in the New Zealand Herald that the Ministry of Health is urging people to get their flu shots soon, in light of their prediction that flu could begin surfacing again by the end of this month. It is hoped that such behaviour could give New Zealand its best chance to getting through [...]

Janine Rankin of the Manawatu Standard reports on the start of efforts to immunise those most at risk from swine flu. The H1N1 vaccine is initially only available to those most at risk – health workers, the morbidly obese, the very young and pregnant women – and will roll out to the rest of the [...]

The Ministry of Health’s strategic communications manager Spiro Anastasiou gave attendees at the Science Communicators Association conference an insight into the ministry’s response to the N1H1 pandemic. Click on the player below to listen to his presentation: [Audio clip: view full post to listen]

The NZPA reports on a study conducted by New Zealand and Australian doctors, which found that blood oxygenation was the key factor for people with swine flu who suffer respiratory failure. The observational study focused on 68 patients with severe swine flu-associated respiratory distress. An excerpt: (read in full here) “The observational study, carried out [...]

From the AusSMC: Preliminary results from the first study of CSL’s pandemic H1N1 vaccine show an immune response in adults that correlates with the prevention of influenza infection following a single 15mcg dose. The study involving 240 healthy adults aged 18 to 64 years also found the vaccine has a similar side effect profile to [...]

Researchers say a vaccination programme starting in September, reaching 70 per cent of the US population and targeting children first, could effectively curtail the H1N1 pandemic as the US moves into winter. The authors of the paper, published in Science tomorrow, used a computer model and up-to-date information about the pandemic to simulate how it [...]