QUO VADIS INFLUENZA?

Key words: Influenza epidemics, Antivirals, Influenza vaccines

The Author provides an overview of the paediatric implications of influenza epidemics, starting with the considerable public health burden: influenza strikes the youngest at least as much as the elderly, with a sharp increase in consultations, drug consumption and hospital admissions, and an excessive mortality in subjects under five years of age. Children represent the most important reservoir for the virus. The control of the disease could be improved by mass immunisation and better case management but the available tools are not yet sufficiently good the purpose: rapid testing is available but antiviral drugs still wait to be approved for use in children; currently available vaccines require intramuscolar injections, and the promising vaccines by nasal route are yet to be made available. Vaccination is recommended only for high risk subjects, such as infants and children with severe chronic respiratory or cardiovascular disease, immune deficiencies and intestinal malabsorption.