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Influenza continues to be a global public health problem despite the availability of preventive vaccines and public health vaccination programmes. This paper presents a synopsis of the 3rd New Zealand Influenza Symposium (NZiS) that was hosted by the Immunisation Advisory Centre (IMAC) in November 2016. Experts and service providers convened to discuss current issues in the prevention and management of influenza. One of the key topics discussed was the use of novel vaccines, such as adjuvanted and high-dose vaccines, and antiviral prophylaxis to protect young children and the elderly. Another area of focus was on paradigms of seasonal influenza vaccination strategies that reduce community transmission and provide individual protection to reduce the burden of influenza. The need for better influenza surveillance and country-specific data to guide policy makers and healthcare providers was highlighted in order to improve population health outcomes., Competing Interests: Dr Turner reports affiliation with SHIVERS study: CDC funded, outside the submitted work. The Immunisation Advisory Centre is funded by the Ministry of Health to promote the delivery and uptake of influenza immunisation as part of the national immunisation programme.

Influenza is a common respiratory viral infection. Seasonal outbreaks of influenza cause substantial morbidity and mortality that burdens healthcare services every year. The influenza virus constantly evolves by antigenic drift and occasionally by antigenic shift, making this disease particularly challenging to manage and prevent. As influenza viruses cause seasonal outbreaks and also have the ability to cause pandemics leading to widespread social and economic losses, focused discussions on improving management and prevention efforts is warranted. The Immunisation Advisory Centre (IMAC) hosted the 2nd New Zealand Influenza Symposium (NZiS) in November 2015. International and national participants discussed current issues in influenza management and prevention. Experts in the field presented data from recent studies and discussed the ecology of influenza viruses, epidemiology of influenza, methods of prevention and minimisation, and experiences from the 2015 seasonal influenza immunisation campaign. The symposium concluded that although much progress in this field has been made, many areas for future research remain.

In the past decade, pertussis has made a global resurgence, driving reconsideration of national immunisation schedules and vaccine usage. A workshop held by the Ministry of Health in 2015 discussed New Zealand's pertussis disease control strategies. Data were presented from current research into vaccine safety during pregnancy and the effectiveness of the immunisation schedule in preventing pertussis throughout childhood. The greatest burden of disease and mortality remains in infants under 1 year of age, especially infants too young to be immunised, those of Māori and Pacific ethnicity, and those living in deprivation. The workshop considered strategies including the timing of the scheduled vaccines, maternal immunisation, improving immunisation coverage, vaccination timeliness and service delivery to reduce inequalities and overall disease burden. It concluded that the current infant schedule appears to be working well to protect older infants from severe pertussis. Significant gains for reducing severe disease in vulnerable young infants could be made with improvements in maternal vaccine uptake. Other strategic directions include attention to schedule adherence and timeliness of vaccine delivery, and more effective communication approaches for healthcare professionals and the public.

Recombinant plasmids were constructed that carried various fragments of the DNA specifying the Escherichia coli genes ptsH and (part of) ptsI, the genes for the common components of the phosphoenolpyruvate: sugar phosphotransferase. Expression of plasmid-specified functions in minicells showed that ptsH and ptsI were transcribed clockwise. Most of the transcription of ptsI was from the ptsH promoter, but some was from a second site within or after ptsH.

5'-Deoxyadenosylcobalamin-dependent methylmalonyl-CoA mutase was purified to homogeneity from Propionibacterium shermanii by a simplified procedure. The native enzyme has an apparent Mr of 165,000, similar to the enzyme from other sources but larger than previously reported. It consists of two non-identical subunits, of Mr 79,000 and 67,000 respectively. The smaller subunit is apparently not a proteolytic fragment of the larger one. The final preparation usually contained some inactive mutase, bearing a tenaciously bound cobalamin species. This protein proved to be readily separable from apoenzyme by fast protein liquid chromatography on anion-exchange columns.

The plasmid pAB65, derived from a specialized transducing phage carrying DNA from about 52 min on the Escherichia coli genome, coded for two polypeptides of Mr approx. 34 000. The expression of one was regulated by cyst(e)ine and the cysB gene product and the other by the cysB gene product only. One of these polypeptides was a subunit of O-acetylserine (thiol)-lyase (EC 4.2.99.8); the other, associated with the E. coli membrane, was the N-terminus of the product of the lambda ben gene. The pattern of peptide synthesis directed by plasmids carrying smaller DNA fragments indicated that the gene for O-acetylserine (thiol)-lyase was transcribed clockwise. The spectrum, amino acid composition and subunit number of the enzyme were determined. The enzyme appears homologous with the Salmonella typhimurium cysK gene product. This provides further evidence for the inversion of this region of the genome.

The expression of genes adjacent to ptsI was investigated using a series of specialised transducing phages carrying different, overlapping, segments of the cysA-gsr-ptsI-ptsH- iex - cysZ -lig region of the genome of Escherichia coli. The polypeptides were synthesised following the infection of u.v.-irradiated lysogenic and non-lysogenic uvrA recA hosts or a uvrA recA host carrying the lambda cI+ plasmid pKB280 . The polypeptides were identified by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and fluorography. The gsr gene product had a mol. wt. of 23 000. The product of the iex gene was tentatively identified as a protein of mol. wt. of either 33 000 or 21 000. Hpr, the product of the gene ptsH, had a mol. wt. of 9000. The gsr gene appeared to be expressed at a higher level in a non-immune host, which suggests that it was transcribed from lambda promoters. A new lambda host strain, suitable for the detection of small polypeptides (mol. wt. less than 30 000) is described.