Vaccination News

TORONTO (Reuters) - Internet speculation over a potential human case of bird flu in the Canadian province of Quebec is untrue, health officials said on Wednesday.

"It's a false rumor," Dr. Patrick Dolce, head of infection control at the hospital in Rimouski, Quebec, told Reuters. "Everything is false; there is no patient, no nothing."

His remarks echoed those of Quebec Health Ministry spokeswoman Helene Gingras, who also said the rumors were "not true."

But the officials insist the decision to slaughter pigs and dogs was not unusual and that the step has been taken in other countries without public knowledge.

Park Kyung-hee, an official at Iksan city hall, said Wednesday 426 pigs and four dogs have been killed along with 127,200 chickens and 6.8 million eggs.

Temple University researchers who conducted the first metric analysis of the prophylactic health program say it fell short on several levels and raises questions about future preparedness.

In 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked each state to vaccinate at least 50 to 100 healthcare workers per hospital -- a number the government considered large enough to respond to a possible smallpox outbreak.

The World Today (interview)
Reporter: Gillian Bradford

ELEANOR HALL: After weeks of toing and froing, the Federal Government has announced it will now fund the cervical cancer vaccine, Gardasil, from next year.

Health Minister Tony Abbott initially said the vaccine couldn't be available until at least 2008, but under pressure from the Coalition's own backbench, the Prime Minister intervened to force a faster process.

The vaccine will be targeted at 12 and 13-year-old school girls and the Health Minister Tony Abbott says the Government has extracted the best price from the drug manufacturer after weeks of negotiation.

(AGI) - Rome, Nov 28 - 27pct of young people believe that there already is a vaccine against AIDS. 20pct are mistaken in how the HIV virus is spread. These figures were given by Prof. Fernando Aiuti, immunologist and Chairman of Anlaids, opening for the XX National Congress in Rome in the presence of Prof. Roberto Gallo, a world expert on the disease.

"There is no vaccine against AIDS, but there are some candidates which could become it, though it is not yet known which ones will work," he added. "Condoms should be placed in selling machines in high schools or nearby. Joints should not be allowed," added Prof. Aiuti, recalling data given by the Italian National Health Institute (ISS), which count one infection every two hours.

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- U.S. firm AVAX Technologies said Wednesday it is cleared to launch a phase 3 study of its metastatic melanoma vaccine, M-Vax.

The trial will enroll as many as 387 patients with stage IV melanoma at sites in the United States, Europe and Australia. Patients will be randomized in a 2-1 ratio to receive either M-Vax or placebo.

The study will measure best overall anti-tumor response rate and the percentage of patients surviving two years, AVAX said.

ImmunoCellular Therapeutics, Ltd., which was formerly known as Optical Molecular Imaging, Inc. ("ICT"), announced today that it has entered into an exclusive, worldwide license agreement with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center covering Cedars-Sinai's technology for cellular therapies, including dendritic cell-based vaccines for brain tumors and other cancers, as well as other neurodegenerative disorders. The technology is covered by patent applications that have been filed in the United States.

Dendritic cell-based vaccines may bolster the body's natural tendency to defend itself against various forms of cancer. ICT's first product candidate will be a vaccine for treating malignant brain tumors. The high rate of mortality of patients diagnosed with brain cancers and in particular with glioblastoma multiforme (the most lethal form) is driving the scientific community to develop improved treatments to increase the survival time and enhance the quality of life of patients. More than 17,000 cases of glioblastoma are diagnosed each year in the United States. There currently is no satisfactory treatment and two-year survival rates are only in the range of 26%.

The authors note that inactivated, trivalent, injectable influenza vaccine (injectable vaccine) is the only formulation approved for use in high-risk children, owing in part to concerns that live attenuated influenza vaccine (given nasally) might worsen asthma symptoms in asthmatics. This paper reports the results of an efficacy and safety trial of a reformulated live attenuated vaccine (live vaccine).

Subjects were European children aged 6-17 years with asthma enrolled during the 2002-2003 influenza season. The study excluded children with many other chronic diseases and children who were immune compromised. For 15 days after vaccination (1:1 randomization to live or injectable vaccine), parents recorded daily asthma symptom scores and peak expiratory flow measurements. In addition, the parents recorded nocturnal symptoms and asthma medication use. After the 15 days of parental log completion, investigators contacted subjects weekly to determine if they required revisit for symptoms. Any subject who developed fever or upper or lower respiratory illness was seen for office visit and nasal swab for influenza culture. The subjects were also monitored for side effects and other unscheduled medical visits. The study enrolled 2229 subjects, with 1114 receiving live vaccine.

This is the first time someone admits that there's too much flu shots manufactured. If you choose to believe everything that media, CDC and administration tell you, then I let you read the article. However, if you believe that too much manufactured vaccine shots means only one thing - mass pressure from media, doctors, administration to make sure that all this vaccine is used (i.e. paid by administrations or the customers, which means that the pharma giants will have their profits secured), then you can skip the article. It's up to you.

Two years ago, a manufacturing glitch led to shortages of flu vaccine in the United States, prompting long lines - and occasionally angry customers - at the few flu-shot clinics that were able to go off as scheduled.

This year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there's potential for a problem of a different sort - too many doses of the vaccine.

"It is quite a turnaround from 2004," said Richard McGarvey, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Health. "And I think the concerns on the part of the CDC are legitimate."

The Agriculture Ministry said earlier this week it suspected bird flu had killed 6,000 chickens at a farm in the southwest of the country that lies on a path for migratory birds.

"It is the H5N1 strain," a ministry official said by telephone on Saturday, after test results.

In association with Shantha Biotechnics, the European company, which has a strong presence in preventive medicine, aims to develop a global strategy for managing the infectious diseases segment. Specifically, it will have access to the Indian company’s indigenous proprietary R&D and a branded product base in recombinants.

This is the shocking but extremely informative video documentary “Vaccination - The Hidden Truth” (1998) where fifteen people, including Dr. Viera Scheibner (a PhD researcher), five medical doctors, other researchers, reveal what is really going on in relation to illness and vaccines. Ironically, the important facts come from the orthodox medicine’s own peer-reviewed research. With so much government and medical promotion of vaccination for prevention of disease, the video is clearly devoted to presenting the other side of the issue that parents and others are not being told.

The result is a damning account of the ineffectiveness of vaccines and their often harmful effects. It declares that parents are not being told the truth by the media, the Health Department and the medical establishment, with a medical doctor, Dr. Mark Donohoe, confessing that “It is a problem for me that I am part of a profession that is systematically lying to people?”.

Avian influenza, or bird flu, does not normally infect humans, but there have been several examples in the last few years of transmission to people, leading to fears of a strain with the potential to lead to a pandemic.

THE cervical cancer vaccine being held out as an alternative to Gardasil may offer much longer-lasting protection, according to its maker.

Drug giant GlaxoSmithKline, which is trying to stop the Government agreeing to a vaccination program using only Gardasil, says its treatment, Cervarix, has the strength to protect women vaccinated at school until they turn 55.

Federal Service on Consumer Rights Supervision has withdrawn six series of Grippol flu vaccine. Roughly a million doses are being recalled from circulation on 68 cases of strong allergic response in nine regions of Russia. In two regions, the authorities independently stopped vaccination. The loss of vaccine producer, federal-run Microgen, is estimated at $2 million.

Chief of Federal Service on Consumer Rights Supervision (Rospotrebnadzor), Gennady Onishchenko, announced yesterday the withdrawal of six series of Grippol vaccine on strong allergic response to the preparation. Sixty eight people in nine regions of Russia suffered from it as of yesterday. All victims had laryngeal edema, palpitation and breathing troubles.

Another news just hit all news agencies' websites. The only question that I have is how much did these experts get paid to voice their message that can lead to major fear and panic. How much did GSK and Roche pay? And why the normal influenza vaccines can be helpful against bird-flu virus?! What is the reason of this move? Do GSK and Roche need to flush their stock of vaccines because their expiration date is getting close, again?

Leading scientists say the UK government is failing to take advantage of scientific developments in the fight to prevent a flu pandemic.

A Royal Society and Academy of Medical Sciences report says more than one anti-viral drug should be stockpiled.

It warns the H5N1 virus can develop resistance to Tamiflu, and says the drug Relenza should also be stockpiled. 

The second batch of vaccination, which is underway in 63 out of64 cities and provinces nationwide, is scheduled to be complete by late this month, said the Department of Animal Health under the country's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Vietnam, to prevent reoccurrence of bird flu outbreaks, is intensifying fights against fowl smuggling, and monitoring poultry transport and trade.

HORSHOLM, Denmark, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- ALK-Abello said Monday it launched its tablet-based vaccine against grass pollen allergy, Grazax, in Germany.

"The launch of Grazax is the culmination of years of research and development at ALK-Abello," said Jens Bager, ALK-Abello's chief executive officer. "With this convenient tablet for home treatment, many more patients throughout Europe can be offered a treatment that targets the cause of their allergy, cuts the symptoms and improves their quality of life."

The company said it plans to introduce the vaccine in other, unspecified European markets.

Another article by Steven Woloshin, Lisa Schwartz and Gilbert Welch, a must read, as always.

Here we highlight a few common misconceptions that we hope will make you better informed this flu season.

36,000 Americans die of flu-related illnesses during a typical flu season

CLOSER LOOK: It is very hard to know how many people die from any given disease because there is often much uncertainty in determining the cause of death. This is particularly true for the flu. That's because it shares symptoms with so many other diseases, and because people most likely to die a flu-related death are also at high risk for many other causes of death. Read More: Research-Basics: Understanding How Big a Risk Is