As Of Today, The Americas Are Finally Measles-Free
By Sebastien Malo
NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The Americas has become the first region in the world to be free of measles, following a 22-year vaccination drive against the disease which continues to infect tens of thousands of people globally, the Pan American Health Organization said on Tuesday.
The milestone was confirmed after no cases of the highly contagious disease originating in the Americas were recorded in at least three years, the PAHO said.
“This is truly a historic deed,” said Carissa Etienne, director of the PAHO, which serves as the World Health Organization’s (WHO) regional off...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - September 27, 2016 Category: Science Source Type: news
Mark Zuckerberg, Priscilla Chan Pledge Billions To Fight All Disease
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan on Wednesday pledged more than $3 billion toward a plan to “cure, prevent or manage all disease within our children’s lifetime.”
Speaking through tears at a San Francisco event to announce the initiative, Chan said she hoped to spare parents the pain she had seen while delivering difficult news as a pediatrician.
“In those moments and in many others we’re at the limit of what we understand about the human body and disease, the science behind medicine, the limit of our ability to alleviate suffering. We want to push back that...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - September 22, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Government £40 million investment for arthritis research
The Department of Health has announced that over the next five years, over£40 million will be rewarded toarthritis-related research projects. This amount falls within a larger investment of£816 million. The£816 million of funding has been awarded to 20 biomedical research centres through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). Each of the funded centres is a collaboration between an NHS organisation and a university partner, and will apply their research expertise to a variety of different research themes and health conditions. Jeremy Hunt, health secretary, said:"The UK has so often...
Source: Arthritis Research UK - September 14, 2016 Category: Rheumatology Source Type: news
D.A. Henderson, who led effort to eradicate smallpox, dies at 87
(Reuters) - Donald A. Henderson, who headed the World Health Organization vaccination effort that wiped out smallpox in 1977 and later became a U.S. bioterrorism expert, has died from complications following a hip fracture, officials said on Sunday. He was 87. (Source: Reuters: Health)
Source: Reuters: Health - August 22, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: healthNews Source Type: news
Dr. Donald A. Henderson, Who Helped End Smallpox, Dies at 87
Starting in 1966, Dr. Henderson, known as D.A., led the World Health Organization ’ s war on the smallpox virus, and achieved success astonishingly quickly. (Source: NYT Health)
Source: NYT Health - August 21, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. Tags: Henderson, Donald A Deaths (Obituaries) Smallpox Vaccination and Immunization Epidemics Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Gates, Bill and Melinda, Foundation World Health Organization Somalia Africa Source Type: news
New report highlights more than 250 vaccines in development
More than 200 years ago, the first vaccine was developed for smallpox, and now, the disease has been eradicated worldwide. And in the United States, the transmission of poliovirus, measles and rubella have been eliminated. These are examples of tremendous scientific progress, and through our growing understanding of how these and other diseases work at the molecular level, many new therapeutic and preventative vaccines have been developed. (Source: The Catalyst)
Source: The Catalyst - August 18, 2016 Category: Pharmaceuticals Tags: Medicines in Development Vaccines Prevention Source Type: news
New report highlights more than 250 therapeutic and preventative vaccines in development
More than 200 years ago, the first vaccine was developed for smallpox, and now, the disease has been eradicated worldwide. And in the United States, the transmission of poliovirus, measles and rubella have been eliminated. These are examples of tremendous scientific progress and through our growing understanding of how these and other diseases work at the molecular level, many new therapeutic and preventative vaccines have been developed. (Source: The Catalyst)
Source: The Catalyst - August 18, 2016 Category: Pharmaceuticals Tags: Medicines in Development Vaccines Prevention Source Type: news
Alaska scientist receives $1.6 million award for vaccine research
(University of Alaska Fairbanks) A treatment credited with saving about nine million lives a year worldwide and bringing major human diseases including smallpox, tetanus, whooping cough and polio under some degree of control is said to have begun with a milkmaid, a boy, a cow and a doctor about two hundred years ago.Yet in all that time, the details of how the treatment actually works are still unclear. Dr. Andrea Ferrante, a University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist, hopes to change that. (Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases)
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - May 30, 2016 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news
Why Russia Is An Atrractive Market For Clinical Trials
By Sue Lee, Technical Portfolio Manager, World Courier
The largest country in the world, Russia is bigger than Pluto at 16.6million km2, and is separated from the USA by less than 4 km. Still nominally at war since 1945 with Japan over the Kuril Islands, it has 20% of the world’s unfrozen fresh water in a single lake, Lake Baikal. It spans nine time zones, has 28 official languages and has the world’s longest railway. The first Russian child to receive the vaccine against smallpox was called “Vaccinov,” given a pension, and observed throughout his life. (Source: Pharmaceutical Online News)
Source: Pharmaceutical Online News - May 20, 2016 Category: Pharmaceuticals Source Type: news
Russia – A Country In Focus
By Sue Lee, Technical Portfolio Manager, World Courier
The largest country in the world, Russia is bigger than Pluto at 16.6million km2, and is separated from the USA by less than 4 km. Still nominally at war since 1945 with Japan over the Kuril Islands, it has 20% of the world’s unfrozen fresh water in a single lake, Lake Baikal. It spans nine time zones, has 28 official languages and has the world’s longest railway. The first Russian child to receive the vaccine against smallpox was called “Vaccinov,” given a pension, and observed throughout his life. (Source: Pharmaceutical Online News)
Source: Pharmaceutical Online News - May 20, 2016 Category: Pharmaceuticals Source Type: news
[Feature] The Truest Test
Over the past few years, there has been a surge in studies that intentionally infect volunteers with a wide variety of pathogens to test novel drugs and vaccines. The so-called "human challenge model" has a long and checkered past that began with 18th century experiments by smallpox vaccine developer Edward Jenner and later fell under intense scrutiny when they were conducted by Nazi doctors, military researchers, and academic scientists working with prisoners. Today, challenge experiments follow strict ethical guidelines, minimize risks to volunteers at every turn, and face increased scrutiny from regulatory agencies. The...
Source: ScienceNOW - May 19, 2016 Category: Science Authors: Jon Cohen Source Type: news
Op-Docs: Errol Morris: ‘Demon in the Freezer’
Smallpox has inflicted untold suffering and death. So why are we keeping it around? (Source: NYT Health)
Source: NYT Health - May 17, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: ERROL MORRIS Tags: Smallpox Viruses Vaccination and Immunization World Health Organization Source Type: news
Contributions of Islamic Theology to Modern Day Public Health
Exploring Islam's contribution to public health has been an astounding journey for me. Working across the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia in Muslim majority countries, I'm amazed at not only the history of Islamic theology in contributing to our modern day understanding of public health, but also its potential to improve its practice. Yet, what is puzzling is that very little attention is given to the relationship between Islam and public health, especially in academia. Practices of good hygiene and nutrition, disease prevention, and infectious disease control-- recognized as hallmarks of public health today, were supp...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - May 3, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Talking Science: Facts About Vaccines and Herd Immunity
This week is World Immunization Week and what better way to commemorate it than by discussing the facts about vaccines and the importance of herd immunity. But first...
What exactly IS a vaccine?
A vaccine is a biological agent that stimulates a person's immune system to produce immunity to a specific pathogen, protecting the person from a disease. That's how vaccines work. You get an inactivated, attenuated, or a portion of the version of the pathogen you're hoping to avoid.
According to the CDC, routine vaccines given to children in the last two decades will prevent hundreds of millions illnesses, tens of millions h...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - April 26, 2016 Category: Science Source Type: news
Talking Science: Facts About Vaccines and Herd Immunity
This week is World Immunization Week and what better way to commemorate it than by discussing the facts about vaccines and the importance of herd immunity. But first...
What exactly IS a vaccine?
A vaccine is a biological agent that stimulates a person's immune system to produce immunity to a specific pathogen, protecting the person from a disease. That's how vaccines work. You get an inactivated, attenuated, or a portion of the version of the pathogen you're hoping to avoid.
According to the CDC, routine vaccines given to children in the last two decades will prevent hundreds of millions illnesses, tens of millions h...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - April 26, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
