Second European Influenza Summit
To help lower the impact of influenza on public health in Europe, the European Scientific Working group on Influenza (ESWI) organizes its second Flu Summit on 23 May 2012 at the Albert Hall Complex in Brussels.
The aim of the one-day meeting is to bring together all influenza stakeholder organizations and to provide them with a platform to discuss influenza prevention strategies, exchange good practices and take concrete actions.
Download the programme of the event here.
For more information, visit www.flusummit.org
Video on Risk of Influenza in People Living with Diabetes
Everyone is at risk of influenza, but hospitalisations and deaths from the virus and its complications mainly occur in at-risk groups: the elderly, the young and those with chronic illnesses such as asthma and diabetes
New documentary "Influenza-aiming at a moving target" is available here.
The film covers all aspects of the disease, ranging from the characteristics of the flu virus itself to the impact of pandemic and epidemic influenza.
European health care systems are among the best in the world. And yet, in Europe, the influenza disease still claims more lives than traffic accidents. In fact, hospitalizations and deaths after an influenza infection mainly occur in at-risk groups: the elderly population and people living with chronic diseases such as diabetes. Indeed, people with diabetes are six times more likely to be hospitalized with influenza during flu epidemics. Mortality is particularly high when additional risk factors exist, especially cardiovascular disease and being over 65 years of age.
Influenza, however, is a preventable disease and the protection of the ‘risk groups’ against influenza can and must be improved. Indeed, influenza deaths are avoidable and therefore every influenza victim is one too many. Influenza vaccines have been used for more than 40 years now and have proven to be very safe and effective. For that reason, the World Health Organization (WHO) strongly recommends routine vaccination of at-risk groups and it urges countries to vaccinate at least 75% of those groups. Unfortunately, very few countries achieve this target.
Together IDF Europe and ESWI wish to identify ways to maximize the protection of diabetes patients against influenza.
• Video for influenza and diabetes (illustrating that people with diabetes are a risk group for influenza)
• www.eswi.org
• www.flucentre.org
First European Influenza Summit
On 26 May 2011, the First European Influenza Summit brought together more than 70 representatives of organizations of healthcare providers, senior citizens, at-risk patients and public health authorities. The aim of the meeting was to provide all influenza partners with an informal platform to exchange good practices and to initiate concrete actions to improve public health protection against influenza. Press release
Print this page
Send to friend