Soybean oil, alcohol, water, and detergents as ingredients in the next smallpox vaccine???
No way!
That's what I thought when I read the tagline on a ScienceDaily article on using oil-based nasal nanoemulsion vaccines. They were first reported in 2003 to vaccinate against influenza, and it's since been tested for HIV and smallpox. They used gp120 to vaccinate against HIV and killed whole vaccinia virus for smallpox. In both, they "were able to promote an immune response." Apparently, for HIV, if mucosal immunity is induced, immunity is conferred for the genital mucosa as well. Crazy. Their HIV vaccine also induced cellular immunity and neutralized antibody to HIV virus isolates--
The smallpox vaccine with nanoemulsion-killed vaccinia would be safer than the current live-attenuated vaccine. This vaccine induced mucosal, antibody, and Th1 cellular immunity. \
Results from both smallpox and HIV vaccine were published this past moth in Clinical Vaccine Immunology and AIDS Research Human Retroviruses, respectively.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080226143559.htm
-Jessie
Friday, February 29, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
HCV outbreak in Vegas!
What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas... and that includes viral infections of all kinds.
There's recently been a Hep C outbreak from a Endoscopy center. Apparently, a sedative used was contaminated and 40000 people need to be tested! Go listen to CNN's impeccable Dr. Sanjay Gupta for more details: http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=6691836&ch=4226723&src=news
Love and happiness,
Thomas
There's recently been a Hep C outbreak from a Endoscopy center. Apparently, a sedative used was contaminated and 40000 people need to be tested! Go listen to CNN's impeccable Dr. Sanjay Gupta for more details: http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=6691836&ch=4226723&src=news
Love and happiness,
Thomas
First worldwide public health analysis says India is in trouble
Yoyoyoyo,
I found this cool article about one of the first (the first?) worldwide public health study that looks at infectious disease outbreak regions. They studied past outbreaks and where they occurred from all over. We know that zoonotic jumps/recombinations are most likely to cause 'new' diseases, or epidemics. They found that the regions that had high population density, warm climate, and wildlife bio-diversity were the regions that were most vulnerable to new outbreaks of infectious disease. This makes India and China especially vulnerable countries!
Not surprisingly, they found that, "The study has indicated that disease surveillance resources are misallocated, with the best efforts limited to rich countries." (DUH!) I personally really appreciated this global study because its looking at the world as a whole--like maybe the rich countries actually have a real obligation to watch out for the poorer countries. 20 years ago (not that I knew anything back then) this would be been out of the question. Maybe we're all moving in a better direction?
Stacie
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080226/jsp/nation/story_8949341.jsp
Quoted from the study:
I found this cool article about one of the first (the first?) worldwide public health study that looks at infectious disease outbreak regions. They studied past outbreaks and where they occurred from all over. We know that zoonotic jumps/recombinations are most likely to cause 'new' diseases, or epidemics. They found that the regions that had high population density, warm climate, and wildlife bio-diversity were the regions that were most vulnerable to new outbreaks of infectious disease. This makes India and China especially vulnerable countries!
Not surprisingly, they found that, "The study has indicated that disease surveillance resources are misallocated, with the best efforts limited to rich countries." (DUH!) I personally really appreciated this global study because its looking at the world as a whole--like maybe the rich countries actually have a real obligation to watch out for the poorer countries. 20 years ago (not that I knew anything back then) this would be been out of the question. Maybe we're all moving in a better direction?
Stacie
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080226/jsp/nation/story_8949341.jsp
Quoted from the study:
An international research team analysed 335 outbreaks of new infections over the past six decades and found that more than 60 per cent were zoonotic diseases, caused by microorganisms jumping from animals, mostly those in the wild, into humans.
These include HIV from chimpanzees, the deadly Ebola virus from fruit bats, the West Nile virus from common sparrows and avian influenza (H5N1 virus) from wild ducks.
“We found infectious diseases strongly linked to human population density, changes in population, rainfall, and wildlife bio-diversity,” said Kate Jones, a team member and research fellow at the Zoological Society of London. “These links allow us to predict where future outbreaks are most likely to occur,” Jones told The Telegraph.
High Hopes for TB Vaccine
Trials in children of a new TB vaccine are underway in South Africa.
Here's the link to the article! http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7266559.stm
Cristin
This new vaccine, MVA85A, is being developed as a booster for BCG, and has been in testing on humans for six years now. It is currently being tested in South Africa on young children and adults with HIV. If successful here, it will go into a phase 3 trial next year. However, it still needs at least 8 more years of trials before it can be considered for a license.
Here's the link to the article! http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7266559.stm
Cristin
New Flu Shot Recommendation
An advisory panel to the CDC recommends that all children ages 6 mos to 18 years should receive the flu vaccine, which extends the previous recommendation to immunize children up to age 5. This recommendation is likely to take effect in the 2008-2009 season and will add nearly 30 million kids to the list of who should receive annual flu immunizations.
The official CDC recommendation will increase the number of government-subsidized shots supplied to families who cannot afford to pay and may result in more insurance companies covering payment for the shots.
The move to vaccinate schoolchildren is an effort to prevent spread from children to adults and elderly persons, of which about 35,000 die annually in the US from flu complications.
Check out the article on the front page of today's (2/28/08) San Jose Mercury News.
Erin
The official CDC recommendation will increase the number of government-subsidized shots supplied to families who cannot afford to pay and may result in more insurance companies covering payment for the shots.
The move to vaccinate schoolchildren is an effort to prevent spread from children to adults and elderly persons, of which about 35,000 die annually in the US from flu complications.
Check out the article on the front page of today's (2/28/08) San Jose Mercury News.
Erin
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
A promising combination vaccine for Ebola and Marburg using VLPs!
Whoa! This is amazing! So exciting! So many exclamation points are warranted!!!
Scientists at USAMRIID have announced the creation of a promising combination vaccine for Ebola and Marburg which has been shown to be 100% efficacious in cynomolgous macaques. This breakthrough vaccine for filoviruses is composed of virus-like particles (VLPs) and is totally non-infectious in nature-- just like the Gardisal HPV vaccine! Monkeys treated with the VLP based vaccine were then challenged with lethal doses of virus and none developed signs of infection while all of the control animals succumbed to the agents of hemorrhagic fever.
VLPs are likely now to be the leading candidate for human filovirus vaccine development due to their high safety, efficacy, and immunogenicity. This is a truly exciting development and the primary researcher, Dr. Kelly Warfield, hopes that the vaccine will be in human trials in a matter of years.
Check out the news release here.
Check out a more scientifically rigorous description of the work here.
yours in filo-mania (!),
Lauren
Scientists at USAMRIID have announced the creation of a promising combination vaccine for Ebola and Marburg which has been shown to be 100% efficacious in cynomolgous macaques. This breakthrough vaccine for filoviruses is composed of virus-like particles (VLPs) and is totally non-infectious in nature-- just like the Gardisal HPV vaccine! Monkeys treated with the VLP based vaccine were then challenged with lethal doses of virus and none developed signs of infection while all of the control animals succumbed to the agents of hemorrhagic fever.
VLPs are likely now to be the leading candidate for human filovirus vaccine development due to their high safety, efficacy, and immunogenicity. This is a truly exciting development and the primary researcher, Dr. Kelly Warfield, hopes that the vaccine will be in human trials in a matter of years.
Check out the news release here.
Check out a more scientifically rigorous description of the work here.
yours in filo-mania (!),
Lauren
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Carraguard microbicide for HIV
It doesn't seem like anyone has posted on this and since Jon mentioned it in his post, I thought I should include the whole story:
Carraguard, a gel substance made from seaweed, was being investigated as a possible microbicide for protection against HIV. Results of the trial, though, found that those that used the carraguard got HIV at the same rate as those that used the control gel. A number of explanations have arisen, including that the women in the experimental group didn't use the gel as much as they were supposed to. The experimental group did not have any serious complications from the gel, prompting investigation into carraguard as a base into which antivirals could be added in the future.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/02/19/MNH9V2LUT.DTL
Dave
Carraguard, a gel substance made from seaweed, was being investigated as a possible microbicide for protection against HIV. Results of the trial, though, found that those that used the carraguard got HIV at the same rate as those that used the control gel. A number of explanations have arisen, including that the women in the experimental group didn't use the gel as much as they were supposed to. The experimental group did not have any serious complications from the gel, prompting investigation into carraguard as a base into which antivirals could be added in the future.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/02/19/MNH9V2LUT.DTL
Dave
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