Vaccine News and Research

Latest Vaccine News and Research

Salk scientists discover how brain keeps track of similar but distinct memories

Ever find yourself racking your brain on a Monday morning to remember where you put your car keys? When you do find those keys, you can thank the hippocampus, a brain region responsible for storing and retrieving memories of different environments-such as that room where your keys were hiding in an unusual spot.

22 Mar 2013

Researchers develop new approach for HIV vaccine development

Decades of research and three large-scale clinical trials have so far failed to yield an effective HIV vaccine, in large part because the virus evolves so rapidly that it can evade any vaccine-induced immune response.

22 Mar 2013

HIV home tests: an interview with Dr Nitika Pant Pai, McGill University

30 years into the HIV epidemic, there is no vaccine in sight. Yet, even though there are fantastic and effective cheap and universally available drugs, and a treatment as prevention strategy is known to work, people do not wish to get tested for HIV! If everyone got tested, and treated, we could have brought the infection under control a long time ago!

21 Mar 2013

Mozambique completes first HIV vaccine clinical trial

Last week, "researchers at Mozambique's Polana Cancio Centre for Research and Public Health completed a trial evaluating the safety of an HIV vaccine candidate," the country's "first HIV vaccine trial," and it "is set to embark on a second, a demonstration of the country's increased HIV research capacity," PlusNews reports.

20 Mar 2013

Research findings could lead to development of new drugs for gout treatment

Findings from a Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine study could lead to the development of new drugs to treat gout.

20 Mar 2013

Nigerian polio vaccinators face challenges but aim for eradication by 2018

The Independent reports on the challenges polio vaccinators in Nigeria face, including "the daily gauntlet of militant gangs, kidnappers, and unforgiving waters, on a mission to immunize children."

19 Mar 2013

Global efforts to address malnutrition should factor in immunization

"On Red Nose Day, we are reminded of the famine in Ethiopia that triggered the first Comic Relief, over 25 years ago," and "as we reflect, we now know that the link between malnutrition and infectious disease makes for a particularly vicious circle," Seth Berkley, CEO of the GAVI Alliance, writes in an opinion piece in the Guardian's "Global Development Professionals Network."

19 Mar 2013

Bill Gates says capitalism funnels more resources into minor ailments than infectious diseases

Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, "has declared capitalism 'flawed' because it channels more resources to curing minor ailments such as male baldness than to addressing the diseases that destroy millions of lives every year," The Independent reports.

19 Mar 2013

2 in 5 parents believe HPV vaccine is unnecessary

A rising percentage of parents say they won't have their teen daughters vaccinated to protect against the human papilloma virus, even though physicians are increasingly recommending adolescent vaccinations, a study by Mayo Clinic and others shows.

18 Mar 2013

Cytomegalovirus employs a novel trick to hide from immune detection

A virus that most people have probably never heard of, yet most of us carry, is the number 1 infectious cause of congenital birth defects. One in 750 children are born with, or develop, permanent disabilities such as hearing loss or brain damage as a result of CMV (cytomegalovirus) infection in the womb.

17 Mar 2013

Study shows promising benefit of combination therapy in CRPC patients

Multi-peptide vaccination therapy combined with the low-dose steroid drug dexamethasone shows promise in treating chemotherapy-naive castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) patients.

16 Mar 2013

USAID's pursuit of evidence-based global health agenda

As part of the Global Health Research & Development blog series, E. Callie Raulfs-Wang, research adviser at USAID's Center for Accelerating Innovation and Impact, writes in the agency's "IMPACTblog," "Whether testing the efficacy of an HIV vaccine or the marketing strategy of a new contraceptive technology, quality research, careful methodology and rigorous analysis are fundamental for acquiring evidence useful in decision-making."

16 Mar 2013

Study: Novel strategy could lead to universal influenza vaccine that can provide long-lasting protection

Seasonal epidemics of influenza result in nearly 36,000 deaths annually in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Current vaccines against the influenza virus elicit an antibody response specific for proteins on the outside of the virus, specifically the hemagglutinin protein.

15 Mar 2013

Examining GPEI Strategic Plan to end polio

Writing in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog, Apoorva Mallya, a program officer for the foundation's vaccine delivery team, highlights a recent Lancet editorial examining the Global Polio Eradication Initiative's six-year Strategic Plan to end polio.

15 Mar 2013

Completion rates for HPV vaccine series continue to remain low, say UTMB researchers

Completion rates for the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine series across both genders continue to remain alarmingly low nearly seven years after its introduction, suggesting that better patient education and increased public vaccine financing programs are needed, according to new research from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB).

15 Mar 2013

Varicella vaccine prevents hospital admission, saves lives

The widespread introduction of a chicken pox vaccine in Australia in 2006 has prevented thousands of children from being hospitalized with severe chicken pox and saved lives, according to new research.

14 Mar 2013

H1N1 flu vaccination associated with small excess risk of acquiring Guillain-Barré syndrome, but benefits outweigh risks

A meta-analysis of safety data gathered during the 2009 H1N1 vaccination programme in the US has established that the vaccination was associated with a small excess risk – about 1.6 extra cases per one million people vaccinated – of acquiring Guillain-Barré syndrome, a disorder of the nervous system which can result in temporary or more long-lasting paralysis and infrequently death. The authors conclude that the benefits of the 2009 H1N1 vaccination campaign greatly outweighed the risks.

14 Mar 2013

VOA examines implications of sequestration on U.S. military malaria vaccine research

VOA News examines the implications of sequestration on the U.S. military's infectious disease research, noting "officials say the mandatory budget cuts ... will affect further testing of a potentially cutting-edge malaria vaccine, soon to be published."

14 Mar 2013

GAVI, Islamic Development Bank partner to accelerate introduction of vaccines in member countries

The GAVI Alliance and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) "entered into a partnership Monday (March 11), with the goal to vaccinate at least 400 million children by 2020 in the bank's member countries," Devex reports, noting, "The alliance said it would need an estimated $7 billion to reach its target under the partnership" (3/12).

14 Mar 2013

Research finding aids efforts toward cytomegalovirus vaccine

A virus most people probably have never heard of, but that the majority of us carry, is the No. 1 infectious cause of congenital birth defects in the U.S. today. Because of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection during in utero development, 1 in 750 children are born with or develop permanent disabilities such as hearing loss or brain damage.

14 Mar 2013