General Vaccination News: October 2006 Archives

New Delhi, Oct 31. (PTI): Resurgence of polio in parts of India could be attributed to faulty storage of vaccines, but an Indian scientist has invented a solar vaccine cooler for use in rural parts where electricity is in short supply.

SolarChill, a vaccine cooler developed by Rajendra Shende under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), promises to be viable eco-friendly solution, which replaces the lead batteries and the ozone depleting chloro-fluro-carbons used in conventional refrigerators.

Paris-based Shende, the head of UNEP's OzonAction Branch, is in the capital to deliver two units of SolarChill to its first Indian customer -- President A P J Abdul Kalam, who proposes to intall them at the clinic in the Rashtrapati Bhavan complex.

Scientists are working on a vaccine against drug-resistant staph bacteria such as MRSA.

MRSA is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. It resists treatment with many antibiotics.

MRSA infections are rising worldwide. It often infects the skin but can also infect the blood, lungs, urinary tract, and other parts of the body.

University of Chicago scientists are targeting staph bacteria -- including MRSA -- with an experimental vaccine.

by AUDREY ALFSON, Lacrosse Tribune

Help me understand: It’s OK to talk about drug studies that show thousands (700,000) are sent to the emergency room yearly for drug reactions to “common” over-the-counter and prescription drugs (Tribune Oct. 18). And it’s OK to highlight the dangers of the all- too-common ADHD drugs that send thousands to the ER (Tribune, spring 2006). Authors of the studies admit that thousands die from said drugs and that the numbers are probably higher because of lack of reporting.

Why is it, therefore, not OK to put vaccinations in the same category? Vaccinations, like all drugs, can have side effects (probably underreported); people can end up in the hospital; people can die. Instead we are given a warm fuzzy article in the Tribune with quotes from a local doctor telling us there is nothing to worry about.

An anthrax vaccine developed by three KU researchers is in its second stage of clinical testing.

The vaccine is a stabilized liquid form of the current anthrax vaccine, which is difficult to transport and store because its temperature must remain constant. Duane Brandau, Sangeeta Joshi and Laura Peek, KU research professors, developed a stabilized liquid form of the vaccine and sent it to a laboratory that converted their vaccine to a powder form. Then the vaccine went to its first of up to four stages of clinical testing. The powder vaccine doesn’t have such specific conditons for storage, making it easier to transport. It is administered through an inhaler or a nasal spray. The current vaccine is a liquid and administered by injection.

Research into a vaccine for Alzheimer's disease, which was stopped early on safety grounds, is to be resurrected.

It was designed to reverse the disease's progression by clearing the beta amyloid protein that causes the disease.

But the trial was halted in 2002 when 6% of patients in the second phase of the study developed brain inflammation.

One of the few vaccines to prevent a sexually transmitted disease - and the only one to possibly prevent cancer - is opening debate in homes and doctors' offices across Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.

At issue: Should preteen girls be given a shot against the human papilloma virus, or HPV? Or, are 11- and 12-year-olds too young? And if parents want the vaccine for their young daughters, as a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention committee recommends, how much detail do they need to get into?

Questions have been raised nationwide since June, when the government recommended that physicians begin immunizing girls "before the onset of sexual activity." The vaccine, Gardasil, protects against the four most common types of HPV, which are known to cause 70 percent of cervical cancers.

A second phase of clinical tests of China's hepatitis B vaccine are being carried out on 46 chronic hepatitis B patients to test the vaccine's effectiveness, said expert Wu Yuzhang.

The patients began treatment in June and will remain under close medical observation until the tests end next March, said Wu, head of the Immunology Institute of the People's Liberation Army.

The research team headed by Wu completed the first phase of clinical tests of the vaccine in June 2003. Nine months of monitoring found no safety concerns on a group of 52 healthy volunteers.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Merck and Co. on Wednesday said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has unanimously recommended that Americans aged 60 and older receive the company's Zostavax vaccine to prevent shingles.

Merck said the recommendation for its product, which won U.S. marketing approval in May and costs about $150, will encourage doctors to use it and insurers to provide coverage for it.

Clinical trials have shown Zostavax reduces the risk of developing shingles by 51% and moderates symptoms in patients who do have outbreaks.

News about effectiveness or rather non-effectiveness of vaccines and serious adverse effects are keep on coming. I don't know what's causing it. Either it's really getting worse, or news media is starting to look into these cases. In any case, here's another report of how vaccines are "effective" and "safe".

A 1-year-old girl has been diagnosed with polio in spite of receiving 9 doses of the polio vaccine. According to an official statement, polio can be prevented by 4-10 doses of the vaccine. However, this does not hold true for this girl called Jannat.

“Earlier she used to roam around the house. Now she can't even stand properly,” Jannat's Mother, Akhbari Khatun says. Jannat was diagnosed with polio just a few days back.

According to the state health department records, Jannat has had 9 doses of the vaccine, 2 under the routine immunisation programme and 7 booster doses under the pulse polio programme.

An eight-year-old girl has developed a rare bleeding disorder after being injected with the meningococcal vaccine.

Chelsea Ferris' mother thought she was doing the right thing by vaccinating her daughter against the deadly meningococcal bug.

But the reaction to the second vaccination was devastating.

"She had a wonderful immune system and she was a very active child, and through that now we have not such an active child and we have a child that's immune system is very wrecked and ruined," says Louise Blaire-Ferris.

Maputo - The first vaccine against malaria could be on the market by 2010 following trials in Mozambique, the southern African country's deputy health minister told an international conference on Tuesday.

"We think the first malaria vaccine will be available by 2010 if the tests in Manhica (north of the capital Maputo) are effective," Aida Libombo told the gathering of health professionals.

It seems that this subdomain is turning into pure vaccine safety news digest. Unfortunately there are not so many vaccine news nowdays. Except, of course, the mass hysteria about flu vaccine for the coming winter.

So, 15 youngster are paralyzed after being vaccinated with Menactra, meningitis vaccine.

The CDC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a public statement yesterday through their Medwatch monitoring system saying Menactra may be associated with "a small increased risk" of Guillain-Barre Syndrome.

According to the CDC, Guillain-Barre causes loss of reflexes and temporary paralysis. Recovery usually begins within two to four weeks, although it may persist in some patients.

The whole article is below

Another article about vaccination, now about the risks for pregnant women to get some adverse effects after getting flu shots.

"..some doctors fear the expanding the season flu vaccine programme could place mothers-to-be at risk of rare but fatal side-effects of the jab."

"To introduce a vaccine without proper trials into both effectiveness and safety is irresponsible."

There's also an interesting comment to this article:

"If the NHS realised that millions of people are already burdend with toxins that affect their immune systems, they would be more interested in helping educate people to that effect and helping them remove the toxins not adding to them!! Vaccinations have very toxic additives and 'fillers' that are sometimes beyond belief, such as mercury for example and so many children are born with inherited heavy metal body burden from their parents' dental amalgam restorations, that it doesn't take much more to 'tip them over the top' and cause real damage.

We need less chemical and heavy metal damage and a genuine belief that our own immune systems are capable of looking after us, if they are not damaged in any way. Most people need de-tox. therapies and not more toxins being introduced into their often aleady overburdended bodily systems. The trouble here of course is that none of the truths which I have described add to the pharmaceutical companies huge profits!"

ATLANTA - Young people who get a new meningitis shot may have a slightly higher risk of developing a paralyzing side effect, federal researchers said Thursday.

Even so, federal health officials said the benefits far outweigh the risk of the rare condition, Guillain-Barre syndrome. They are not backing off their recommendation that most students be vaccinated.

The researchers cautioned that they are uncertain about their risk estimate and a larger study is being planned.

Inovio Biomedical Corporation, a late stage developer of therapies for cancer and applications using electroporation to deliver gene-based treatments, announced today that it will receive an appropriation of $1.1 million from the United States Department of Defense to develop applications of its electroporation-based gene delivery technology for vaccination against infectious diseases including potential bioterrorism agents.

The United States Congress appropriated the funding in the Defense Appropriations Bill for 2007. The appropriation is a continuation of prior funding from the United States Army to Inovio focused on the development of a more effective gene delivery system for gene-based vaccines. Inovio is working closely on this project with Dr. Connie Schmaljohn, a world-renowned virologist and chief of the Department of Molecular Virology at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, USAMRIID, at Ft. Detrick, Maryland.

There was a documentary aired in Norway which raised doubts about meningococcal vaccine safety.

"To say it nice, they enlisted hundreds of thousands of small kids into a gigantic experiment,"

..project leaders knew that subjects might suffer serious complications during the trial..[but] Trial subjects were not properly informed about the possibility of serious side effects during the trial..

A Swedish teen has become the first person outside the test group to be vaccinated against cervical cancer.

The newspaper “Metro” reports that 17 year old Terese Åkerlund received the vaccination with the medicine Gardasil Monday at Stockholm’s Queen Sophia Hospital.

It seems that researchers are running out of deadly and not so deadly diseases.

"Dr. Jeffrey Taubenberger, a government researcher who used molecular techniques to reconstruct all eight genes of the Spanish flu virus, has suggested that even with today's medical advances, an equally virulent flu strain could kill 100 million people or more worldwide."

We can only hope that this reconsturcted virus won't get released by accident... or can't we?

I let you read the whole article below..

WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs William Winkenwerder, M.D. reportedly will announce later today that U.S. soldiers will once again be forced under threat of court martial to be injected with anthrax vaccine without their voluntary, informed consent. The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is warning that one-size-fits- all mandatory vaccination policies are dangerous for those with genetic and other biological risk factors, making them vulnerable to brain and immune system dysfunction following anthrax vaccination.

Today, NVIC is launching the Military and Biodefense Vaccine Project (MBVP) with a website (http://www.military-biodefensevaccines.org) dedicated to providing the public with information on the research, development, regulation, policymaking, legislation and government promotion of military and biodefense vaccines that may be mandated for mass use in both military and civilian populations.

TORONTO, CANADA -- October 16, 2006 -- Patients who have human immunodeficiency virus infection should be offered measles vaccinations if an outbreak erupts, doctors said here at the 44th annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).

"Recent outbreaks of measles in adults in Mexico have raised the question of safety and efficacy of measles vaccine in HIV-infected adults," said Pablo Belaunzaran, MD, infectious disease specialist, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias y Nutricion, Salvador Zubiran, Mexico.

Press Release: National Meningitis Trust of NZ

"How many more of our kids have to die from a preventable disease?"

"We desperately need your help now."

Fionn Marshall succumbed to the rapid silent killer pneumococcal disease at just 20 months of age. Even though his mother Margaret had a nursing background and access to the best child health experts at Starship Children's Health in Auckland, it was not enough to save Fionn.

LONDON (AFX) - Cobra Bio-Manufacturing PLC said it has signed a research and development agreement with the Naval Medical Research Center of the US Navy to construct and test a vaccine against malaria.

The venture will use Cobra's proprietary ORT-VAC oral vaccine delivery technology.

I just came across this offer, which was published on 1st of August 2006 by Jock Doubleday http://www.SpontaneousCreation.org:

THE FOLLOWING OFFER is made to U.S.-licensed medical doctors who routinely administer childhood vaccinations and to pharmaceutical company CEOs worldwide:

Jock Doubleday, director of the California 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation Natural Woman, Natural Man, Inc., hereby offers $75,000.00 to the first medical doctor or pharmaceutical company CEO who publicly drinks a mixture of standard vaccine additives ingredients in the same amount as a six-year-old child is recommended to receive under the year-2005 guidelines of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (In the event that thimerosal has recently been removed from a particular vaccine, the thimerosal-containing version of that vaccine will be used.)

NEW DELHI: An Ethiopian marathon runner has been put on quarantine at the Yellow Fever Hospital (YFH), at Delhi airport, after he failed to produce the mandatory yellow fever vaccination certificate.

The athlete, whose name was not revealed by the Union health ministry, had come to India to participate in the second Delhi Half Marathon, the world's richest with a prize money of $150,000, to be held on October 15.

NEW DELHI: Sensing an opportunity in the dengue outbreak, major pharma companies — including GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Novartis and Sanofi Pasteur — are developing a treatment and preventive against the disease.

While leading vaccine manufacturers, GSK Biologicals and Sanofi Pasteur are working on a vaccine which will be a preventive against the disease, Novartis is developing a drug for its treatment.

By TERRY RINDFLEISCH, 14 Oct 2006

A limited supply of mercury-free flu vaccine will be available in La Crosse for children whose parents are concerned about any potential dangers.

The minute amount of thimerosal, a type of mercury used since the 1930s as a preservative to kill bacteria and prevent contamination in some vaccines, poses no risk to patients, La Crosse physicians said.

But Dr. Rajiv Naik, a Gundersen Lutheran pediatrician, said the Internet has fed fears that vaccinations that contain thimerosal are linked to autism.

WASHINGTON: Montana State University Virologist Bill Halford has successfully tested a herpes vaccine in mice, opening new avenues for the development of a new vaccine to prevent humans from contacting genital herpes and other diseases caused by herpes simplex viruses.

In a study published earlier this year in the Virology Journal, MSU Virologist William Halford had shown that mice exposed to genetically modified herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) did not show any sign of disease 30 days after being exposed to a particularly lethal ‘wild-type’ strain of the virus.

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The Daily Policy Digest has posted an article called "FOOLISH VACCINE EXEMPTIONS".

While I am considering whether should I continue writing posts with such news, or simply filter them out, still I will try to stay as objective as possible.

Two quotes:
"However the vaccines act inside the human body, true natural immunity or any other qualitative benefit cannot be ascribed to them: their effectiveness is a mere statistic, and the resulting "immunity" a narrowly defined technicality."---Richard Moskowitz, M.D.

"After contracting measles and other childhood illnesses (e.g.. chickenpox, scarlet fever, whooping cough, rubella, mumps and may be others), it has been widely accepted by many health practitioners, including experienced orthodox paediatricians that this is often beneficial for the general health of many children. Specifically it has been shown that children contracting measles naturally were less likely to suffer from allergic conditions such as asthma, eczema and hayfever."---Trevor Gunn BSc

The original article is below:

ABIDJAN, 12 October (IRIN) - Two cases of deadly and untreatable Yellow Fever have been reported in Cote d'Ivoire in the last week, and health officials fear that the outbreak could quickly spread if funds are not raised for a widespread vaccination campaign.

Yellow fever is a deadly viral disease spread by mosquitoes. Epidemics can spread to an average 20 percent of people in affected areas, 50 percent of whom may die, according to the United Nations World Health Organisation (WHO). There is no treatment for people already infected, but a simple vaccination can stop the disease in its tracks.

ATLANTA, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Several new vaccines have been licensed and approved for use within the past year -- extending the immunization period from childhood into adolescence.

Dr. Larry Pickering of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and Dr. Carol Baker of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston gave an update on new vaccines currently available at the American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference and Exhibition in Atlanta.

by Melissa Lee Phillips, The Scientist, 10 Oct 2006

An innate immune response to viral infection can kill white blood cells needed to fight off bacteria, according to a study published online this week in PNAS. This effect could explain why bacterial "superinfections" can take hold in the body more easily when a viral pathogen is already present, the study authors say.

"Viral-bacterial synergism is something that is a significant clinical issue in both human and veterinary medicine and we don't have a detailed understanding of what's going on," said Charles Czuprynski of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, who was not involved in the study.

CARLSBAD, Calif., Oct. 10 (UPI) -- U.S. firm Immune Response Corp. said Tuesday it has secured a contractor for its phase 2 trial of NeuroVax, a vaccine for multiple sclerosis.

The company said it has contracted with Accelsiors CRO & Consultancy Services to oversee the study.

IRC said it would start enrolling patients in the study by the end of the year, eventually recruiting 200 subjects with relapsing-remitting MS.

Part V of «The Case Against Immunizations» by Richard Moskowitz, M.D.

«The idea of eradicating measles or polio has become attractive to us simply because the power of medical science makes it seem technically possible: we worship every victory of technology over Nature, just as the bullfight celebrates the triumph of human intelligence over the brute beast. That is why we do not begrudge the drug companies their exorbitant profits and gladly volunteer the bodies of our children for their latest experiments. Vaccination is essentially a religious sacrament of our own participation in the miracle of medical science, a veritable auto-da-fé in the name of modern civilization itself.»

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By Efam Dovi, Accra, 10 October 2006

Hundreds of children are taking part in a malaria vaccine trial in six African countries. The U.N. says the mosquito-borne disease claims more than one-million lives globally each year, 90 percent of them in sub-Saharan Africa, and the vast majority children.

Poverty and lack of organization have frustrated Africa's efforts to control malaria's spread with low-tech means - such as spreading oil on stagnant ponds where mosquitoes breed and distributing window screens and bed nets.

Now, a vaccine program, sponsored in part by the Belgium-based pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, is showing promising signs for many African countries.

BOSTON, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc. (PFE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday it has agreed to acquire privately held PowderMed Ltd. for an undisclosed sum in a bid to enter the increasingly lucrative market for vaccines.

Based in Oxford, England, PowderMed has developed a proprietary technology that delivers DNA-coated microscopic gold particles into the skin to help the immune system fight influenza and chronic viral diseases.

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by Amy Ellis Nutt, 6 Oct 2006

MOUNT HOPE, Ohio -- The monkey rattled the bars of its cage, then threw pieces of food at the small crowd gathered around its metal crate. Crouching, two children giggled and reached tentatively toward the animal.

A tag on the cage identified the occupant for sale: "Java macaque, 6 years old, missing a little hair."

What the sign did not say was this: Ninety percent of macaques are carriers of the herpes-B virus -- relatively harmless to monkeys, but so virulent to humans it can liquefy the brainstem and turn the spinal cord to mush.

Thanks to his "hypospray," Star Trek's Dr. McCoy never had to deal with any dangerous needles. The same could be true for your own doctor, since needle-free jet injectors have been available for more than 100 years. But cost and convenience have made needles a hard habit to break.

Stricter medical regulations and improved injector designs may make the switch to jet injection easier.

This would be great news for the roughly 10 percent of us who are needlephobic. It would also prevent needle-stick injuries—more than 600,000 per year in the United States alone—that carry the risk of HIV and hepatitis.

by Tracy Ellig, MSU News Service, 6 Oct 2006

A genetically modified strain of the herpes virus with potential as a human vaccine is among seven new biotechnologies faculty at Montana State University have developed.

Interested companies and entrepreneurs can license the new biotechnologies by contacting Nick Zelver with the MSU Technology Transfer Office at (406) 994-7868, http://tto.montana.edu or by e-mail at nzelver@montana.edu. MSU requests that interest be expressed in writing by Nov. 15.

Mice vaccinated with a live, genetically-modified herpes simplex virus showed no sign of the disease 30 days after being exposed to a lethal "wild-type" strain of herpes simplex virus, the MSU study showed.

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By Ronald Kotulak Tribune science reporter, Chicago Tribune, 01 Oct 2006

Vaccines, the most potent medical weapon ever devised to vanquish deadly germs, are now being called on to do something totally different and culturally revolutionary—inoculate people against bad habits like overeating, cigarette smoking and drug use.

Whether this new era of vaccine research can actually subdue many of the poor lifestyle choices that are today’s biggest threats to health—causing obesity, cancer, heart disease and other problems—has yet to be proved.

But the evidence is promising enough to persuade the federal government to put millions of dollars toward finding out if two of the vaccines can end nicotine and cocaine addiction.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse, which has spent $15 million on clinical trials for the vaccines and plans to spend more, predicts that one of the nicotine vaccines may be available for marketing in three years.