Publications

surveillance for laboratory-confirmed influenza requiring hospital admission in adults, metropolitan toronto and peel region, 2004-2005 influenza season.		2005	16669120
influenza outbreak in an ontario long-term care home--january 2005.		2006	17086678
pandemic influenza planning for children and youth: who's looking out for our kids?	recent worldwide attention on influenza pandemics has mainly focused on planning and preparation. some published plans appear to have missed some unique considerations relevant to children and youth, leaving a serious and potentially devastating gap in our pandemic response. this paper highlights those unique considerations and encourages health administrators and policy-makers to rise to the challenge and demonstrate leadership by ensuring that all institutions consider children and youth in th ...	2007	17521069
appropriate measures of influenza immunization program effectiveness.	groll and thomson's evaluation of the effectiveness of ontario's universal influenza immunization campaign used per capita cases of laboratory-confirmed influenza. we argue that these data are susceptible to various biases and should not be used as an outcome measure. laboratory data are traditionally used to identify the presence of influenza activity rather than to identify levels of influenza activity. a better measure of viral activity is the proportion of influenza tests positive; whereas t ...	2007	17052813
epidemiological summary of pandemic influenza a (h1n1) 2009 virus - ontario, canada, june 2009.		2009	19928301
pandemic flu: lessons from the toronto sars outbreak.	a review of the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in ontario in 2003 found that there had been several faults in healthcare services and that these had contributed to the spread of infection and the deaths of two nurses. this article argues that, six years on, these faults have not been rectified and that ontario healthcare services may be unprepared for an h1n1 outbreak. the assistant deputy public health minister of toronto offers her response.	2009	19807013
development of a critical care triage protocol for pandemic influenza: integrating ethics, evidence and effectiveness.		2009	20057230
association between the 2008-09 seasonal influenza vaccine and pandemic h1n1 illness during spring-summer 2009: four observational studies from canada.	in late spring 2009, concern was raised in canada that prior vaccination with the 2008-09 trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (tiv) was associated with increased risk of pandemic influenza a (h1n1) (ph1n1) illness. several epidemiologic investigations were conducted through the summer to assess this putative association.	2010	20386731
transmission of influenza a pandemic (h1n1) 2009 virus in a long-term care facility in ontario, canada.		2010	21029007
risk factors and outcomes among children admitted to hospital with pandemic h1n1 influenza.	limited data are available on disease characteristics and outcomes of children with 2009 pandemic influenza a(h1n1) virus infection (pandemic h1n1 influenza) who have required hospital admission.	2010	19926677
estimated epidemiologic parameters and morbidity associated with pandemic h1n1 influenza.	in the face of an influenza pandemic, accurate estimates of epidemiologic parameters are required to help guide decision-making. we sought to estimate epidemiologic parameters for pandemic h1n1 influenza using data from initial reports of laboratory-confirmed cases.	2010	19959592
neuraminidase-inhibitor resistance testing for pandemic influenza a (h1n1) 2009 in ontario, canada.	oseltamivir resistance-associated h275y mutation in the neuraminidase (na) gene of pandemic influenza a (h1n1) 2009 was occasionally reported worldwide during the 2009-2010 influenza season. a significant proportion of those were found in immunocompromised or severely ill persons. this phenomenon remains infrequent and clear recommendations for resistance testing are lacking.	2011	21251873
assessing secondary attack rates among household contacts at the beginning of the influenza a (h1n1) pandemic in ontario, canada, april-june 2009: a prospective, observational study.	abstract:	2011	21492445
estimating background rates of guillain-barre syndrome in ontario in order to respond to safety concerns during pandemic h1n1/09 immunization campaign.	abstract: background: the province of ontario, canada initiated mass immunization clinics with adjuvanted pandemic h1n1 influenza vaccine in october 2009. due to the campaign's scale, temporal associations with guillain-barre syndrome (gbs) and vaccination were expected. the objectives of this analysis were to estimate the number of background gbs cases expected to occur in the projected vaccinated population and to estimate the number of additional gbs cases which would be expected if an associ ...	2011	21586163
Self-reported pH1N1 influenza vaccination coverage for Ontario.	BACKGROUND: In the fall of 2009, Canada undertook a mass vaccination campaign against pH1N1. This report provides an overview of self-reported pH1N1 vaccination coverage of the Ontario population, building on an existing random digit-dialling telephone survey, in which 9,010 Ontario adults participated. Based on the results, 34.5% of Ontario residents were vaccinated: 33.3% of adults aged 18 or older and 38.6% of children and adolescents younger than age 18. Respondents reporting high-risk chron ...	2011	22106787