Eighty per cent of the meat eaten in Cameroon is killed in the wild and is known as "bushmeat". The nation's favoured dishes are gorilla, chimpanzee or monkey because of their succulent and tender flesh. According to one estimate, up to 3,000 gorillas are slaughtered in southern Cameroon every year to supply an illicit but pervasive commercial demand for ape meat . "Everyone is eating it," said one game warden. "If they have money they will buy gorilla or chimp to eat." Frankie, a poacher in the southern Dja Wildlife reserve who gave a fake name, said he is involved in the trade because he can earn good money from it, charging around £60 per adult gorilla killed. "I have to make a living," he said. "Women come from the market and order a gorilla or a chimp and I go and kill them." ------------------------------------------------------------- This is a big deal - and not because as, in the words of the article, "Britain is at risk from an outbreak caused by the lethal Ebola or Marburg viruses contained in illegal imports of bush meat from Africa".
Because AFRICA is at risk from such diseases - and the death toll will be much higher here, where the standard of care is so much lower than in Europe.
And because we are losing the closest relatives that we as humans have - to human greed for meat. How despicable, and how sad, is that? 
Scientists have successfully protected laboratory animals from lethal hantavirus disease using a novel approach that combines DNA vaccines and duck eggs. ...this is the first time that the DNA vaccine/duck egg system has been shown to produce an antiviral product capable of protecting against hantavirus disease. 
A new study announced Tuesday finds the H1N1 flu vaccine not only can protect you from getting sick but can actually benefit your baby. Researchers from the University of Ottawa in Canada examined data from more than 55,000 child births in Ontario during an outbreak of H1N1, comparing mothers who were vaccinated to those who weren't. While prior research has found that pregnant women can safely get the flu shot at any stage of their pregnancies -- something many doctors vehemently support -- the new findings associate H1N1 vaccinations with a significantly reduced risk of stillbirth, preterm birth, and very low birth weight. "These are all significant results, but especially interesting is the finding that the vaccinated mothers were one-third less likely to have a stillborn child," said study researcher Deshayne Fell, a graduate student at McGill University who works with the birth record database. "This is one of the only studies large enough to evaluate the association between maternal flu vaccination and stillbirth -- a very rare event."
So much for the disinformation about dangers to pregnant women: in fact, Spanish Flu and the recent H1N1 pandemic were both especially dangerous for unprotected pregnant women. 
Moral grounds keep some doctors from recommending it despite anti-cancer potential. Moral grounds keep some doctors from recommending it despite anti-cancer potential.
So: simple prudishness stops MEDICS recommending vaccination?? Idiots!! 
Polio has been declared a "global emergency" by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative after "explosive" outbreaks in countries previously free of the disease. It has launched a plan to boost vaccination in Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the only countries where the disease is still endemic. Experts fear the disease could "come back with a vengeance". The World Health Organization says polio is "at a tipping point". There have been large outbreaks of the virus in Africa, Tajikistan and China has had its first cases for more than a decade. 
"Franck Grimaud, CEO, and Majid Mehtali, CSO, co-managers of VIVALIS jointly stated, "We have now two clinical trials on-going, including one in phase II, with an influenza vaccine produced on our EB66® cell line in two of the world largest markets, the USA and Japan. More than ever we are convinced that EB66® cells will be the cell line of choice as the new production platform for human and animal vaccines. We will continue to promote the EB66® cell line both for the production of vaccines and therapeutic proteins with the objective to expand our worldwide partnering activities.""
About time flu vaccine manufacture moved out of the 1940s! 
"The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department today (May 18) announced results of the regular influenza virus surveillance programme on pigs at the Sheung Shui Slaughterhouse conducted by the University of Hong Kong (HKU) for February to April this year. Among some 1,100 samples tested, no human swine influenza virus (pandemic H1N1) was detected. A total of eight samples were found to contain viruses that were essentially swine influenza viruses but had picked up some genes of the human swine influenza virus."
Coming to a pig farm near you: a unique mix of genes that may yet infect you. Seriously, it is high time that both flu virus surveillance and vaccination was taken seriously in intensive pig farming worldwide.
Graphic of flu viruses mixing courtesy of Russell Kightley Media 
"On Tuesday, TLC posted “Why shouldn’t we vaccinate our children,” which was one of the all-time worst pieces written about vaccines. It had outright falsehoods and oodles of misleading information. It was so bad, in fact, that I briefly wondered if it might be a deliberate effort to point out the lunacy of anti-vaccine activists. (It wasn’t.) That afternoon, I posted a sentence-by-sentence breakdown of one of the piece’s six sections, titled “Vaccines May or May Not Have a Link to Autism.” The following day, the piece was updated — and several of my criticisms were addressed, although not in a manner that made any significant difference. At that point, all of the reader comments that had been added to the piece were disappeared."
Great article - from what appears to be a great blog; ANYTHING that combats the pernicious tide of negative misinformation regarding viruses is to be welcomed. 
"Avian influenza (AI) H9N2 has been reported from poultry in India. A seroepidemiological study was undertaken among poultry workers to understand the prevalence of antibodies against AI H9N2 in Pune, Maharashtra, India. A total of 338 poultry workers were sampled. Serum samples were tested for presence of antibodies against AI H9N2 virus by hemagglutination inhibition (HI) and microneutralization (MN) assays. A total of 249 baseline sera from general population from Pune were tested for antibodies against AI H9N2 and were negative by HI assay using ≥40 cut-off antibody titre. Overall 21 subjects (21/338 = 6.2%) were positive for antibodies against AI H9N2 by either HI or MN assays using ≥40 cut-off antibody titre. A total of 4.7% and 3.8% poultry workers were positive for antibodies against AI H9N2 by HI and MN assay respectively using 40 as cut-off antibody titre. This is the first report of seroprevalence of antibodies against AI H9N2 among poultry workers in India."
It really is time that this sort of survey was done more widely - and especially where HPAI viruses are concerned. We may, we just may, catch the next pandemic early. 
"For many diseases, our immunological memories can endure like etchings in stone. Once children get shots for polio, they're usually protected for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the flu virus. When it comes to influenza, it’s as if we have short-term amnesia. Every fall, doctors offices and pharmacies get a fresh load of influenza vaccines. Time and again, studies have demonstrated that flu vaccines are effective—but usually only for a single flu season. When the next flu season arrives, the viruses have changed, and we have little protection from the year before. We have to teach our immune systems yet another lesson."
Nice essay, from a master of the art of making science palatable to civilians. He very ably explores the concept of universal vaccines for flu - something I for one would welcome! 
"If the world acts with strategy and speed to implement the proven and emerging options, the epidemic should be on a measurable downward trajectory over the next five to ten years. Why, then, do we still need an AIDS vaccine?
Because we want to end the epidemic. If the potential of combination prevention is realized over the next ten years, there will be vast reductions in the numbers of new HIV infections and AIDS deaths. If combination prevention targets do not get met in the next ten years, this will be a global tragedy.
In either scenario, an AIDS vaccine is an essential tool."
Great article - and on HIV Vaccine Awareness Day, too! 
There is a growing consensus that we can significantly curtail the HIV/AIDS pandemic by implementing scientifically proven HIV prevention strategies, such as voluntary medically supervised adult male circumcision, prevention of mother-to-child transmission and treatment as prevention. With 2.7 million new HIV infections in 2010 alone, however, it is likely that controlling and ultimately ending the HIV/AIDS pandemic will require an effective vaccine as well. This past year, there have been a number of encouraging findings on this front. Last month, a detailed analysis of specimens from the first HIV vaccine clinical trial to show a modest protective effect yielded important clues about how the vaccine might have worked. These clues suggest directions for improving upon the original vaccine regimen to confer a broader, more potent and longer-lasting effect. The original vaccine regimen was tested among 16,000 adult volunteers in Thailand in a trial co-funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of NIH. Meanwhile, several other NIAID-sponsored HIV vaccine clinical trials are under way. The largest of these is examining whether a prime-boost vaccine regimen can prevent HIV infection or reduce the amount of virus in the blood of those participants who become infected despite vaccination. These trials are possible because of the generous contributions of time and effort by thousands of study participants, community educators, health care workers and scientists. All those involved deserve our gratitude. 
Led Zeppelin / Finger Flu 1975 Chicago Tapes Volume 2 / 2CD /TCOLZ Click Image To Enlarge Related posts:Led Zeppelin / Demand Unprecedented In The History Of Rock Music / 1DVDLed Zeppelin / One Nation Dancing ...
Flu of a different kind!! I DID promise you other things.... |
"Regular readers will remember my outraged rant post from almost a year ago, reacting to the news that the Central Intelligence Agency faked a vaccination campaign in Pakistan as a way of getting close to Osama Bin Laden’s hide-out, hoping to prove his presence by using a vaccine needle to grab a sample of DNA. I felt, and still feel, that the maneuver — which was belatedly acknowledged by the CIA — was a cynical attempt to hijack the credibility that public health workers have built up over decades with local populations. I especially felt it endangered the status of the fraught polio-eradication campaign, which over the past decade has been challenged in majority-Muslim areas in Africa and South Asia over beliefs that polio vaccination is actually a covert campaign to harm Muslim children — an accusation that seems fantastic, but begins to make sense when you realize some of those areas have perfectly good reasons to distrust vaccination campaigns. I take no pleasure in saying the prediction came true. Both The Guardian and the news website OnIslam reported in March that polio eradication in Pakistan — one of the three countries where polio stubbornly persists because of internal conflict — has been hampered by the fake campaign. The descending spiral of US-Pakistan relations clearly won’t hit bottom anytime soon. It’s sickening to think that the polio campaign, always teetering on the asymptote of eradication but never quite getting there, will be part of the collateral damage." NIH-funded HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) has started enrollment of GeoVax's second-generation HIV vaccine. The trial will include 48 people at four sites in the U.S., 40 receiving the vaccine at increasing doses and 8 as controls, and will check the safety of the vaccine, as well as look out for an immune response. The DNA-based vaccine expresses the same HIV proteins as the first-generation vaccine, which is currently in Phase IIa, but carries its own adjuvant in the form of DNA expressing granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF). "We are extremely pleased the HVTN is conducting the trial with the adjuvanted vaccine. They have substantial experience with our unadjuvanted vaccine and possess appropriate expertise for this first human trial of our GM-CSF co-expressing vaccine that has shown such good promise in preclinical studies," Robert McNally, Ph.D., president and CEO of GeoVax, said. The vaccine is given in two steps--two shots of the HIV/GM-CSF DNA vaccine to stimulate the immune system and trigger antibodies against the virus, followed by two booster shots of MVA, a recombinant poxvirus expressing HIV proteins. In animal studies, the vaccine protected 5 out of 7 animals from infection. If this study is successful, the company will move this form of the vaccine into Phase IIa/IIb trials.
GENEVA (Reuters) - The last three countries where polio is still paralyzing children -- Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria -- said on Thursday that they have enlisted Muslim women and religious leaders to allay fears of vaccination and wipe out the disease. Conflict and insecurity is preventing health workers from reaching hundreds of thousands of children in Afghanistan and Pakistan with doses of polio vaccine, health ministers said. 
Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) is a lentivirus that affects domesticated housecats worldwide and is the causative agent of feline AIDS. From 2.5% up to 4.4% of cats worldwide are infected with FIV. FIV differs taxonomically from two other feline retroviruses, feline Within FIV, five subtypes have been identified based on nucleotide sequence differences coding for the viral envelope (env) or polymerase (pol). FIV is the only non-primate lentivirus to cause an AIDS-like syndrome, but FIV is not typically fatal for cats, as they can live relatively healthily as carriers and transmitters of the disease for many years. A vaccine is available although its efficacy remains uncertain, and cats will test positive for FIV antibodies after vaccination.
Useful blog site and very nice post! Antibodies that help to stop [the] HIV [virus] have been found in breast milk. Researchers at Duke University Medical Center isolated the antibodies from immune cells called B cells in the breast milk of infected mothers in Malawi, and showed that the B cells in breast milk can generate neutralizing antibodies that may inhibit the virus that causes AIDS. HIV-1 can be transmitted from mother to child via breastfeeding, posing a challenge for safe infant feeding practices in areas of high HIV-1 prevalence. But only one in 10 HIV-infected nursing mothers is known to pass the virus to their infants. "That is remarkable, because nursing children are exposed multiple times each day during their first year of life," said senior author Sallie Permar, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of pediatrics and infectious diseases at Duke. "We are asking if there is an immune response that protects 90 percent of infants, and could we harness that response to develop immune system prophylaxis (protection) during breastfeeding for mothers infected with HIV-1. "Our work helped establish that these B cells in breast milk can produce HIV-neutralizing antibodies, so enhancing the response or getting more mucosal B-cells to produce those helpful antibodies would be useful, and this is a possible route to explore for HIV-1 vaccine development," Permar said. 
While there are plenty of cases of rabies in animals in the United States, human cases are extremely rare, with one or two cases reported each year. This is because there is a robust public health system that responds to cases of possible and confirmed rabies exposure in humans. There is also a functioning veterinary health system -- and public policies -- that require immunization of household pets like cats and dogs. In the rest of the world, most of the 55,000 deaths from human rabies each year happen as a result of dog bites. On the other hand, it is much more difficult to immunize wild mammals. In the United States, raccoons account for most of the cases of rabies in wild animals, followed by skunks, bats, and foxes. For this reason, any exposure to the saliva of these animals in the wild -- through a bite or close encounter -- is cause for a visit to a healthcare provider in order to be evaluated for rabies prophylaxis (treatment to prevent infection or disease). Depending on the prevalence of rabies in the wild animals in your area, the type of exposure (e.g., a bite versus a lick), and any available laboratory testing, the healthcare provider may decide to go ahead with prophylaxis.
Useful article - and a timely reminder, that those friendly animals...can KILL you. 
"The public health community has long struggled with how best to reduce HIV infection rates among black Americans, which is seven times that of whites. In a new paper published in the journal PLoS One, a team of physicians and public health researchers report that African-American clergy say they are ready to join the fight against the disease by focusing on HIV testing, treatment, and social justice–a strategy that is compatible with religious teaching.
While I am not really a fan of anything faith-based, this can only be a good thing - as long as they don't do the Catholic thing, and go anti-condom. 
"Among girls and women who get their first human papillomavirus, or HPV, vaccine, the percent who complete all three doses is dropping, according to a new study.
While this is disturbing news, the good thing is that it is being mooted that only two doses should be given anyway - as that seems to be nealy as protective as the full regimen. "Although vaccination was used in 2007, this was not until five weeks into the control program and it has been suggested that it had a limited impact on containing and eradicating the outbreak," noted Garner. "This study has shown that vaccination used early in an outbreak is an effective approach to preventing cases of disease. Used with other disease control measures (such as premises biosecurity, movement restrictions), it may have significantly reduced the size of the 2007 Australian EI outbreak. "This reduction occurs despite the fact that the vaccine does not produce sterile immunity, with vaccinated horses still able to become infected and shed virus," he continued. "The study found that movement restrictions and biosecurity measures as applied in the 2007 outbreak were highly effective in reducing spread and containing the disease geographically, although the disease continued to actively spread within many of the affected regions." Read more: http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=20035#ixzz1vPjxGQ9d 
Granulosis Virus 3D Model available on Turbo Squid, the world's leading provider of digital 3D models for visualization, films, television, and games
While I don't normally endorse an alternative supplier of graphics, this is VERY nice. Pity there's no information about WHICH granulosis virus.... 
Subunit vaccines are significantly more expensive to produce than traditional vaccines because they are based primarily on recombinant proteins that must be purified from the expression system. Despite the increased cost, subunit vaccines are being developed because they are safe, effective, and can elicit antibodies that confer protection against diseases that are not currently vaccine-preventable. Algae are an attractive platform for producing subunit vaccines because they are relatively inexpensive to grow, genetically tractable, easily scaled to large volumes, have a short generation time, and are devoid of inflammatory, viral, or prion contaminants often present in other systems. We tested whether algal chloroplasts can produce malaria transmission blocking vaccine candidates, Plasmodium falciparum surface protein 25 (Pfs25) and 28 (Pfs28). Antibodies that recognize Pfs25 and Pfs28 disrupt the sexual development of parasites within the mosquito midgut, thus preventing transmission of malaria from one human host to the next. These proteins have been difficult to produce in traditional recombinant systems because they contain tandem repeats of structurally complex epidermal growth factor-like domains, which cannot be produced in bacterial systems, and because they are not glycosylated, so they must be modified for production in eukaryotic systems. Production in algal chloroplasts avoids these issues because chloroplasts can fold complex eukaryotic proteins and do not glycosylate proteins. Here we demonstrate that algae are the first recombinant system to successfully produce an unmodified and aglycosylated version of Pfs25 or Pfs28. These antigens are structurally similar to the native proteins and antibodies raised to these recombinant proteins recognize Pfs25 and Pfs28 from P. falciparum. Furthermore, antibodies to algae-produced Pfs25 bind the surface of in-vitro cultured P. falciparum sexual stage parasites and exhibit transmission blocking activity. Thus, algae are promising organisms for producing cysteine-disulfide-containing malaria transmission blocking vaccine candidate proteins.
What can I say...go green! 
While I'm not sure every reader will find The Great Influenza equally compelling, I must say that this one was quite the read for me! It was fascinating, challenging, and complex–complex in a good way. |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |  |
18 |
|
Next |
