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This project investigates how different populations of cells within the respiratory tract immune system are altered during a viral infection.

Latest news & events at the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines & Infectious Diseases.

Clinical Professor Tobias Strunk, Dr Andrew Currie and their Neonatal Infection and Immunity Team have become the newest members of the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases.

Since its emergence in 1968, influenza A H3N2 has caused yearly epidemics in temperate regions. While infection confers immunity against antigenically similar strains, new antigenically distinct strains that evade existing immunity regularly emerge ('antigenic drift'). Immunity at the individual level is complex, depending on an individual's lifetime infection history.

As we finalised our analysis of the adoption of mandatory policies for childhood vaccines in four high-income jurisdictions for our publication, “Convergence on Coercion,” every country on earth was grappling with how to drive uptake of COVID-19 vaccines. 

To assess potential benefits and direct healthcare cost savings with expansion of an existing childhood influenza immunisation program, we developed a dynamic transmission model for the state of Western Australia, evaluating increasing coverage in children < 5 years and routinely immunising school-aged children.

Seasonal influenza vaccine is effective against influenza hospitalisations, but little is known about non-specific effects of the vaccine on other respiratory pathogens with similar seasonal patterns. We aimed to assess the causal impact of seasonal influenza vaccine on laboratory-confirmed hospitalisations for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in children using an instrumental variable strategy.

Pregnant women are recognised as being at risk of serious illness from influenza. Despite this, and longstanding national recommendations for vaccination in pregnancy, vaccine uptake remains suboptimal. This study aims to determine factors associated with women declining influenza vaccination in pregnancy.

Healthcare personnel (HCP) are a priority group for annual influenza vaccination. Few studies have assessed the validity of recall of prior influenza vaccination status among HCP, especially for more than one preceding season.

This report summarises the epidemiology of hospitalisations with laboratory-confirmed influenza during the 2019 influenza season. The Influenza Complications Alert Network (FluCAN) is a sentinel hospital-based surveillance program that operates at sites in all jurisdictions in Australia.