Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
The USA Today reports that a half-dose of flu vaccine has proven to be nearly as effective as the full dose “especially in women and those younger than 50.” Why is this important? During vaccine shortages, half doses of vaccines can be used to conserve resources.
Google searches as a public health resource: Google.org has released Flu Trends, an online reporting tool for flu-related search activity. It’s long been theorized that Google’s search data would be useful to predict epidemics. This is the first time they’ve released a tool like this to the public. As they say on the main page: We have found a…
In Europe and North America, the influenza vaccination rate is about 20% to 40%. In China, this figure is only 2%. The pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis smells opportunity. China Business Daily reports that Sanofi-Aventi will invest €7 million to build a new vaccination prodction facility in Shenzhen. The article continues: “after the company’s the pharmaceutical factory…
The 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine was given to three European researchers who discovered viruses that cause cervical cancer and AIDS. German virologist Harald zur Hausen discovered that HPV causes cervical cancer. This discovery eventually lead to the creation of the HPV vaccine against cervical cancer. Two French virologists, Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier, shared the…
Merrill Goozner of GoozNews has an interesting interview with Richard Ebright, a chemistry professor at Rutgers University. The two discuss the Bruce Ivins, anthrax, and bioterrorism. A few poignant excerpts. Ebright: “We’ve spent $57 billion in biodefense since 2001. The annual budget for NIH is only $30 billion. The spending has been disproportionate to the…
Contagious disease are spread (generally) when one person comes in contact with another. Thus, the number of links in a network (the number of connections one has) will go a long way to determining how fast diseases are spread. One question which needs to be answered is whether a hub-and-spoke network or a more diffused…
Most people believe that vaccines are for kids. The CDC and public health departments have done a good job of keeping vaccination rates high for children. With the advent of new vaccines for adults, the key now is to increase vaccination rates for these older groups. The Wall Street Journal (“Get your shots“) details a…
Have scientists found a vaccine for brain tumors? Scientists have found that the cytomegalovirus is present in the 90% of glioblastoma brain tumors. The Economist reports on two doctors who are attempting to create a vaccine for the cytomegalovirus which (hopefully) can greatly reduce the incidence of brain tumors around the world.
Vaccines work well because of an adjuvant. The adjuvant boosts immunity but physicians did not know how it worked until now. The Economist reports (“A shot in the dark not more“) that Stephanie Eisenbarth, Richard Flavell an co-authors have discovered that the adjuvant “works by stimulating bits of the immune system called NOD-like receptors.” Why…
ABC News reports that immunization rates are falling. Who’s fault is this? “Traditionally, the government has measured immunization noncompliance by tallying up only missed doses of a vaccine. In this new research, the CDC recalculated immunization compliance to include vaccine lapses in addition to missed doses. Based on these new criteria, the CDC found that…