The dengue vaccine – an open letter to the MOH
(image credit: the MalayMail online)
There’s no doubt about it – the statistics are grim. Dengue has seen a steep rise in 2014 and even higher numbers were seen in 2015. Early on in 2016, we have to brace ourselves for a spike due to the El Nino effect
The Star reported the very grim data:
According to the ministry, 336 people – an average of 28 a month – died from dengue last year compared to 215 in 2014, a rise of 56.3%.
There was also an increase of 11.2% in the number of dengue cases throughout last year, up from 108,698 in 2014 to 120,836 cases.
That’s 333 cases a month or 110 cases each day!
The min...
Source: Malaysian Medical Resources - January 16, 2016 Category: Global & Universal Authors: palmdoc Tags: - Nation dengue Vaccine Source Type: blogs
An open letter to Justin Timberlake
While I recognize that I have a better chance of contracting dengue fever in my suburban city than there is of you actually reading this, I will try anyways. Here it goes.
My name is Megan. I am a family medicine doctor practicing in Northern California, and I love my job. I’m nothing fancy. I don’t spend my day in the OR. I don’t spend my day in the emergency room treating gunshot victims. I spend my day (my often 12 hour day) in a quiet office where I see 18 to 22 patients all with various complaints.
Some have a cold. Some have abdominal pain. Occasionally one will come in with a complaint of chest p...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - January 13, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Megan Babb, MD Tags: Physician Pediatrics Source Type: blogs
TWiV 370: Ten out of 15
On episode #370 of the science show This Week in Virology, the TWiVomics review ten captivating virology stories from 2015.
You can find TWiV #370 at www.twiv.tv. (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - January 3, 2016 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: This Week in Virology codon bias codon pair bias Dengue dinucleotide bias Ebola ebolavirus gain of function Joan Steitz outbreak pathogenesis persistence recoding spillover this year in virology vaccine viral virome vir Source Type: blogs
El Niño Season Temperatures Linked to Dengue Epidemics
Incidence of dengue fever across Southeast Asia, 1993-2010. Note increasing incidence (red) starting about June 1997, which corresponds to a period of higher temperatures driven by a strong El Niño season. At the end of the El Niño event, in January 1999, dengue incidence is much lower (green). Credit: Wilbert van Panhuis, University of Pittsburgh.
Weather forecasters are already warning about an intense El Niño season that’s expected to alter precipitation levels and temperatures worldwide. El Niño seasons, characterized by warmer Pacific Ocean water along the equator, may impact the spread of some infectious disea...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - November 9, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Emily Carlson Tags: Computers in Biology Big Data Bioinformatics Infectious Disease Spread Source Type: blogs
End the Virus: Crowdfunding Campaign for DRACO
Supporters of the DRACO (double-stranded RNA activated caspase oligomerizer) approach to antiviral medicine have launched a crowdfunding campaign, seeking enough philanthropic funding to move forward from the excellent results in cell and animal studies. DRACO represents an entirely novel approach to the problem of viral infection, potentially applicable to near all viruses, including those that currently cannot be effectively treated. The SENS Research Foundation is acting as a sponsoring organization, allowing donations to be tax deductible. The legal side of setting up a non-profit takes a couple of years these days, so...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 19, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Dengue circulatory shock : What is the mechanism ?
Dengue is a global infectious disease caused by Flavivirus (RNA) transmitted by day biting mosquitoes Ades aegypti .It is primarily a tropical or sub tropical disease , India is marked among the epicentre . 75% of dengue infections are asymptomatic. Among the remaining 25 % only 5 % develop severe dengue and a fraction of them go for a dreaded circulatory and bleeding complication leading to a likely fatality.Severe hypotension is the hall-mark in dengue shock .
The mechanism of shock
The sine-qua non of dengue shock is the capillary leak syndrome .This is due to some unknown vascular toxins acting in micro cir...
Source: Dr.S.Venkatesan MD - October 1, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: dr s venkatesan Tags: Cardiology -Therapeutic dilemma cardiology -Therapeutics Cardiology -unresolved questions dengue myocarditis mechanism of dengue shock myocardial involvement in dengue Source Type: blogs
Arthropod-borne Viruses of Senegal
A recent outbreak of suspected viral infection in Kedougou Region (http://www.promedmail.org/direct.php?id=3626668) highlights the complexity of establishing a specific etiological agent in West Africa. At least twenty arthropod-borne viruses are associated with known or suspected human infection in Senegal. The following alphabetical list is abstracted from Gideon www.GideonOnline.com and the Gideon e-book series [1] (Primary references are available from Dr. Berger on request)
Bagaza – Bagaza virus has been recovered from mosquitoes in Senegal (Aedes fowleri, Culex neavei, Cx. Poicilipes and Mansonia, Mimomyia ...
Source: GIDEON blog - September 6, 2015 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Dr. Stephen Berger Tags: Ebooks Epidemiology Outbreaks ProMED Senegal Source Type: blogs
The DRACO Fundraiser Site: killingsickness
This is a year of much grassroots fundraising for longevity science, it seems, with more new projects launched and more new faces joining the community of supporters. All of these developments are collectively, hopefully, yet another sign that faster growth and more publicity are yet to come: the tipping point for public acceptance of efforts to treat aging as a medical condition is somewhere near, just around the corner. Ten years from now, people will conveniently forget that they were ever opposed to the development of therapies for aging. How silly that would be, like opposing cancer research or heart disease treatment...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 25, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Activism, Advocacy and Education Source Type: blogs
TWiV 351: The dengue code
On episode #351 of the science show This Week in Virology, the Masters of the ScienTWIVic Universe discuss a novel poxvirus isolate from an immunosuppressed patient, H1N1 and the gain-of-function debate, and attenuation of dengue virus by recoding the genome.
You can find TWiV #351 at www.twiv.tv. (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - August 23, 2015 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: This Week in Virology attenuation codon bias codon pair bias dengue virus dinucleotide bias gain of function H1N1 immunosuppressed influenza virus kidney transplant poxvirus reversion translation vaccine viral Source Type: blogs
Profit over Safety – Centers for Disease Control Names 271 New Vaccinations
Conclusion
How many vaccinations will be considered to be a sensible number? If all of the vaccinations currently under development are deemed a success, how many of them will be added to the schedule? As there is little research to determine which ingredients are in the vaccinations listed as “under development” by the CDC, many parents are concerned about their toxicity and how best to protect their children.
I will leave you with the wise words of Robert F, Kennedy Jr: “Vaccine industry money has neutralized virtually all of the checks and balances that once stood between a rapacious pharmaceutical industry and ou...
Source: vactruth.com - August 3, 2015 Category: Allergy & Immunology Authors: Christina England Tags: Top Stories Christina England Logical Centers for Disease Control (CDC) World Health Organization (WHO) PhRMA Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Source Type: blogs
Sushi protects mosquitoes from lethal virus infections
As far as I know, mosquitoes do not eat sushi. But mosquito cells have proteins with sushi repeat domains, and these proteins protect the brain from lethal virus infections.
Mosquitoes are vectors for the transmission of many human viral diseases, including yellow fever, West Nile disease, Japanese encephalitis, and dengue hemorrhagic fever. Many mosquito-borne viruses enter the human central nervous system and cause neurological disease. In contrast, these viruses replicate in many tissues of the mosquito, including the central nervous system, with little pathological effect and no alteration of behavior or lifespan. ...
Source: virology blog - May 22, 2015 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information arbovirus complement control protein domain dengue virus encephalitis flavivirus Japanese encephalitis virus mosquito persistence sushi domain viral West Nile virus yellow fever virus Source Type: blogs
A protein platform for priming
The enzymes that make copies of the DNA or RNA genomes of viruses – nucleic acid polymerases – can be placed into two broad categories depending on whether or not they require a primer, a short piece of DNA or RNA, to get going. The structure of the primer-independent RNA polymerase of hepatitis C virus reveals how a priming platform is built into the enzyme.
The requirement for a primer in the initiation step of nucleic acid synthesis varies among the different classes of polymerases. All DNA polymerases are primer-dependent enzymes, while DNA-dependent RNA polymerases initiate RNA synthesis de novo – w...
Source: virology blog - March 26, 2015 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information crystal structure hepatitis a virus priming RNA dependent RNA polymerase rna synthesis viral Source Type: blogs
Covering up a naked virus
Viruses can be broadly classified according to whether or not the particle is enveloped – surrounded by a membrane taken from the host cell – or naked. Some naked viruses apparently are more modest than we believed.
Members of the family Picornaviridae, which include Hepatitis A virus, poliovirus, and Coxsackieviruses, have non-enveloped particles that consist of a protein shell surrounding the viral RNA genome (poliovirus is illustrated). Examples of viruses that are enveloped include dengue virus, influenza virus, and measles virus.
Recently it was discovered that hepatitis A virus (HAV) particles are re...
Source: virology blog - March 20, 2015 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information Coxsackievirus B envelope glycoprotein hepatitis a virus membrane picornavirus poliovirus viral Source Type: blogs
