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A vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe. The agent stimulates the body's immune system to recognize the agent as foreign, destroy it, and "remember" it, so that the immune system can more easily recognize and destroy any of these microorganisms that it later encounters.
MMR booster does not result in worse JIA disease activity in children

MMR booster does not result in worse JIA disease activity in children

Among children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis who had undergone primary immunization, the use of a measles-mumps-rubella booster compared with no booster did not result in worse JIA disease activity, according to a study in the June 19 issue of JAMA. [More]
International researchers solve three-dimensional structure of respiratory syncytial virus

International researchers solve three-dimensional structure of respiratory syncytial virus

Young children and the elderly are especially susceptible to respiratory syncytial virus. The three-dimensional structure of respiratory syncytial virus has been solved by an international team from Finland and Switzerland. [More]
University of Michigan poll: 61% of adults don't know when they last vaccinated against pertussis

University of Michigan poll: 61% of adults don't know when they last vaccinated against pertussis

Cases of pertussis, also known as whooping cough, are on the rise in the U.S., recently reaching their highest level in 50 years. The disease can be serious or even fatal to newborns who have not yet received vaccinations. [More]

Vaccine given to newborns 60% effective against rotavirus in Ghana

Mayo Clinic and other researchers have shown that a vaccine given to newborns is at least 60 percent effective against rotavirus in Ghana. Rotavirus causes fever, vomiting and diarrhea, which in infants can cause severe dehydration. [More]
Malaria control strategies: an interview with Sir Richard Feachem, Global Health Group, University of California, San Francisco

Malaria control strategies: an interview with Sir Richard Feachem, Global Health Group, University of California, San Francisco

Exciting progress has been made in the global fight against malaria. The malaria map continues to shrink each year; in the last ten years four countries have been certified malaria-free, and thirty-four additional countries are now working towards malaria elimination targets. [More]

Experts raise awareness about the importance of flu vaccine

The last flu season arrived four weeks early, was more intense than expected and resulted in the deaths of more than 110 children in the United States. In an effort to get ahead of the upcoming flu season, experts at Montefiore Medical Center are raising awareness about the importance of the flu vaccine, which remains the best option to reduce a person's risk of contracting the virus. The flu season can start as early as late September and usually runs for about 12 to 15 weeks. [More]

Value of vaccinating children, young adults for influenza underestimated, experts say

The huge value of vaccinating more children and young adults for influenza is being seriously underestimated, experts say in a new report, while conventional wisdom and historic vaccine programs have concentrated on the elderly and those at higher risk of death and serious complications. [More]

New collaboration to advance cancer immunotherapy research

The Cancer Research Institute, the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and Immune Design, a biotech company focused on immune-based therapies for cancer and other human diseases, today announced that they have signed a collaboration agreement to advance cancer immunotherapy research. [More]

Background mortality rates can be used to communicate vaccine safety risks

In a study using the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD), investigators analyzed four years of data and determined that background mortality rates (rates of death irrespective of cause) are crucial in interpreting the numbers of deaths following vaccination. [More]
Anti-nicotine vaccination can increase accumulation of nicotine in the brain, say neuroscientists

Anti-nicotine vaccination can increase accumulation of nicotine in the brain, say neuroscientists

Researchers have yet again been sent back to the drawing board in the development of the much-sought-after vaccination for smokers, which would hypothetically inhibit the action of nicotine and its pleasure-producing chemical response in the brain. [More]
Johns Hopkins researchers develop experimental vaccine for TB meningitis

Johns Hopkins researchers develop experimental vaccine for TB meningitis

A team of Johns Hopkins researchers working with animals has developed a vaccine that prevents the virulent TB bacterium from invading the brain and causing the highly lethal condition TB meningitis, a disease that disproportionately occurs in TB-infected children and in adults with compromised immune system. [More]
Medicago gets Health Canada clearance to initiate Phase II clinical trial for H5N1 vaccine

Medicago gets Health Canada clearance to initiate Phase II clinical trial for H5N1 vaccine

Medicago Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing highly effective and competitive vaccines based on proprietary manufacturing technologies and Virus-Like Particles, today announced it has received clearance by Health Canada to initiate its Phase II dose-sparing clinical trial for an H5N1 Avian Influenza VLP vaccine candidate ("H5N1 vaccine"). [More]
Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland retains NIH ranking as 10th for research grants

Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland retains NIH ranking as 10th for research grants

Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland is ranked 10th in the nation for research grants from the National Institutes of Health to children's hospitals. In 2012, Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland received more than $15 million in awards from the NIH for 25 separate research grants - a 20.4 percent increase in funding compared to 2011. [More]

Mandatory influenza vaccination does not lead to excessive voluntary termination

Mandatory influenza (flu) vaccination, as a condition of employment, did not lead to excessive voluntary termination, according to a four-year analysis of vaccination rates at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, IL. [More]
NanoViricides files Orphan Drug application with FDA for DengueCide

NanoViricides files Orphan Drug application with FDA for DengueCide

NanoViricides, Inc. announced today that it has filed an Orphan Drug application with the Office of Orphan Product Development of the US FDA for DengueCide, its drug candidate for the treatment of dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever. [More]
Nation's leading experts join forces to accelerate effective treatments for brain tumors

Nation's leading experts join forces to accelerate effective treatments for brain tumors

The nation's leading brain tumor and biotech industry experts again joined forces Friday, June 7, in a bid to accelerate more effective treatments for brain tumors and promote funding for the latest emerging therapies, as the Weill Cornell Brain and Spine Center and Voices Against Brain Cancer hosted its second annual Brain Tumor Biotech Summit. [More]
ODH hosts symposium on ‘Health Information Exchanges’ for research and public health improvement

ODH hosts symposium on ‘Health Information Exchanges’ for research and public health improvement

Today, the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine's Weatherhead Institute for Family Medicine and Community Health are hosting the second annual Ohio Health Data Symposium, a meeting for research and public health experts. The collaboration's theme is "Health Information Exchanges: Opportunities for Research and Public Health Improvement." [More]
Research reveals how HIV triggers signal to kill infected immune cell

Research reveals how HIV triggers signal to kill infected immune cell

Untreated HIV infection destroys a person's immune system by killing infection-fighting cells, but precisely when and how HIV wreaks this destruction has been a mystery until now. New research by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, reveals how HIV triggers a signal telling an infected immune cell to die. [More]
Solid formulations of the recombinant anthrax vaccine: an interview with Dr Mark Carnegie-Brown, CEO, Glide Pharma

Solid formulations of the recombinant anthrax vaccine: an interview with Dr Mark Carnegie-Brown, CEO, Glide Pharma

Anthrax vaccines have a prominent place in the history of medicine. This goes back to, Pasteur, who while everybody associates with the milk treatment process, also worked on rabies and Anthrax vaccines in cattle. [More]
Cry proteins in Bacillus thuringiensis is lethal to Anopheles gambiae, the principal mosquito vector of malaria

Cry proteins in Bacillus thuringiensis is lethal to Anopheles gambiae, the principal mosquito vector of malaria

Researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), led by Dr. Lee Bulla, have characterized a protein produced by the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis (Bti), which is highly toxic against Anopheles gambiae, the principal mosquito vector of malaria. [More]