Tetanus News and Research

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Tetanus is a severe, frequently fatal disease caused by an exotoxin produced by Clostridium tetani, a bacterium that is found in the environment. Tetanus is not transmitted from person to person. Rather, Clostridium tetani enters the body through an open wound, including lacerations, abrasions and puncture wounds. The toxin causes neuromuscular dysfunction, with rigidity and spasms of skeletal muscles. The muscle spasms usually start in the jaw (which is why the disease is sometimes called "lockjaw") and neck and may spread to many other muscles, leading to generalized paralysis.

Afghan Acting Health Minister says country wants to boost immunization access

Reuters featured an interview with Afghanistan's Acting Health Minister Suraya Dalil on the sidelines of the World Health Assembly in Geneva. "Afghanistan, whose government is fighting a worsening insurgency that has dragged on for nearly a decade since the U.S.-backed overthrow of the Taliban, is also plagued by poverty, malnutrition and corruption," Reuters writes, adding that the government and donors together spend "barely" $10 per person on health annually.

19 May 2011

Haiti presents plan to immunize 90 percent of newborns

Haiti has a plan to vaccinate 90 percent of newborns by 2015, according to PAHO, but "whether the plan works will depend on Haiti's ability to reverse decades of incompetent government and bad coordination among aid groups," as well as whether there will be funding, the New York Times reports.

18 May 2011

NBA Cares, SAHM and Tulsa Shock guard partner for teen vaccine awareness campaign

Tulsa Shock guard Andrea Riley and Basketball Hall of Famer Bob Lanier teamed up with NBA Cares and the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine today to bring Vaccines for Teens to the Tulsa community.

5 May 2011

Rwanda, QIAGEN and Merck launch comprehensive national cervical cancer prevention program

The Government of Rwanda, together with QIAGEN N.V. and Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, today announced the launch, in Kigali, Rwanda, of a comprehensive national cervical cancer prevention program that includes vaccination with GARDASIL [Human Papillomavirus Quadrivalent (Types 6, 11, 16 and 18) Vaccine, Recombinant] for appropriate girls 12 to 15 years of age and modern molecular diagnostic screening for women between the ages of 35 and 45.

From QIAGEN Manchester Limited 25 Apr 2011

Ahead of Immunization Week, WHO calls for countries to come together to control measles outbreak in Europe

WHO is urging countries in Europe to join together to help control the measles outbreak that has grown to more than 6,500 cases in 33 countries and the potential for worsening outbreaks "in the days ahead as people travel during the Easter holidays," U.N. News Centre reports.

25 Apr 2011

Merck and Sanofi Pasteur commence Phase III trial of pediatric hexavalent combination vaccine

Merck and Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of sanofi-aventis Group, announced today the initiation of a Phase III clinical program to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of an investigational pediatric hexavalent combination vaccine.

21 Apr 2011

Illicit drug users may face increased risk of microbial infections

Illicit drug users are at increased risk of being exposed to microbial pathogens and are more susceptible to serious infections say physicians writing in the Journal of Medical Microbiology.

10 Mar 2011

Lancet Infectious Diseases examines how resource gaps are creating barriers to reduce child mortality

The Lancet Infectious Diseases' Newsdesk examines how resource gaps in immunizations, health workers and financing are creating barriers to efforts to achieve the U.N. Millennium Development Goal target to reduce child mortality by two-thirds by 2015, as highlighted in a recent Save the Children report.

3 Mar 2011

Vaccine lawsuit rejected by Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday against the parents of Hannah Bruesewitz, 18, who suffered seizures and permanent brain damage after receiving a diptheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccine in 1993. The Bruesewitz family had sued Wyeth who was then the parent company of the maker of the DTP vaccine that Hannah received as an infant.

27 Feb 2011

Symposium examines Bruesewitz vs. Wyeth Supreme Court case

A March 29 symposium at the New York Academy of Sciences, "Vaccines Under the Gun: Politics, Science, Media and the Law," will feature a presentation by Daniel J. Thomasch, JD, national lead trial counsel for Wyeth, who was involved in the case decided by the Supreme Court yesterday in which the justices rejected a lawsuit claiming injury from a Wyeth vaccine.

25 Feb 2011

CVS condemns Supreme Court's decision to preempt all vaccine design defect lawsuits

The Coalition for Vaccine Safety condemns the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Bruesewitz v. Wyeth to preempt all vaccine design defect lawsuits in state and federal civil court. Quoting Justice Sotomayor's dissent, the majority "imposes its own bare policy preference over the considered judgment of Congress."

23 Feb 2011

HIV infection in mothers reduces disease resistance in babies: Study

New research suggests that babies whose mothers have HIV, but are not HIV-infected themselves, are born with lower levels of specific proteins in their blood called antibodies, which fight infection, compared with babies not exposed to HIV.

13 Feb 2011

HIV-negative babies born to HIV-positive mothers have lower antibody levels for some infections, study finds

"Babies who are exposed to HIV at birth but don't become infected with the virus have lower levels of antibodies to diseases such as whooping cough, tetanus and pneumococcus," according to a study published in the Feb. 9 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), HealthDay News/U.S. News & World Report.

10 Feb 2011

Babies born to HIV-infected mothers have lower antibody levels against bacterial infections

Babies whose mothers have HIV, but who are not HIV-infected themselves, are born with lower levels of specific proteins in their blood called antibodies, which fight infection, compared with babies not exposed to HIV, a new study has found.

9 Feb 2011

Total flu cover with one shot

In a medical breakthrough, English scientists have developed a so-called “universal” vaccine to influenza - one that protects against all strains of the potentially deadly illness. This would do away with the need for a new vaccine each flu season they say. Seasonal flu affects up to 20 percent of the population and kills an average of 24,600 people each year. This vaccine would act against swine flu as well assure researchers.

8 Feb 2011

New study shows economic burden of dengue in Western Hemisphere is $2.1 billion per year

Dengue illness, the most common mosquito-borne viral disease in the world, has expanded from its Southeast Asian origins and is resurgent in countries such as Argentina, Chile and the continental United States.

8 Feb 2011

Merck announces publication of GARDASIL pivotal Phase III study data in NEJM

Merck announced today that data from the pivotal Phase III study with GARDASIL in males were published in the February 3 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

3 Feb 2011

Bill Gates' annual letter calls for focus on eradicating polio, governments to sustain foreign aid

Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, "urged developed nations to help him wipe out polio 'once and for all' at an event to release his third annual letter [.pdf] Monday," Agence France-Presse reports.

2 Feb 2011

Lancet series examines health issues facing populations in Southeast Asia

"Southeast Asia's 600 million people are facing a raft of new health challenges as the disaster-prone region undergoes some of the world's fastest social change," according to a series of papers and commentary pieces, published Tuesday in the Lancet, Agence France-Presse reports (O'Brien, 1/25).

27 Jan 2011

UMMS begins MBL-HCV1 Phase 2 trial to prevent hepatitis C virus infection in liver transplant patients

Following a successful Phase 1 study for safety, researchers at MassBiologics of the University of Massachusetts Medical School today announced the beginning of a Phase 2 clinical trial testing the ability of a human monoclonal antibody they developed to prevent hepatitis C virus infection of a donor liver in transplant patients.

19 Jan 2011