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.

Medical experts at UT Physicians provide tips for healthy start to new school year

Parents can make sure their children get the new school year off to a healthy start by getting checkups for them during the summer break.

10 Aug 2017

Study shows sustained impact and effectiveness of rotavirus vaccine program

Following the introduction of routine childhood vaccination against rotavirus, a common cause of diarrheal illness, more than 380,000 children avoided hospitalization for diarrhea from 2008 to 2013 in the U.S., thus saving an estimated $1.2 billion in direct medical costs.

10 Aug 2017

Researchers uncover three-dimensional structure of tetanus toxin protein

"Our discovery could be used to design new medicines", says Pål Stenmark, Associate Professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Stockholm University.

27 Jun 2017

Vaccines can be blamed for any illness even with lack of evidence says EU court

In a landmark judgment yesterday, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that courts could consider vaccines to be the reason for an illness despite the absence of any concrete evidence to support the connection.

21 Jun 2017

Serum Institute signs licensing agreement to commercialize St. Jude vaccine against RSV

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the Serum Institute of India have signed a licensing agreement to complete development and commercialization of a St. Jude vaccine against the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the virus that causes croup and lower respiratory infections. RSV kills about 160,000 people, primarily infants, worldwide each year.

10 May 2017

Tiny silica 'cages' could help store and transport vaccines without refrigeration

Vaccines and antibodies could be transported and stored without refrigeration by capturing them in tiny silica 'cages', a discovery which could make getting vital medicines to remote or dangerous places much easier, cheaper and safer.

24 Apr 2017

Maternal Tdap vaccination during pregnancy reduces pertussis risk in infants

Among infants of women who received the Tdap pertussis booster vaccine during pregnancy, the risk of contracting pertussis was reduced by an estimated 91 percent during the first two months of life - the critical period before they can receive their first childhood acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccination.

3 Apr 2017

Important vaccines that should not be missed by adults, elders and pregnant women

Vaccines are an important part of routine healthcare for adults, seniors and women who are pregnant.

16 Jan 2017

S. pneumoniae uses hosts' immune defenses to spread infection, study reveals

The bacteria that cause most cases of pneumonia worldwide secrete a toxin that helps them jump from one body to the next - with help from the hosts' immune defenses. This is the finding of a study led by researchers from NYU Langone Medical Center and published online January 11 in Cell Host & Microbe.

12 Jan 2017

Researcher investigates ethics of maternal immunization

Vaccination during pregnancy can protect women, foetuses and newborn children against infectious diseases - especially in developing countries. Maternal immunisation however also raises ethical questions.

6 Oct 2016

Tips to prevent back-to-school illnesses in children

The backpacks are packed, lunchboxes are filled and the little ones are back in school. Kids have returned to their classrooms with stories of their summer vacations, and, unfortunately, with a host of germs ready to spread quickly in a close environment.

20 Sep 2016

People in Europe are most skeptical about vaccines

The largest ever global survey of attitudes towards vaccines reported today that public confidence in vaccines varies widely between different regions of the world, with European respondents being most sceptical.

9 Sep 2016

New collaborative initiative seeks to develop interventions for optimizing adult vaccination rates

A new quality improvement initiative that aims to create effective solutions in optimizing adult vaccination rates was announced today.

8 Sep 2016

Pre-travel consultation can help international travelers to prepare for trip

International tourism exceeds 1.2 billion persons each year, with more than 20 percent of travelers reporting some type of illness.

31 Aug 2016

New collaborative initiative aims to improve adult immunization rates

A new quality improvement initiative that aims to create effective solutions in optimizing adult vaccination rates was announced today.

30 Aug 2016

Many parents support HPV vaccine school-entry requirements with opt-out provisions

Requiring students to get vaccinated against the human papillomavirus, or HPV, to enter school could prevent many cancers linked to the virus, but University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers found that many parents only support such requirements with opt-out provisions that could make the laws less effective.

19 Aug 2016

Industrial chemicals exceed safety levels in public drinking water supplies for 6 million Americans

Levels of a widely used class of industrial chemicals linked with cancer and other health problems--polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs)--exceed federally recommended safety levels in public drinking water supplies for six million people in the U.S., according to a new study led by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

10 Aug 2016

Researchers develop new hybrid method to study HIV protein involved in disease progression

More than 36 million people worldwide, including 1.2 million in the U.S., are living with an HIV infection. Today's anti-retroviral cocktails block how HIV replicates, matures and gets into uninfected cells, but they can't eradicate the virus.

3 Aug 2016

Unmanned drones could be economical to deliver vaccines quickly in developing countries

Using unmanned drones to deliver vaccines in low- and middle-income countries may save money and improve vaccination rates, new research led by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center suggests.

21 Jun 2016

New vaccine found safe, effective against Toxic Shock Syndrome

Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) is a severe circulatory and organ failure caused by bacterial toxins, usually triggered by bacteria from the Staphylococcus group. Researchers from MedUni Vienna's Department of Clinical Pharmacology, in collaboration with the company Biomedizinische Forschungsgesellschaft mbH in Vienna, have now developed the world's first safe and effective vaccine against this disease and successfully tested it in a Phase I trial.

13 Jun 2016