Complicating Changes: Medical Microbiologist Comments on the Mutating Ebola Virus
Saint Joseph's University
Researchers develop first genetic strain of mice that can be infected with Ebola and display symptoms similar to those that humans experience. This work will significantly improve basic research on Ebola treatments and vaccines.
The preliminary findings from a new study conducted by a team of Swarthmore College researchers indicates that a combination of financial incentives – even as little as $10 – and an endorsement from close friends might by the best way to increase flu vaccinations among college students.
Wistar researchers have identified a new mutation in the H1N1 influenza virus that made it easily transmitted in middle-aged adults--those who should be able to resist the viral assault--during the 2013-2014 influenza season. .
Nationality at birth appears to play a significant role in whether or not adults in the United States are routinely vaccinated for preventable diseases, a new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine finds, reflecting a risky medical lapse for more than one in ten people nationwide.
With the 2014-15 flu season officially underway, pharmacy professor Daniel Hussar, PhD, at Philadelphia College of Pharmacy at University of the Sciences, urges people to stop worrying about Ebola and get a flu shot instead.
It’s a common question parents ask themselves this time of year: Does my child really need a flu shot? Though the flu may seem harmless, the truth is on average 20,000 children age 5 and younger are hospitalized due to flu symptoms each year.
A Saint Louis University study in JAMA reveals a vaccination strategy researchers can continue to study to protect people from bird flu that has the potential to become epidemic.
Each year, 30,000 people die from influenza infection and its complications. In an effort to get ahead of the upcoming flu season, experts at Montefiore Medical Center are raising awareness about the importance of the flu vaccine, which remains the best option to reduce a person’s risk of contracting the virus. The flu season can start as early as late September and usually runs for about 12 to 15 weeks.
Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have described how a single family of antibodies that broadly neutralizes different strains of HIV has evolved remarkably diverse structures to attack a vulnerable site on the virus. The findings provide clues for the design of a future HIV vaccine.
If you have a child with egg allergies, you may have been told they shouldn’t get the shot because of a possible reaction to the trace amounts of egg in the vaccine. Not true, says the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI). Recent research has shown that administration of the flu vaccine is safe for kids with egg allergies.
A year-long study of over 360 adolescents who were considered to be ideal candidates to receive the HPV vaccine showed that neither increased parental or adolescent knowledge about HPV or the vaccine resulted in higher rates of vaccination. That is, those with higher levels of knowledge were not more likely to obtain vaccination for themselves or their daughters.
Scientists have found a way to find the proverbial needle in the cancer antigen haystack. The results have the potential to completely change current approaches to generating anticancer vaccines.
With school underway and flu season not far behind, vaccinations are on people’s minds again, or at least they should be – according to experts such as George DiFerdinando Jr. who keep track of how disease spreads and the best ways to prevent it. Rutgers Today asked DiFerdinando what people need to know this fall about several dangerous disease -- meningitis, influenza and shingles -- and the vaccines designed to prevent them.
The most common type of hospital-associated infection may be preventable with a vaccine, new research in mice suggests. The experimental vaccine prevented urinary tract infections associated with catheters.
Thomas Jefferson University’s Ebola vaccine is one of the front runners of those currently in development.
Internationally recognized for vaccine research, Saint Louis University faculty wrote about their efforts to protect people from infectious diseases in Missouri Medicine, which is the journal of the Missouri state medical society.
Researchers open a new page in the immune system's playbook, discovering more chatter goes on among the body's infection fighters than was suspected.
Hospitals can greatly improve their flu vaccination rate among health care workers by using a mandatory employee vaccination policy, according to a Henry Ford Health System study. Citing its own data, Henry Ford researchers say the health system achieved employee vaccination rates of 99 percent in the first two years of its mandatory policy, in which annual vaccination compliance is a condition of employment.
To learn more about this outbreak and the creation of new human vaccines, Vermont Medicine, a publication of the University of Vermont College of Medicine, talked to infectious disease experts Beth Kirkpatrick, M.D., UVM Vaccine Testing Center director, and Kristen Pierce, M.D., who have led vaccine studies for such global pathogens as cholera, West Nile virus, dengue, typhoid fever and anthrax.
As the school year starts in full swing many parents wonder if their child should receive the HPV vaccine, which is recommend for girls ages 11-26 and boys 11-21. There are a lot of questions and controversy around this vaccine, but many pediatricians say it comes down to protecting people from a leading cause of death.
A 30-year-old unvaccinated male security forces student is the first reported case of spreading the smallpox vaccine virus (vaccinia) across his face by shaving after he had inadvertently acquired the virus during combative training at the largest U.S. Air Force training installation, according to a recently released health surveillance report.
Between buying new backpacks and pencils, sneakers and jeans, parents should start thinking about getting their children into the pediatrician for a back-to-school medical exam.
On what health care professionals basing their decision, regarding vaccines?
A variant of the century-old vaccine Bacille Calmette-Guerin is superior to BCG in protecting against tuberculosis in animal models, and also cross protects against leprosy. Boosting that variant with a protein found in both TB and leprosy provides considerably stronger protection against leprosy.
High-dose influenza vaccine is 24 percent more effective than the standard-dose vaccine in protecting persons ages 65 and over against influenza illness and its complications, according to a Vanderbilt-led study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
Shots hurt. But there’s a lot parents can do to ease kids’ pain and anxiety about vaccinations.
Sharpened pencils: check; notebooks and paper: check; school schedule: check. As a parent, this check list may seem familiar to you. It is a clear indication that back-to-school season is here and that means preparing your child for the school year as best as you can. Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is helping you and your child finalize the list by providing top 10 expert tips on keeping your child healthy and safe all year round.
A study led by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers found that injecting a vaccine-like compound into mice was effective in protecting them from malaria. The findings suggest a potential new path toward the elusive goal of malaria immunization.
Two birds with one stone: A novel and broad Ebola vaccine in humans or with specially engineered cows could help researchers develop large quantities of Anti-Ebola serum and protect humans against filoviruses.
Doctors at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center want to remind parents about the importance of immunizing their children when preparing to send the children back to school.
Though kids often stay on track with receiving vaccines due to school requirements, with no system in place, adult rates remain low, according to one UAB expert.
University of Iowa researchers have created a vaccine for dust-mite allergies. In lab tests and animal trials, the nano-sized vaccine package was readily absorbed by immune cells and dramatically lowered allergic responses. Results appear in the AAPS Journal.
— Researchers at Wayne State University have made a fundamental discovery and, in subsequent collaboration with scientists at La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology (LIAI), are one step closer to the goal of developing the world’s first T-cell peptide-based vaccine for heart disease — the number one killer in the nation.
Although some data has suggested a potential association between receipt of the quadrivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination and subsequent venous thromboembolism (VTE; blood clot), an analysis that included more than 500,000 women who received the vaccine did not find an increased risk of VTE, according to a study in the July 9 issue of JAMA.
Research into vaccines for malaria in humans should be guided by the success shown in producing effective vaccines for malaria-like diseases in animals, according to a University of Adelaide study.
Whitehead Institute scientists have genetically and enzymatically modified red blood cells to carry a range of valuable payloads—from drugs, to vaccines, to imaging agents—for delivery to specific sites throughout the body.
The human monoclonal antibody known as m102.4, which has proven effective in protecting against the frequently fatal Hendra virus, has now been shown in studies to protect against the closely related Nipah virus -- the basis of the 2011 movie "Contagion" -- a highly infectious and deadly agent that results in acute respiratory distress syndrome and encephalitis, person-to-person transmission, and greater than 90 percent case fatality rates among humans. The results of the study, conducted by a team of Federal and university scientists, will appear in Science Translational Medicine online: “Therapeutic Treatment of Nipah Virus Infection in Nonhuman Primates with a Neutralizing Human Monoclonal Antibody." The full study will be available following the release of the embargo at 2 p.m. June 25, 2014.
Research toward the world’s first vaccine for heart disease continues to advance at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, with researchers demonstrating significant arterial plaque reduction in concept testing in mice.
Pertussis (whooping cough) is on the increase in the United States and around the world—and nurses play an essential role in educating parents and patients about the safety and effectiveness of pertussis vaccination, according to a paper in the July-September issue of Journal of Christian Nursing, official journal of the Nurses Christian Fellowship. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, have identified the genes encoding a molecule that famously defines Group A Streptococcus (strep), a pathogenic bacterial species responsible for more than 700 million infections worldwide each year.
Measles have reached a 20-year high in the United States and the cause lies squarely with those who deliberately refuse to be vaccinated. Eighty-five percent of the unvaccinated U.S. residents who contracted measles cited religious, philosophical or personal reasons for not getting immunized, according to the Center for Disease Control. “Religious, philosophical or personal reasons are not medical reasons for not getting vaccinated,” says Jorge Parada, MD, medical director, infectious disease at Loyola University Health System.
Seattle BioMed researchers today announced they have developed a next generation genetically attenuated parasite (GAP) that might constitute the path to a highly protective malaria vaccine. The study was published online in the journal Molecular Therapy.
Researchers have identified differences in the genetic code of pneumococcal bacteria that may explain why it poses such a risk to children with sickle cell disease and why current vaccines don’t provide better protection against the infection.
Research from Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey shows that the ‘first in man’ series of vaccine injections given directly into a pancreatic cancer tumor is not only well tolerated, but also suggests an “encouraging” period of stable disease. Results from a Phase I clinical trial conducted at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey are being presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Pancreatic Cancer conference in New Orleans this week.
A vaccine or other therapy directed at a single site on a surface protein of HIV could in principle neutralize nearly all strains of the virus—thanks to the diversity of targets the site presents to the human immune system.