Synthesizing and assessing influenza vaccine evidence: Strengths and limitations of the recent ECDC report on the effectiveness of new and enhanced influenza vaccines. Communication on: the "European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Systematic review update on the efficacy, effectiveness and safety of newer and enhanced seasonal influenza vaccines for the prevention of laboratory confirmed influenza in individuals aged 18 years and over. Stockholm: ECDC; 2024".

High quality research is critical for evidence-based decision making in public health and fundamental to maintain progress and trust in immunization programs in Europe. In 2024 the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) conducted an update of the 2020 systematic review to capture more recent evidence on of the efficacy, effectiveness of influenza vaccines in individuals aged 18 years and older in the prevention of laboratory-confirmed influenza. While this report was highly anticipated due to the strength of the protocol and processes put in place, during our assessment, we expressed two chief concerns.

Evaluating the need for standardised disease manifestation categories in patients infected with the tick-borne encephalitis virus: A Delphi panel.

Categorization systems for tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) infection lack consistency in classifying disease severity. To evaluate the need for a standard, consensus-based categorisation system for TBEV infection across subtypes, we gathered an expert panel of clinicians and scientists with diverse expertise in TBEV infection. Consensus was sought using the Delphi technique, which consisted of 2 web-based survey questionnaires and a final, virtual, consensus-building exercise.

Monitoring the Effect of Vaccination on Mumps Cases Complications in the Czech Republic - Surveillance Data 2013-2022.

Introduction: Mumps data were analysed to assess the effect of vaccination on mumps complications and hospitalisation.

Methods: The mumps cases reported to the Czech nationwide surveillance system from 2013 to 2022 were analysed using logistic regression with an odds ratio (aOR) adjusted for age, sex, year of onset and administrative region to measure the association between vaccination and complications or hospitalisation. Adjusted vaccine effectiveness (aVE) was calculated: aVE=(1-aOR)x100.

Estimated number of lives directly saved by COVID-19 vaccination programmes in the WHO European Region from December, 2020, to March, 2023: a retrospective surveillance study.

Background: By March, 2023, 54 countries, areas, and territories (hereafter CAT) in the WHO European Region had reported more than 2·2 million COVID-19-related deaths to the WHO Regional Office for Europe. Here, we estimated how many lives were directly saved by vaccinating adults in the WHO European Region from December, 2020, to March, 2023.

Methods: In this retrospective surveillance study, we estimated the number of lives directly saved by age group, vaccine dose, and circulating variant-of-concern (VOC) period, regionally and nationally, using weekly data on COVID-19 mortality and infection, COVID-19 vaccination uptake, and SARS-CoV-2 virus characterisations by lineage downloaded from The European Surveillance System on June 11, 2023, as well as vaccine effectiveness data from the literature.