2^nd International conference on Flu November 01-02, 2016 San Francisco, California, USA

Staffan P.E. Sylvan is a senior expert in infectious diseases and communicable disease control and prevention. He has been the county medical officer for Uppsala County, Sweden. As such he was the director of the local department of communicable disease control and prevention and was very active in undertaking campaigns concerning the containment of the spread of communicable diseases such as pandemic influenza, Chlamydia, HIV and hepatitis A, B and C. He has a long standing research career particularly in the area of hepatitis immunology. He has published more than 65 papers in reputed journals

The aim of this study was to compare the impact of the pandemic influenza strain A(H1N1)pdm09 on the need for hospital care, intensive care and mortality in three countries in the southern hemisphere where no vaccination was implemented with the results obtained in Uppsala county, Sweden where vaccination with the pandemic vaccine Pandemrix was started two weeks before the begining of the outbreak. In Sweden pandemic influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 was notifiable from the microbiology departments. Notification from the clinicians was required for patients treated in the hospitals. Data on mortality was extracted from the patients electronic journal systems. The data from the three southern hemisphere countries was obtained from a data analysis made by the Swedish Institute for communicable disease control and prevention and was distributed on August 17th 2009 to all hospitals and county medical officers in Sweden. The 2009 A(H1N1) influenza pandemic resulted in a lower need for hospital care in two out of three countries from the southern hemisphere compared with Uppsala county. In contrast, the need for intensive care and the mortality rate in the three countries where no vaccination was performed was similar to those of Uppsala county, where 62% of the population had been vaccinated by January 2010. No clear benefit could be registered on the need for hospital care, intensive care and mortality of the massvaccination campaign implemented in Uppsala county. This is probably due to the late onset of the vaccination campaign. After the vaccination campaign 15 new cases of narcolepsy was diagnosed.

LI Can has completed her PhD and now a postdoctoral fellow in the Dept. of Microbiology, the University of Hong Kong. She mainly researches on vaccine and the pathogenesis of influenza viruses, including pandemic H1N1 virus, H5N1 and H7N9 viruses. She published several papers during her PhD study.

TLR ligands, which can directly stimulate immune responses towards antigens, have shown great promise as novel adjuvants in many vaccine studies. Imiquimod, a synthetic TLR7 agonist, could significantly enhance immune responses together with conventional vaccine strategies. Our previous study showed an inactivated 2009 pdm H1N1 vaccine combined with Imiquimod (VCI) could elicit immediate immune responses against influenza A (H1N1) pdm09 infection in BALB/c mice as early as 3 days prior to challenge. Survival rate was significantly improved in VCI group. Neutralizing antibody and virus-specific antibody could be detected in mouse sera at day 4 in VCI group. We further investigated the mechanisms by which imiquimod enhances the efficacy of vaccine. The results showed that intraperitoneal administration of VCI induced significant amount of monocytes recruitment to the peritoneal cavity; meanwhile peritoneal resident B cells are activated and migrated rapidly to lymphoid organs. We found that B cells in spleen increased and expressed increased surface marker CD86 after 18 hours treatment. B cells in lung also significantly increased rapidly after infection in VCI group compared with untreated mice. Germinal center involved B cells and plasma cells increased in lymph nodes at day 3 p.i.. These results indicated imiquimod combined with vaccine may stimulate local B cells activation and enhance the proliferation and differentiation. Finally, the fast-acting antibody-based immune responses induced by vaccine combined with imquimod may provide a new strategy facing immediate unpredicted influenza outbreaks. The mechanisms of early B cell activation deserve further study.

Candice Keane is a PhD student at London Centre for Nanotechnology, University College London. Her research is focused on developing a mobile connected point of care test for diagnosing influenza. Having graduated from the Queen Mary University of London with a Masters in Clinical Microbiology, she trained as a Clinical Scientist in Microbiology and Virology before perusing a PhD. Her research sits within a larger project called i-sense, which aims to develop an early warning sensing systems for detecting infectious diseases, based on novel point of care devices and web based information for identifying disease outbreaks.

With approximately, 3-5 million infections resulting in severe illness each year, Influenza causes significant burden on the health care system. In light of challenges of laboratory testing, rapid testing at the point of care offers earlier identification of influenza as the cause of respiratory infection. Rapid testing permits timely antiviral administration and prompts infection control management where necessary. Significant knowledge gaps exist in understanding the accuracy of Point-of-Care (POC) tests for diagnosing influenza in community settings. To address this we undertook a systematic review including studies of any design, containing data on the accuracy of POC assays in adults and children presenting with influenza-like illness to a community health care setting. We searched 3 electronic databases: Ovid MEDLINE, Embase Classic+ Embase, and Global Health. 1229 articles were screened, with 18 (1.46%) fully meeting the eligibility criteria and were included in the final meta-analysis. 31 sub-studies were included in the analysis, as individual studies looked at multiple tests and sub-populations. Initial results indicate that the majority of studies were focused on children as a study population (55.6%), and were based in outpatient clinics (55.6%). 44.4% of studies used QuickVue Influenza A + B (Quidel) as their chosen POC test, with 61.1% of studies analysing their results at the point of care. Variable sensitivity and specificity were observed between assays, patient populations, and test analysis settings in the sub-studies analysis. Sensitivities and specificities ranged between 15.4%-82% and 94.4%-100% respectively. Our preliminary results show that there is lower sensitivity of influenza POC tests when preformed in a community setting compared to manufacturer published data, however further investigation is needed to confirm this.

Background: Asthma is a common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms due to triggers to which the patients are sensitive. Due to the hormonal variations in monthly cycles, women are at risk of increased asthma exacerbations which require close monitoring of those patients to ensure better control and management of the condition. Aims of Study: This study was designed to assess the changes in sex hormones (progesterone and estradiol), cortisol and white blood cells in asthma female students in Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nnewi Campus Nigeria. Materials & Methods: A total of 120 female students with regular menstrual cycle, within the age bracket of 18-35 were randomly recruited for the study. 60 female participants were students who have been diagnosed of asthma exacerbations and use synthetic therapy (Inhaled corticosteroid therapy), while the remaining 60 female participants were apparently healthy control females students. The eligible female students were classified based on menstrual phases as: (i) Follicular asthma females (n=60), (ii) Luteal asthma females (n=60), (iii) Follicular control females (n=60) and (iv) Luteal control females (n=60). Blood samples were collected consecutively from each of the participant at the mid-follicular (4th-13th) and mid-luteal (14-23rd) phases of their menstrual cycle for determination of progesterone, estradiol and cortisol, using ELISA kit method and white blood cell indices using Sysmex K21N Hematology analyzer. Results: 40 (66.7%) of the Asthma students reported of increased exacerbations with reduced activities at mid-luteal phase of their menstrual cycle while 20 (33.3%) reported increased exacerbations with reduced activities at mid-follicular phase of menstrual cycle. The mean serum progesterone, estradiol and cortisol in asthma female subjects at follicular phase were significantly lower compared with the values at luteal phase of menstrual cycle (P=.05). The percentage neutrophils was significantly lower in asthma female subjects when compared with the value in control female subjects at both follicular and luteal phases of menstrual cycle respectively (P=.05). Conclusion: The changes noted in this study vary according to the phases of the menstrual cycle which may be indicative of a link between respiratory symptoms and hormonal changes through the menstrual cycle. This may be attributed to inhibitory effects of the synthetic glucocorticoids on hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis and on the proliferation, growth and migration of white blood cells in asthma female students.

Zhanqiu Yang has completed his MD at the age of 35 years from Wuhan University School of Medicine. He is the director of Institute of Medical Virology, Wuhan University. He has published more than 150 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as an editorial board member of repute.

Jiawei-Yupingfeng-Tang (JYT) is a Chinese herbal formula which is widely used against respiratory tract illness. However, its effect against respiratory virus remains unknown. Influenza virus (IFV) and human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) cause million cases of severe illness per year and many of them developing into lethal pneumonia. The aim of this study is to evaluate whether JYT can be used in the treatment of such infections. Methods: The effect of the JYT against IFV and HRSV was tested by plaque reduction assay in the cell lines A549. The expression of ICAM-1 was determined by real-time RT-PCR and Western blot. A lethal influenza infected mice model developing into interstitial pneumonia was used to evaluate the effect of JYT in vivo. Results: JYT extract dose-dependently inhibited both IFV and HRSV when given before, simultaneous and after viral infection. And it was more effective to block the entry of virus. Furthermore, pre-treatment with JYT can reduce the susceptibility of cells to the invasion of HRSV by inhibiting the expression of ICAM-1. Importantly, JYT extract increased the survival rate of lethal influenza-infected mice, prolonged survival time and alleviated the virus-induced lung lesion, which is compatible with that of ribavirin treatment. Conclusion:. These data support JYT as an alternative modality to be used in the treatment of respiratory viral infection induced by HRSV and IFV.