Pharma Needs to Step Up & Help Develop a Universal Flu Vaccine
Discussion with Ian Wilson").It's great to be a small part of the history of virology, but it would be even better if that history eventually includes the successful development of a universal vaccine for the flu. And this is where the drug industry needs to step in according to Bloomberg View:"[T]he government has limited means and little product-development experience. Making a new vaccine typically takes a decade and can cost $1 billion. A project of that size is better suited to large pharmaceutical companies. Most, however, have been loath to seriously invest in new vaccines, which offer low returns."Given this market...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - January 29, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: Vaccine Flu Source Type: blogs
TWiV 217: I just flu in and my arms are shot
On episode #217 of the science show This Week in Virology, Vincent, Alan, Rich, and Dickson review influenza vaccines.
You can find TWiV #217 at www.twiv.tv. (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - January 27, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: This Week in Virology adjuvant afluria cell culture efficacy egg fluarix flulaval flumist fluvirin H5N1 influenza LAIV narcolepsy pandemic pandemrix TIV vaccine viral virus Source Type: blogs
Headline writers: Please take a virology course
Yesterday Denise Grady wrote in the New York Times about the end of the moratorium on influenza H5N1 virus research. The story headline read:
Research to resume on modified, deadlier bird flu
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reprinted Ms. Grady’s story with the following headline:
Studies will resume on deadly modified flu virus
Where do these headlines come from, outer space? The H5N1 viruses produced by Kawaoka and Fouchier, which transmit by aerosol among ferrets, are far less virulent than the parental H5N1 virus! Furthermore, the moratorium applied to all research on H5N1 virus, not just that related to these ...
Source: virology blog - January 24, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Commentary Information avian influenza H5N1 bioterrorism ferret fouchier headline writers kawaoka pandemic viral virology virus Source Type: blogs
End of moratorium on influenza H5N1 research
In early 2012 influenza virus researchers around the world decided to stop working on highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus. This decision came after work from the Fouchier and Kawaoka laboratories revealed the isolation of influenza H5N1 strains that can be passed among ferrets by aerosol. The moratorium on influenza H5N1 virus research has now been lifted, as described in a letter from influenza virologists to Science and Nature.
Lifting the embargo on H5N1 research is an important step forward for understanding what regulates influenza transmission. In my view it was an ill-conceived move, done to quell the growi...
Source: virology blog - January 23, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Commentary Information aerosol avian influenza bioterrorism ferret fouchier H5N1 kawaoka moratorium pandemic transmission viral virus Source Type: blogs
Viruses on Time
Poliovirus recently made the cover of Time magazine. Prompted by a reader question, I searched the Time archive to find out if there have been other virology-themed covers. I found fifteen in all, depicting poliovirus (3), herpesvirus (1), HIV/AIDS (4), influenza (5), and SARS coronavirus (2) (I did not distinguish between US and international editions).
The earliest virus-themed cover that I found has Jonas Salk on the cover of the 29 March 1954 issue. Behind Salk is an image of poliovirus particles, probably drawn from an electron micrograph. Salk’s field trial of inactivated poliovirus vaccine had begun in 1954, a...
Source: virology blog - January 21, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Information AIDS H5N1 herpesvirus HIV influenza poliovirus SARS coronavirus Time magazine cover viral virology Source Type: blogs
Friday flu shot
Yesterday many US newspapers carried front-page stories on the severity of influenza so far this season. The New York Times story began with “It is not your imagination — more people you know are sick this winter, even people who have had flu shots.” Is this really a bad flu season?
Before we answer that question, I would like to complain about what the Times wrote: ‘more people you know are sick this winter, even people who have had flu shots”. A similar sentiment appeared in a recent Forbes column “Influenza-like-illness is sweeping the country with the Centers for Disease Control &...
Source: virology blog - January 11, 2013 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Basic virology Information H1N1 H3N2 influenza mortality pneumonia season viral virus Source Type: blogs
Another of those competing liberty things . . .
For what are to me quite mysterious reasons, every year we have these whoop dee doos about health care workers refusing to get flu shots. This particular nurse -- who got fired from a long-time hospital job -- claims it's for "religious" reasons but apparently, at least from what her lawyer seems to be saying, the only religion in question is that it's her religion not to get the flu vaccine. Beyond that, she offers no explanation for her refusal.Okay. I may get some pushback on this but here's the whole story as far as I'm concerned. Yes, the flu pandemic hoax of three years ago had me foaming at the mouth, and particular...
Source: Stayin' Alive - January 3, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Source Type: blogs
Five Ways to Fight the Swine Flu
View the Swine Flu video here.
Winter in North America brings with it yearly uninvited guests- flu bugs- multiple strains of illness causing viruses just waiting for new bodies to infect. The most common recommendation has been to protect yourself with a flu vaccine. But with virtually all the US flu suddenly resistant to the leading antiviral Tamiflu, health officials are worried about where this could lead. Here are some key guidelines you MUST know if you want to survive this year’s flu season.
How can you distinguish a cold from the flu? First understand that colds are minor infections of the nose and t...
Source: Dr. Donna, MedicineWoman - January 25, 2009 Category: Medical Scientists Authors: Dr. Donna Tags: breaking news Personal Health public health flu influenza pandemic prevention swine flu tamiflu treatment Source Type: blogs
