Immunization News and Research

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Measles: an interview with Dr. Robert Perry, World Health Organization

Measles is a disease marked by fever, rash, and cold symptoms (red eyes, cough, runny nose) that results in a temporary suppression of the immune system and a drop in vitamin A levels.

4 Feb 2013

State roundup: Texas lawmakers ready health budget

Texas budget writers got a briefing on the state's health care programs Wednesday, and many of the biggest questions focused on how the state can reduce fraud and what to do about ever-increasing health care costs.

1 Feb 2013

Over half of countries struggling to prevent and manage cancer

More than half of all countries worldwide are struggling to prevent cancer and provide treatment and chronic care to cancer patients, warns a recent World Health Organization (WHO) survey for World Cancer Day. This means, currently many of these countries do not have a functional cancer control plan that includes prevention, early detection, treatment and care. There is an urgent need to help countries to reduce cancer deaths and provide appropriate long-term treatment and care to avoid human suffering and protect countries’ social and economic development.

1 Feb 2013

Northeast Ohio Medical University, CEL-SCI produce new investigational breast cancer vaccine

CEL-SCI Corporation announced that its longstanding collaboration with Northeast Ohio Medical University has produced a new investigational breast cancer vaccine which prevents and treats a HER-2/neu expressing breast cancer tumor in a mouse model of the disease.

31 Jan 2013

GSU associate professor receives federal grant to bolster flu vaccine research

Sang-Moo Kang, associate professor at Georgia State University's Center for Inflammation, Immunity and Infection, has received a federal five-year, $3.4 million grant to bolster research that will lead to better flu vaccines and vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a disease for which there is no immunization.

31 Jan 2013

Gunmen in Pakistan kill police officer escorting polio vaccination workers

In the latest round of violence affecting health workers in Pakistan, "gunmen riding on a motorcycle shot and killed a police officer protecting polio workers during a U.N.-backed vaccination campaign in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, the police said," the Associated Press reports.

31 Jan 2013

Vaccine confidence: an interview with Dr Heidi Larson

Here at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine we are running a project called the Vaccine Confidence Project and we have a global surveillance monitoring information around the world on media, social media, all sorts of information, reports from governments, UN, other sources, looking for any what we call “signals” of public distrust or concerns that come up.

30 Jan 2013

Opinion pieces examine role of private sector investment in global health

The following opinion pieces were published Saturday as the World Economic Forum, held last week in Davos, Switzerland, came to a close.

29 Jan 2013

News outlets examines Bill Gates' commitment to fighting disease globally

"This week the billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates" -- co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation -- "will deliver the annual BBC Richard Dimbleby Lecture in which he will spell out his commitment to ridding the world of polio which can cause paralysis and even death within hours," BBC News reports.

29 Jan 2013

FDA approves Pfizer’s Prevnar 13 to prevent pneumococcal disease in older children, adolescents

Pfizer Inc. announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval for the expansion of the company's pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, Prevnar 13 (Pneumococcal 13-valent Conjugate Vaccine [Diphtheria CRM197 Protein]), for use in older children and adolescents aged 6 years through 17 years for active immunization for the prevention of invasive disease caused by the 13 Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes contained in the vaccine.

28 Jan 2013

High vaccine prices ignored by ‘Decade of Vaccines’ blueprint

Governments meeting at the World Health Organization’s Executive Board (WHO EB) this week must seize the opportunity to improve serious shortcomings in the document that will drive the global community’s vaccines response in the next few years. If they fail to do so, key reasons why children continue to be missed by immunisation programmes will be left unaddressed.

25 Jan 2013

Pediatric rotavirus vaccination indirectly protects unvaccinated adults

Pediatric rotavirus vaccination also indirectly protects unvaccinated adults from the highly contagious cause of severe diarrhea and vomiting, suggests a new study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases and available online.

25 Jan 2013

Indian company plans to make lower-cost injectable polio vaccine

Serum Institute of India Ltd., the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, plans to "slash the price of polio immunization and introduce shots for diarrhea and pneumonia, undercutting Pfizer Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline Plc.," Bloomberg Businessweek reports.

24 Jan 2013

Kaiser Permanente study examines increasing prevalence of undervaccination

In a new study published today in JAMA Pediatrics (formerly Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine), Kaiser Permanente researchers found that 49 percent of children ages 2-24 months did not receive all recommended vaccinations or did not get vaccinated according to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices schedule.

22 Jan 2013

Ban on thiomersal in vaccines would harm global immunization efforts

"Government representatives are meeting in Geneva this week to decide whether to introduce a global ban on mercury that could include thiomersal, a mercury-based preservative that has been used in some vaccine manufacturing since the 1930s to prevent bacterial or fungal contamination of multidose vials of vaccine," Seth Berkley, a medical epidemiologist and chief executive of the GAVI Alliance, writes in a New York Times opinion piece.

19 Jan 2013

Review underscores safety of federal childhood immunization schedule

A review of the available evidence underscores the safety of the federal childhood immunization schedule, according to a report released today by the Institute of Medicine. University of Michigan population ecologist Pejman Rohani served on the 13-person committee that wrote the report.

19 Jan 2013

Rite Aid obtains more than 400,000 additional seasonal flu shots

In response to the nationwide flu epidemic and customer demand, Rite Aid Corporation announced today it has obtained more than 400,000 additional seasonal flu shots, which began arriving in stores earlier this week.

19 Jan 2013

Emergent BioSolutions commences NuThrax Phase 2 trial in anthrax infection

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. today announced the initiation of a Phase 2 clinical trial for NuThrax (Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed with CPG 7909 Adjuvant), also known as AV7909, with the dosing of the first subject.

18 Jan 2013

WHO finds decline in number of measles deaths between 2000 and 2011

The number of measles deaths globally decreased by 71% between 2000 and 2011, from 542 000 to 158 000. Over the same period, new cases dropped 58% from 853 500 in 2000 to 355 000 in 2011, according to new data released Thursday by WHO, a leading member of the Measles and Rubella Initiative.

18 Jan 2013

Viewpoints: Obama 'wise' to add mental health focus to gun initiative; Calif. considers giving localities responsibility for expanded Medicaid

President Obama's sweeping proposals to combat gun violence represent a sound response to the mass shootings that have horrified the country. In his legislative proposals and executive actions announced Wednesday, the president and Vice President Biden showed a willingness to confront a difficult problem head-on -- a problem that is not only about laws but also about culture and mental-health care.

17 Jan 2013