Professor Niro Siriwardena attended the European Union Geriatric medicine earlier this month in Venice, Italy to give an invited seminar entitled “Flu vaccination in populations with cardio/neurovascular risk factors” as part of an expert workshop on “Flu vaccination in Elderly Populations”.
He presented the evidence based on our research on the link between influenza vaccination and cardiovascular disease including acute myocardial infarction and stroke or transient ischaemic attack and the implications of the findings for clinical practice and policy. The work which has found a reduction in risk of acute myocardial infarction and stroke associated with influenza vaccination was undertaken by past and present members of the Community and Health Research Unit including Professor Siriwardena, Dr Zahid Asghar and Stella Gwini (now working at Monash University, Australia) in collaboration with Dr Carol Coupland from Nottingham University.
The seminar included presentations on Public health impact of flu in Europe by Thomas Szucs (Switzerland), Flu vaccine innovations by Paulo Durando (Italy) and Flu and pneumococcal diseases: a deleterious partnership by Jacques Gaillat (France).