Three decades since the onset of the infection in a global population, HIV care and treatment is looking very different. Given the difficulties involved, it is remarkable that having developed good treatments…
Resurrecting the 1918 flu virus since 2005.
James Gathany/CDC
Influenza viruses that exist in nature and affect wild birds shuffle their genes about all the time, creating new viruses with different genetic combinations. In this way a virus was created that in 1918…
Anthrax in the mail can be deadly.
Belga Photo/Yves Boucau
Anthrax occupies a special role as a feared and potentially lethal disease, but the culmination of a ten-year research project has identified a section of its toxin that could produce an effective new…
Vaccines work. Their widespread use has saved millions of lives. With an ageing population that is increasingly becoming a victim to cancer, a vaccine to treat it would do wonders. In a study published…
Catching badgers to vaccinate them requires effort.
Andrew Milligan/PA
Bovine tuberculosis (TB) is the biggest threat to the livestock industry in England and Wales. At present, bovine TB is still not under control in parts of these countries, and there is no single measure…
Often cited as one of the most important medical breakthroughs in human history, immunisation has been a hallmark of public health interventions for more than 200 years. Globally, an estimated 2.5 million…
There’s no vaccine against persistent attacks on scientific evidence.
www.shutterstock.com
Governments are worried. Vaccination rates are falling under the influence of a campaign of misinformation by a small minority of fanatics. Scientifically there is no debate about immunisation, with every…
The general movement in medical practice and ethics over the last 40 years has been away from paternalism towards strong respect for the autonomy of individuals. So a recent judgement in the High Court…
Malaria prevention is going beyond the mosquito net.
Gates Foundation
The announcement that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) aims to register a malaria vaccine came on the same day Peter Higgs and Francois Englert were awarded the Nobel prize in physics for predicting the existence…
Several vaccines for malaria have been developed over the past few decades, but none offer complete protection. Now, for the first time, US researchers have developed a vaccine that protects 100% of those…
“You cannot send children aged under seven to Manus Island because of the issues of inoculation - you can’t do it.” - Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison, press conference, 21 July. Scott Morrison…
The new vaccine scheme sees children receiving their jabs at an earlier age.
Jovan Mandic/ Shutterstock
Changes to the National Immunisation Program schedule coming into effect today (July 1, 2013) will see two fewer injections given to young children. The changes represent a more efficient way of delivering…
Dave Hawkes, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has attracted attention in the past week for two contradictory reasons: the Japanese government has withdrawn its recommendation for the shot, while public health…
In recent years there’s been growing debate around the safety of vaccinations – but how much of this is based on untruths? In the latest collaboration between SBS and The Conversation, Dr Rachael Dunlop…
The rate of young children contracting pneumococcal disease has plunged since the introduction of universal vaccination against the disease in 2005.
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The number of young children contracting the most common strains of potentially fatal pneumococcal disease has plummeted 97% since the universal vaccination against this bacterial disease began in 2005…
Flu jabs made faster. Leave patients happier. Make fighting pandemics easier.
ekigyuu
The 2009 influenza pandemic prompted the fastest effort in history to develop a vaccine. Within six months of the pandemic declaration, vaccine-makers had developed, produced and distributed hundreds of…
Advances are being made towards a HIV cure but with 34 million affected worldwide there’s still a lot of work to be done to help manage it.
Wikimedia Commons/C Goldsmith
Until a few years ago there was no talk of curing HIV. Research focused on making anti-HIV drugs better, trying to find a vaccine or understanding why they didn’t seem to be working. Another area was public…
Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand