Vaccine News and Research

Latest Vaccine News and Research

High dose flu vaccine boosts immune response in elderly

Giving people age 65 and older a dose four times larger than the standard flu vaccine boosts the amount of antibodies in their blood to levels considered protective against the flu, more so than the standard flu vaccine does. The findings from a study of nearly 4,000 people were presented Oct. 26 at a national meeting on infectious diseases.

26 Oct 2008

New molecules with many branches will help unleash potential of nanotechnology

Materials science and the pharmaceutical industry could soon be revolutionized by emerging nanotechnologies based on designer molecules with long complex tree-and branch structures. Such molecules offer almost limitless scope for design of bespoke compounds for specific applications in disease therapy, for novel materials such as resins, as well as electronic displays, and energy storage. Almost every field involving design and synthesis of chemical compounds will be transformed by the arrival of technologies allowing nanoscale design of these branched molecules, known as hyperbranched polymers.

26 Oct 2008

Exposure to low doses of mercury changes the way the arteries work

An international team of researchers has shown that mercury is another important factor in cardiovascular disease as it changes the way arteries work. One of the possible sources of exposure of humans to mercury is by eating contaminated fish.

23 Oct 2008

Ministers urged to rethink rather than repackage $2 billion global response to infectious diseases

As the first globally co-ordinated plan for the planet's gravest health threats is hatched by government ministers from around the world this weekend, a new report sets out a 10-point plan for this new, globalised approach to infectious diseases such as avian flu.

23 Oct 2008

Getting the flu early may protect against worse one later

New evidence about the worldwide influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 indicates that getting the flu early protected many people against a second deadlier wave, an article co-authored by an NIH epidemiologist concludes.

20 Oct 2008

Universal vaccine could protect people and pets from deadly flu pandemics

A single vaccine could be used to protect chickens, cats and humans against deadly flu pandemics, according to an article published in the November issue of the Journal of General Virology. The vaccine protects birds and mammals against different flu strains and can even be given to birds while they are still in their eggs, allowing the mass vaccination of wild birds.

20 Oct 2008

Better TB vaccine in the pipeline

Scientists in the U.S. believe they have a vaccine in the pipeline that offers better protection from tuberculosis (TB).

20 Oct 2008

Hand, foot and mouth disease in China kills 3 children and sickens over 100 others

In the latest health scare in China three children have died from hand, foot and mouth disease and another 110 are sick - this is China's second outbreak of the virus this year in young children.

20 Oct 2008

Mumps making a comeback in Australia

Experts are concerned that mumps, once a thing of the past, may be making a comeback in Australia and they are blaming it on the absence of proper vaccinations during childhood.

20 Oct 2008

Polio could be wiped out in Nigeria thanks to improved vaccine

A recently introduced polio vaccine is four times more effective at protecting children than previous vaccines and has the potential to eradicate type 1 polio in Nigeria if it reaches enough children, according to a study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

19 Oct 2008

Governments urged to fight pneumococcal disease

Pneumococcal disease, one of the world's leading causes of death and serious illness, must be recognised as an urgent global health issue together with HIV, malaria and TB, say the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Pneumococcal Disease Prevention in the Developing World in a report launching at the House of Lords today. Between 700,000 and one million children under the age of five die each year from pneumococcal disease, equivalent to malaria and more than AIDS and tuberculosis.

16 Oct 2008

GE announces battery-free RFID sensor

GE Global Research has announced a battery-free, multi-detection radio-frequency identification (RFID) sensing platform that could enable a wide range of low cost wireless sensing products in healthcare, security, food packaging, water treatment and pollution prevention. GE's unique RFID sensors are built on traditional RFID tags.

14 Oct 2008

TB Alliance enters into collaboration with sanofi-aventis to fight tuberculosis

The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance) and sanofi-aventis announced today that they have entered into a collaboration agreement to accelerate the discovery, development and clinical use of drugs against tuberculosis (TB). The TB Alliance is a not-for-profit, product development partnership, whose goal is the development of new TB drugs.

14 Oct 2008

World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick's remarks - Modernizing Multilateralism and Markets

Mr. Chairman, Governors, and Distinguished Guests: Thank you for joining us at these Annual Meetings. I want to express my particular thanks to our Chairman, Zoran Stavreski, and, once again, to Agustin Carstens for his leadership of the Development Committee and his partnership as a friend.

13 Oct 2008

Drug companies plan to invest in HIV/AIDS drug development, improve access, U.N. Secretary-General says

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday said that many large pharmaceutical companies -- including Abbott Labs, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer -- plan to increase their efforts to develop HIV/AIDS drugs and diagnostics for impoverished regions, Reuters reports.

13 Oct 2008

Georgia Tech models future pandemic flu, improves food, quarantine strategies

The 1918 flu pandemic killed more than 40 million people worldwide and affected persons of all age groups. While it is difficult to predict when the next influenza pandemic will occur or how severe it will be, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed models to help organizations like the American Red Cross and Georgia Department of Education prepare emergency response plans.

12 Oct 2008

Tuberculosis vaccine a step closer

Researchers at Aberystwyth University, following a number of years of investment by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), have licensed ground-breaking research to a non-profit product development partnership working to develop new, more effective vaccines against Tuberculosis (TB). This development will give hope that significantly better prevention and treatment of TB will be available within the next few years.

12 Oct 2008

Influenza vaccine not associated with reduced hospitalizations among young children

Use of the influenza vaccine was not associated with preventing hospitalizations or reducing physician visits for the flu in children age 5 and younger during two recent seasons, perhaps because the strains of virus in the vaccine did not match circulating strains, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

6 Oct 2008

New vaccines may not reduce tuberculosis incidence

Despite the potential of new vaccines to prevent TB, new research shows that the removal of one strain of TB can allow a previously suppressed strain to succeed. Consequently, a vaccination program could result in the proliferation of strains more likely to be, or become, drug resistant, and could even result in an increased prevalence of the disease.

6 Oct 2008

Newsweek examines global malaria action plan

Newsweek in its Oct. 6 issue examines malaria eradication efforts and the Global Malaria Action Plan, which aims to eradicate malaria worldwide and was released last week during the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (Carmichael/Cunningham, Newsweek, 10/6).

5 Oct 2008