Vaccine News and Research

Latest Vaccine News and Research

Methylene blue in combo with new malaria drugs curbs the spread of malaria parasites

New combinations of agents based on the oldest synthetic malaria drug, the methylene blue stain, can curb the spread of malaria parasites and make a significant contribution to the long-term eradication called for by the international "Roll Back Malaria Initiative."

20 May 2009

HIV/AIDS Vaccine Coalition urges continued funding for research amid economic crisis

A recently released AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition report says that although there has been a renewed focus on discovery, innovation and basic science in vaccine research, action is needed to ensure that research funding continues during the economic downturn, VOA News reports.

20 May 2009

Algae may the key to SARS vaccine

A protein from algae may have what it takes to stop Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) infections, according to new research.

20 May 2009

NIH to develop therapeutics for rare and neglected diseases

The National Institutes of Health is launching the first integrated, drug development pipeline to produce new treatments for rare and neglected diseases. The $24 million program jumpstarts a trans-NIH initiative called the Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases program, or TRND.

20 May 2009

Recommendations by experts to WHO on influenza A (H1N1) vaccines

Current epidemiological information suggests that the influenza A (H1N1) virus transmissibility potential is at least comparable to that of seasonal influenza viruses, with ability to sustain community spread. There is therefore no reason to expect that ongoing spread of the virus will stop.

19 May 2009

Experts warn of dangers of swine flu with almost 10,000 now infected, forecasts 4.9 billion doses needed

The latest figures from the World Health Organisation (WHO) has the worldwide influenza A H1N1 (swine flu) tally fast approaching 10,000 human cases.

19 May 2009

New vaginal ring designed to prevent sexual transmission of HIV

Researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College have published results showing that a new contraceptive device may also effectively block the transmission of the HIV virus. Findings show that the device prevents infection by the HIV virus in laboratory testing. The promising results are published in the most recent issue of the journal AIDS.

19 May 2009

Research may lead to improved TB vaccines

A team of Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators has cracked one of clinical medicine's enduring mysteries - what happened to the tuberculosis vaccine. The once-effective vaccine no longer prevents the bacterial lung infection that kills more than 1.7 million people worldwide each year.

19 May 2009

Risk perceptions and behaviour towards pandemic control of emerging infectious diseases

With the current outbreak of swine flu, and in the absence of a vaccine or treatment at present, the only way to contain the virus is to get people around the world to take precautionary measures.

19 May 2009

UN, WHO heads meet 30 vaccine manufacturers

WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with over 30 vaccine manufacturers from developing and developed countries at WHO headquarters today.

19 May 2009

Salmonella’s weakness for sugar predicts its downfall

For the first time UK scientists have shown what the food poisoning bug Salmonella feeds on to survive as it causes infection: glucose.

19 May 2009

Disruption of immune-system pathway key step in cancer progression

Human immune cells communicate constantly with one another as they coordinate to fight off infection and other threats.

18 May 2009

Vaccine candidate successful in blocking Simian version of HIV

Researchers have successfully blocked SIV, the simian version of HIV, using a new technique that could help lead to the development of an effective HIV/AIDS vaccine, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The team also included scientists from Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, and the New England Primate Research Center in Boston.

18 May 2009

Computer simulation captures immune response to flu

Researchers have successfully tested first the first time a computer simulation of major portions of the body's immune reaction to influenza type A, with implications for treatment design and preparation ahead of future pandemics, according to work accepted for publication, and posted online, by the Journal of Virology.

18 May 2009

World Health Assembly opens amid concerns about flu pandemic

The 62nd World Health Assembly opened today in Geneva, as officials from 193 member countries began their annual review of the activities of the WHO and set new priorities for the future.

18 May 2009

Piecing together the HIV prevention puzzle

"It's an exciting time in HIV prevention research. We will see results from a number of critically important HIV prevention research trials this year, as well as see the start of new trials around the world that will yield important answers in the years to come," said Mitchell Warren, AVAC executive director, at the release of AVAC's 13th annual report of the field.

18 May 2009

Gene transfer technology may lead to an HIV vaccine

A research team may have broken the stubborn impasse that has frustrated the invention of an effective HIV vaccine, by using an approach that bypasses the usual path followed by vaccine developers.

17 May 2009

Human nose temperature too cold for avian influenza

Avian influenza viruses do not thrive in humans because the temperature inside a person's nose is too low, according to research published today in the journal PLoS Pathogens.

15 May 2009

Cytomegalovirus may cause high blood pressure

A new study suggests for the first time that cytomegalovirus (CMV), a common viral infection affecting between 60 and 99 percent of adults worldwide, is a cause of high blood pressure, a leading risk factor for heart disease, stroke and kidney disease.

15 May 2009

Australian scientist suggests Swine flu an accident in the lab

The suggestion by an Australian virologist that the new flu virus, H1N1 or swine flu, could have been the result of a laboratory accident has been dismissed by Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the deputy director general of the World Health Organization (WHO).

14 May 2009