Successful tests in animal models pave way for strategy for universal flu vaccine
An experimental mRNA-based vaccine against all 20 known subtypes of influenza virus provided broad protection from otherwise lethal flu strains in initial tests, according to a study. This could serve one day as a general preventative measure against future flu pandemics, the researchers from University of Pennsylvania, US, said. (Source: The Economic Times Healthcare and Biotech News)
Source: The Economic Times Healthcare and Biotech News - November 26, 2022 Category: Pharmaceuticals Source Type: news
Universal flu vaccine could counter future pandemic
Animal trials, using the same mRNA technology as successful Covid vaccines, have gone well, scientists say. (Source: BBC News | Health | UK Edition)
Source: BBC News | Health | UK Edition - November 25, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
New mRNA vaccine targeting all known flu strains shows early promise
A new mRNA vaccine targeting all known flu strains in a single shot is showing early promise in animal studies and is opening the door to a wide range of possibilities with the vaccine technology — including potentially preventing the next influenza pandemic. (Source: CBC | Health)
Source: CBC | Health - November 24, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: News/Health Source Type: news
A dose of kindness: Bristol pets to receive free vaccinations
As part of its outreach work in the community, Bristol Animal Rescue Centre with support from Bristol Vet School students, is running an animal vaccination event at Ambition Lawrence Weston Community Centre today [23 November] where there will be free pet vaccinations for pet owners who are on low incomes or benefits. (Source: University of Bristol news)
Source: University of Bristol news - November 23, 2022 Category: Universities & Medical Training Tags: Current students, Public engagement, Student life; Faculty of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, Bristol Veterinary School; Press Release Source Type: news
Why Masks Still Matter
During the COVID-19 pandemic, masks were weaponized for partisan purposes. “The politicization of mask use,” says William Hanage, infectious disease epidemiologist at Harvard University, “makes as much sense as politicizing gravity.” Masks are simply a tool—a protective barrier—that can help to reduce the spread of respiratory infections, just as condoms are a barrier that can reduce the spread of sexually transmitted infections. And as we head into winter, with rising rates of multiple respiratory viruses, including flu, RSV, and new coronavirus variants, masks could help all Americans ...
Source: TIME: Health - November 14, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Abraar Karan and Gavin Yamey Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 freelance Source Type: news
Experimental cancer vaccine shows promise in animal studies
NIH researchers find IV administration improves tumor-fighting action (Source: National Institutes of Health (NIH) News Releases)
Source: National Institutes of Health (NIH) News Releases - November 10, 2022 Category: American Health Source Type: news
The Latest COVID-19 Variants Can Evade Vaccine Protection, According to New Data
New lab data suggest that vaccines and prior infections may not offer enough protection against several new COVID-19 variants cropping up in the U.S. and around the world.
Dr. David Ho, director of Columbia University’s Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, and his team reported the results from a set of studies published in the journal Nature. They showed how well some of the latest variants—BQ.1, BQ.1.1, XBB, and XBB.1, which were all derived from Omicron—are evading both vaccine-derived and infection-derived immunity.
These new variants all have mutations in the region that binds to cells and infects the...
Source: TIME: Health - November 9, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alice Park Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
BQ.1, BQ.1.1, BF.7, and XBB: Why New COVID-19 Variants Have Such Confusing Names
If you can name the currently circulating coronavirus variants without looking them up, your memory is better than most people’s—even those who are still paying attention to COVID-19.
At the moment, the top five variants in the U.S. are called BA.5 (making up about 39% of new cases, per the latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), BQ.1.1 (almost 19%), BQ.1 (16.5%), BA.4.6 (9.5%), and BF.7 (9%). Meanwhile, the XBB variant has been detected in at least 35 countries, and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control is monitoring a variant called B.1.1.529.
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Source: TIME: Health - November 7, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Jamie Ducharme Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
Janssen to Highlight Latest Scientific Advances in Hematologic Diseases at ASH 2022 with Clinical and Real-World Data Across Innovative Pipeline and Distinguished Portfolio
RARITAN, N.J., November 3, 2022 – The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson are committed to redefining treatment outcomes in the hematology setting and today announced that abstracts from more than 50 company-sponsored studies, plus more than 20 investigator-initiated studies, will be presented at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting in New Orleans from December 10-13, 2022. Janssen’s commitment to advancing an innovative portfolio of therapies for healthcare professionals and patients is evidenced through more than 70 presentations that span clinical studies and r...
Source: Johnson and Johnson - November 3, 2022 Category: Pharmaceuticals Tags: Innovation Source Type: news
The Differences Between the Two Polio Vaccines —and the New One on the Horizon
Before this year, polio didn’t feel like an urgent threat. The disease was eradicated in the U.S. in 1979, and thanks to a global vaccination campaign, it’s endemic (though far from widespread) in just two countries—Pakistan and Afghanistan.
But the calculus changed in 2022. In July, an unvaccinated man in New York state contracted polio. And this year, poliovirus has circulated in wastewater in London, Jerusalem, and—as recently as Oct. 28—in New York City and several surrounding counties. “Unvaccinated and undervaccinated in these areas are at risk for paralysis disease,” resear...
Source: TIME: Health - November 2, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Jeffrey Kluger Tags: Uncategorized healthscienceclimate Vaccines Source Type: news
Why the U.S. Doesn ’t Have a Nasal Vaccine for COVID-19
The U.S. led the world in quickly developing COVID-19 vaccines—one of the few bright spots in the country’s otherwise criticized response. But while injectable vaccines are effective in protecting people from getting sick with COVID-19, they are less able to block infection. In order to put the pandemic behind us, the world will need a way to stop infections and spread of the virus. That’s where a different type of vaccine, one that works at the places where the virus gets into the body, will likely prove useful.
Here, though, the U.S. is losing its edge. In September, India approved a nasal COVID-19 vacc...
Source: TIME: Health - October 31, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alice Park Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
A New Lab-Made COVID-19 Virus Puts Gain-of-Function Research Under the Microscope
On October 14, a team of scientists at Boston University released a pre-print study reporting that they had created a version of SARS-CoV-2 combining two features of different, existing strains that boosted its virulence and transmissibility. Scientists and the public raised questions about the work, which refocused attention on such experiments, and prompted the U.S. government to investigate whether the research followed protocols for these kinds of studies.
The concerns surround what is known as gain-of-function studies, in which viruses, bacteria, or other pathogens are created in the lab—either intentionally or ...
Source: TIME: Science - October 27, 2022 Category: Science Authors: Alice Park Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news
To thwart the next pandemic, ‘swientists’ hunt for flu viruses at U.S. hog shows
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Source: ScienceNOW - October 27, 2022 Category: Science Source Type: news
Monkeypox cases are plummeting. Scientists are debating why
When monkeypox cases in Europe began to decline this summer, researchers’ first question was: Is it real? Some worried that people might not be getting tested because of receding fears of the virus, coupled with strict isolation requirements for patients. “They might be reluctant to be confirmed and be told not to go out at all,” says Catherine Smallwood, monkeypox incident manager at the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) Regional Office for Europe.
But the decline is now unmistakable. WHO Europe, which reported more than 2000 cases per week during the peak in July, is now counting about 100 cases weekly....
Source: ScienceNOW - October 26, 2022 Category: Science Source Type: news
Merck locates frozen batch of undisclosed Ebola vaccine, will donate for testing in Uganda ’s outbreak
In a revelation that may help Uganda combat its outbreak of Ebola, the pharmaceutical giant Merck has acknowledged to
Science—
after repeated inquiries
—
that it has up to 100,000 doses of an experimental vaccine for the deadly viral disease in its freezers in Pennsylvania and will donate them. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ugandan government are discussing if and how these doses can be incorporated into one or more clinical trials of
other
candidate Ebola vaccines that could launch as soon as next month.
The Merck vaccine targets Sudan ebolavirus, the pathogen currentl...
Source: ScienceNOW - October 23, 2022 Category: Science Source Type: news
