Becton Dickinson Directigen EZ Flu A+B assay in the diagnosis of pandemic influenza A H1N1 2009 virus infection in adult patients

To the editor: The recent emergence and spread of the pandemic influenza A H1N1 2009 virus demands the evaluation of rapid antigen assays for their ability to detect this novel subtype of influenza A virus. Data on the ability of BD Directigen EZ Flu A+B immunochromatographic (IC) assay (Beckton Dickinson and Company, Sparks, MD, USA) to detect the pandemic influenza A virus strain in fresh clinical samples have been recently published. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 In these studies, the majority of specimens were collected from pediatric patients, and the sensitivities reported ranged from 46·8% to 76·6%. As viral shedding in the upper respiratory tract during influenza virus infection is of greater m…

Performance of an automated human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) antigen/antibody combined assay for prenatal screening for HIV infection in pregnant women

Becton Dickinson Directigen EZ Flu A+B assay in the diagnosis of pandemic influenza A H1N1 2009 virus infection in adult patients

Comparison of intramuscular and subcutaneous administration of a herpes zoster live-attenuated vaccine in adults aged ≥50 years: a randomised non-inferiority clinical trial.

AbstractZostavax® is a live, attenuated varicella zoster virus (VZV) vaccine developed specifically for the prevention of HZ and PHN in individuals aged ≥50 years. During the clinical development of Zostavax, which was mainly in the US, the vaccine was administrated by the subcutaneous (SC) route. In Europe, many healthcare professionals prefer administering vaccines by the intramuscular (IM) route. This was an open-label, randomised trial conducted in 354 subjects aged ≥50 years. The primary objectives were to demonstrate that IM administration is both non-inferior to SC administration in terms of 4-week post-vaccination geometric mean titres (GMTs), and elicits an acceptable geometric mea…