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Homeless people die after bird flu vaccine trial in Poland By Matthew Day in Warsaw Last Updated: 11:17PM BST 02/07/2008 Three Polish doctors and six nurses are facing criminal prosecution after a number of homeless people died following medical trials for a vaccine to the H5N1 bird-flu virus. The medical staff, from the northern town of Grudziadz, are being investigated over medical trials on as many as 350 homeless and poor people last year, which prosecutors say involved an untried vaccine to the highly-contagious virus. Authorities claim that the alleged victims received £1-2 to be tested with what they thought...

La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology (LIAI) scientists have discovered one for the textbooks. Their finding, reported June 13 in the scientific journal Immunity, illuminates a new, previously unknown mechanism in how the body fights a virus. The finding runs counter to traditional scientific understanding of this process and will provide scientists a more effective method for developing vaccines. "Our research grew from the question, "why do you get good antibody responses to some parts of (virus) pathogens and poor responses to other parts?" said LIAI scientist Shane Crotty, Ph.D., the lead researcher on the paper, "Selective CD4 T...

For decades, scientists have known that they can make vaccines much more efficacious by adding aluminum compounds, but they never knew why. Now, a study reveals how, on a molecular level, these helpers spur the production of antibodies. The finding may help researchers develop better vaccines. Many vaccines contain adjuvants, nonspecific agents that help jolt the immune system into action. "Alum," a term referring broadly to aluminum hydroxide and several aluminum salts, has this effect, as was accidentally discovered in the 1920s. It has been widely used in human vaccines since the 1950s, and it's still the only adjuvant allowed...

Stefan Ferrari got his required vaccines before he was 18 months old. At the time, his parents said, he was a healthy, verbal boy. But after his last round of booster shots, Stefan stopped speaking and, now 10 years old, he has not spoken since. Stefan's parents, Marcelo and Carolyn Ferrari of Atlanta, filed suit, alleging the vaccines caused neurological damage to their young son. On Tuesday, the family's lawyer asked the Georgia Supreme Court to let the case against two vaccine manufacturers, Wyeth and GlaxoSmithKline, go forward. Lawyer Lanny Bridgers told the court it was bad timing when Stefan...

Local biotech firm wins vaccine grant Hawaii Biotech's dengue vaccine is called the most advanced of its type By Kristen Consillio kconsillio@starbulletin.com Hawaii Biotech Inc. has won grant funding of nearly $1 million over the next year to move it closer to commercial production of the first dengue vaccine. The funding will come from the Pediatric Dengue Vaccine Initiative of the Seoul-based International Vaccine Institute, primarily funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Aiea-based company will use the money to conduct clinical trials on dengue -- a mosquito-borne disease prevalent in under-developed tropical and subtropical countries that infects...

Generation Rescue "In light of the recent Hannah Poling decision, in which the federal court conceded that vaccines could have contributed to her autism, we think the tide is finally turning in the direction of parents like us who have been shouting concerns from our rooftops for years." Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey are actors and parents actively involved in autism-related causes. McCarthy is the author of the book Louder Than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism. Go here to read the whole editorialI have to applaud Jenny McCarthy for her tenacity. Her much needed voice has blasted through...

The two-decade search for an AIDS vaccine is in crisis after two field tests of the most promising contender not only did not protect people from the virus but may actually have put them at increased risk of becoming infected, The Washington Post reported. Experts are questioning the overall strategy and scientific premises of the nearly $500 million in AIDS vaccine research funded annually by the government after the two field tests were halted last September and seven other trials of AIDS vaccines have either been stopped or put off indefinitely. The recently closed studies, STEP and Phambili, were halted...

SEATTLE  —  Within the next 18 months, medical researchers will be asking people in Seattle to volunteer to be exposed to the deadliest form of malaria to help them test the effectiveness of vaccine candidates.The Seattle Biomedical Research Institute is collaborating with the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative to accelerate malaria vaccine research by opening a new vaccine testing center in Seattle's south Lake Union neighborhood.Scientists at the center will use early testing of vaccines to weed out those that don't work so they can speed up research on the ones that are effective. Malaria vaccine testing has already begun...

The federal government continues to deny a link between vaccines and autism, but the U.S. Court of Federal Claims has ruled in favor of a child alleged to have regressed into autism as a result of vaccinations. Several of the vaccinations included the controversial mercury-based preservative thimerosal, points out the National Autism Association, which sees the ruling as confirmation of the claims of many parents. "This case echoes the stories of thousands of children across the country," said NAA President Wendy Fournier. "With almost 5,000 similar cases pending in vaccine court, we are confident that this is just the first...

ATLANTA — All children — not just those under 5 — should get vaccinated against the flu, a federal advisory panel said Wednesday. The panel voted to expand annual flu shots to virtually all children except infants younger than 6 months and those with serious egg allergies. That means about 30 million more children could be getting vaccinated. If heeded, it would be one of the largest expansions in flu vaccination coverage in U.S. history. The flu vaccine has been available since the 1940s. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices said all children should start getting vaccinated as soon as...

ATLANTA — The flu season is getting worse, and U.S. health officials say it's partly because the flu vaccine doesn't protect against most of the spreading flu bugs. The flu shot is a good match for only about 40 percent of this year's flu viruses, officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. The situation has even deteriorated since last week when the CDC said the vaccine was protective against roughly half the circulating strains. In good years, the vaccine can fend off 70 to 90 percent of flu bugs. Infections from an unexpected strain have...

ATLANTA (AP) — The sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer in women is poised to become one of the leading causes of oral cancer in men, according to a new study. The HPV virus now causes as many cancers of the upper throat as tobacco and alcohol, probably due both to an increase in oral sex and the decline in smoking, researchers say. The only available vaccine against HPV, made by Merck & Co. Inc., is currently given only to girls and young women. But Merck plans this year to ask government permission to offer the shot to boys....

A U.S. Coast Guard officer and devout Catholic has filed suit to prevent being forced to receive a vaccination derived from the lung of an aborted child after a higher ranking officer disputed his understanding of Church theology. The Alliance Defense Fund filed a complaint last week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of Lt. Cmdr. Joseph Healy, charging the government with using its own arbitrary judgment of what constitutes Catholic theology while permitting religious exemptions to others, effectively discriminating against Healy's sincerely held religious beliefs. Healy's request for religious exemption cited a 2005...

A U.S. Coast Guard officer and devout Catholic has filed suit to prevent being forced to receive a vaccination derived from the lung of an aborted child after a higher ranking officer disputed his understanding of Church theology. The Alliance Defense Fund filed a complaint last week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of Lt. Cmdr. Joseph Healy, charging the government with using its own arbitrary judgment of what constitutes Catholic theology while permitting religious exemptions to others, effectively discriminating against Healy's sincerely held religious beliefs. Healy's request for religious exemption cited a 2005...

Medical health authorities have repeatedly assured us that Gardasil, the vaccine injection given to young girls to allegedly prevent cervical cancer, is perfectly safe. For example, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, a group of medical specialists, endorsed the vaccine last February. The Society of Gynecologic Oncologists of Canada claims the vaccine is safe, as does Dr. David Butler-Jones, Canada's Chief Public Health Officer. The Canadian Pediatric Society and the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada have also endorsed the vaccine. These medical authorities, however, are puzzled and also indignant that the use of this vaccine still remains controversial,...

TRENTON, New Jersey (AP) -- New Jersey on Friday became the first state to require flu shots for preschoolers, saying their developing immune systems and likelihood of spreading germs make them as vulnerable to complications as the elderly. State Health Commissioner Dr. Fred M. Jacobs approved the requirement and three other vaccines for school children starting September 1, 2008, over the objections of some parent groups. The new requirements "will have a direct impact on reducing illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths in one of New Jersey's most vulnerable populations -- our children," Jacobs said in a statement.

ATLANTA (AP) — Merck & Co. is recalling about a million doses of a childhood vaccine, after testing showed a sterilization problem in a Pennsylvania factory.

Since June 2006, when the HPV vaccine Gardasil was approved by the Food and Drug Administration, there have been 28 reported cases in which pregnant women miscarried after receiving the vaccine. Nonetheless, based on the clinical trials done prior to approval of the drug - which indicated that miscarriages among pregnant women given Gardasil were statistically consistent with miscarriages among women given placebos and in the general population - the FDA remains convinced the vaccine is safe and is not further investigating its effect on pregnant women. In May, a 24-year-old woman suffered a miscarriage, which an investigator in a...

Peanut butter-colored liquid percolates in a glass apparatus at one end of a high-ceilinged room ample enough to house a decent basketball court. Virologist Alan Shaw, a lanky Texan with a Viking beard, shoots a look at the fermenter, a soup of bacteria genetically engineered to contain flu-fighting particles. "Should bird flu ever strike," Shaw says, pointing to the bub bling glop, "this could provide enough vaccine to protect the entire state of New Jersey. We could have it ready in four to six weeks." Shaw, 56, a former Merck & Co. executive who in his long, successful career has...

Findings could lead to much-needed development of vaccines against 'superbugs' The advantage of the new vaccine is that it would work not only on current bacterial resistant stains but also would not induce the potential for new bacterial resistance because, rather than killing bacterial cells, it blocks their communication system, preventing the shift from harmless to virulent, thus allowing the body’s natural defenses to combat the bacteria. The work was published in the October 29 issue of the journal Chemistry and Biology. Staph and other infections are becoming increasingly deadly because many strains of the bacteria that cause disease develop...

How The Plan To Force Vaccination Gave Birth To The National ID, A Government Health Records Database, and the End of Medical Privacy History of Mandatory Vaccination Immunization laws in the US are not federal, but state mandates. The authority of U.S. states to promulgate regulations which protect the public health and safety is well established, having historical roots in health regulations created in the colonial states during the 18th century. A seminal Supreme Court decision in 1905, Jacobsen v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905), affirmed the authority of state legislatures to assign "police powers" to health officials to enact...

A polio outbreak in Nigeria was caused by the vaccine designed to stop it, international health officials say, leaving at least 69 children paralyzed. It is a frightening paradox in a part of the world that already distrusts western vaccines, making it even tougher to stamp out age-old diseases. The outbreak was caused by the live polio virus that is used in vaccines given orally — the preferred method in developing countries because it is cheaper and doesn't require medical training to dispense. "This vaccine is the most effective tool we have against the virus, but it's like fighting fire...

A promising experimental vaccine to prevent the AIDS virus has failed in a crucial experiment, with volunteers becoming infected with HIV anyway, leading the drug developer to halt the study.

Merck Study Shows Partial Protection Against Additional Cancer-Causing Strains A study by the company that makes Gardasil, a vaccine that protects against cervical cancer, suggests it may be even more effective than previously thought. The vaccine, manufactured by Merck, had previously been thought to only protect against 70 percent of cervical cancer caused by viruses. However, the new research indicates that it may also have at least some effect against viral strains that cause the other 30 percent. The new data was presented this week by Merck at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. The finding was an...

Ontario Bishops Warns Catholic Trustees Against HPV Vaccine - Second Board Delays Vaccination Program Halton District School Board to vote Tuesdya on motion opposing HPV vaccination  By John-Henry WestenBURLINGTON, September 14, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a September 13 letter to Catholic trustees and parents in the Halton Catholic District School Board (HCDSB), Hamilton Bishop Anthony Tonnos has warned against the introduction of the Human Papilloma Virus vaccine.  The letter, sent with his signature, was drafted at a September 10 meeting of the Ontario Bishops Conference following a request from Catholic school boards.By order of the Ontario Liberal Government, the vaccines...

Ontario City's Catholic Trustees Oppose HPV Vaccination in Schools, Stall Implementation By John-Henry Westen SAULT STE. MARIE, ON, September 13, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Elected trustees of the Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board (H-SCDSB) have objected to implementing a plan to vaccinate girls in the Board's Catholic schools with the controversial HPV vaccine.  The recently developed HPV vaccine is designed to prevent the sexually transmitted disease Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), the leading cause of cervical cancer.  HPV is not preventable with condom use.  The vaccine has had little long-term testing and is thus of concern to some health-care professionals. "This is...

Two Canadian Provinces to Offer HPV Vaccination to Grade-School Girls Judicial Watch refers to "catalog of horrors," of numerous serious side effects to the vaccine in US By Elizabeth O'Brien OTTAWA, August 7, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Two Canadian provinces are introducing vaccination for human papilloma virus (HPV) into grade schools this fall despite many uncertainties about the drug's side effects and possible long-term complications. Nova Scotia became the first province to accept the HPV vaccination last month. Since then the governments of Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador have announced their commitment to providing the new drug that is heralded as...

Controversy continues to plague efforts to protect young women against cervical cancer by vaccinating them against HPV, the human papillomavirus, but one leading scientist's discovery could throw a monkey wrench into the debate. "We found HPV under the fingernails of young men," said Dr. Laura Koutsky, a University of Washington epidemiologist. Koutsky led some of the pioneering research and clinical trials that resulted in an HPV vaccine, Merck's Gardasil, recently approved for use in girls and young women. The reason her fingernail finding is a potential bombshell has to do with why the vaccine is controversial. HPV, which is the...

The sponsors of a proposal aimed at preventing cervical cancer are dropping a requirement that young girls get vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes the disease.Instead, the authors will start circulating a proposal today calling for the Department of Health and Family Services to prepare educational materials on the vaccine for parents and schools, said Jeff Pertl, aide to Sen. Lena Taylor, D-Milwaukee, who co-authored the bill with Rep. Robert Wirch, D-Pleasant Prairie. Pertl said this morning that the original proposal -- which would have allowed parents to waive the mandatory requirement -- would have passed the Democratic-controlled...

AUSTIN, Texas - Heather Burcham, whose battle with cervical cancer led her to urge legislators to try to keep girls from sharing in her fate, has died of the disease. She was 31. Burcham, of Houston, died Saturday. "Her pain and suffering have forever ceased," Gov. Rick Perry said Monday. He said she was "an inspiration to myself, my staff and others." Perry issued an executive order in February that would have required the newly approved human papillomavirus vaccine for girls entering the sixth grade, to help protect them from cervical cancer

Gov. Rick Perry’s veto this week of an eminent domain bill designed to protect landowners left a lot of Texans scratching their heads, and you can lump us in with those feeling dumbfounded. Perry — who was among those making political hay when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that cities can seize homes under eminent domain for use by private developers and made the issue an emergency item in a special session that same year — had a chance to back his tough talk and posturing on property rights with action. But when push came to powerful shove...

At least three deaths and more than 1,600 adverse reactions including spontaneous abortion and paralysis have been connected to Merck & Co.'s new vaccine for the human papilloma virus, a treatment the company has lobbied state lawmakers to make mandatory for young girls across the nation. The report comes from Judicial Watch, the Washington-based public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption.   "The FDA adverse event reports on the HPV vaccine read like a catalog of horrors," said Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch president. "Any state or local government now beset by Merck's lobbying campaigns to mandate this HPV vaccine...

Judicial Watch Uncovers Three Deaths Relating to HPV Vaccine Event Reports Obtained from FDA Detail 1,637 Adverse Reactions to HPV Vaccination Gardasil WASHINGTON, May 23, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released documents obtained from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, detailing 1,637 reports of adverse reactions to the vaccination for human papillomavirus (HPV), Gardasil. Three deaths were related to the vaccine. One physician's assistant reported that a female patient "died of a blood clot three hours after getting the...

"Israeli investigative program "Uvda" (fact) reported Tuesday that dozens of soldiers belonging to elite Israel Defense Forces units have been suffering from various illnesses over the last few years after participating in a secret IDF experiment meant to aid in the development of an anthrax vaccine.

Plans to vaccinate young girls against the sexually-transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer have been blocked in several US states by conservative groups, who say that doing so would encourage promiscuity. Advocates of the vaccine point out that the jabs work against human papillomavirus (HPV) - which causes virtually all cases of cervical cancer - and are safe. The latest data from a large clinical trial of Merck's cervical cancer vaccine, Gardasil, found it offered 100% protection against cervical, vulval and vaginal diseases, caused by HPV (types 6, 11, 16 and 18) and 98% protection against advanced pre-cancers caused by...

CLERMONT COUNTY, Ohio - Target 5 has discovered that an alarming number of U.S. troops are having severe reactions to some of the vaccines they receive in preparation for going overseas. "This is the worst cover-up in the history of the military," said an unidentified military health officer who fears for his job. A shot from a syringe is leaving some U.S. servicemen and women on the brink of death.

"At this stage, vaccination can still be considered experimental," said Dr. Karen McCune, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UCSF, who co-authored the editorial. "To be discussing mandatory vaccination when the main clinical trials are still ongoing seems extremely premature. We're feeling like the enthusiasm is driving policy rather than data." A bill in the California Legislature requiring vaccination stalled in committee in March over concerns about parental rights and the lack of information about the long-term effects of the vaccine. The author has amended his bill to address the wider issue of how California requires vaccinations. In...

Old vaccine hits TB like a blast from the past 21:00 12 March 2007 NewScientist.com news service Debora MacKenzie A vintage BCG vaccine developed in the 1920s may be due a comeback after researchers found it offers better protection against modern tuberculosis strains than the current BCG (Bacille Calmette-Guérin). TB kills nearly two million people every year. The BCG vaccine is a live, non-pathogenic strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis – the bacterium that causes TB. It is still given in some developing countries, where meningitis caused by the bacterium is a threat to children. However, BCG has lost favour with regard...

(CP) - Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline has shown its H5N1 vaccine may protect against genetically different versions of the avian flu strain, offering hope that stockpiled vaccine might be useful against a mutated H5N1 virus, should the strain go on to trigger a pandemic. While the results presented Monday were preliminary, the GSK data are the first made public that boast both a low-dose regime and cross-protection against a distant cousin of the virus contained in the vaccine. A vaccine that could protect against varied strains of the virus in low doses would be a significant coup for the company and...

Islamist militants claim vaccines are US plot By Isambard Wilkinson in Peshawar Last Updated: 2:10am GMT 17/02/2007 A doctor was killed by a roadside bomb in Pakistan today as Islamist militants tried to halt a polio immunisation campaign which, they say, is an American plot to sterilise Muslims. Dr. Abdul Ghani was killed and three guards wounded after he visited a mullah, or religious leader, in Salarzai, a village in Bajaur tribal region in the borderlands with Afghanistan. "It was a remote-controlled bomb," said an intelligence official in Khar, Bajaur's main town. No one claimed responsibility for the attack. Dr...

A deadly virus that is the most common cause of cervical cancer in women is the target of proposed legislation in Maine. Sen. Lisa Marrache, D-Waterville, has sponsored a measure, LD 137, that would raise public awareness of cervical cancer and promote access to a new vaccine that combats the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, or HPV. Other states that have proposed requiring HPV vaccination for young girls have met with stiff opposition from parents groups and religious conservatives.a Marrache’s proposal sidesteps the controversy by focusing on education and funding, leaving it up to families to decide whether their daughters should...

From our earlier posts about Gardasil: While everybody who supports the Gardasil mandate breathlessly recites how wonderful it will be to wipe cervical cancer "off the face of the earth" - these exaggerated claims just don't hold up to scrutiny.

Several years ago, in another Southern state, an earnest backbench legislator set out to do something about the strip clubs springing up all over the place, including one under construction beside a highway in his district. The rookie Bible Belt lawmaker didn't know his way around the Legislature, but he did know how to read. So he found a rule that said he could bypass the committee process and take his solution straight to the floor of the state House of Representatives. And that's where he proposed a statewide ban on public nudity. Right off the bat, the proposal caused...

Is anyone else having trouble getting the new vaccination against shingles (Zostavax)? I started asking my doctor about it last fall when the CDC recommended it for most adults over age 60. The vaccination is expensive - - $150 to $200, but is good for several years. My pharmacy can get order one dose, but my doctor won't give me a prescription to bring to the pharmacy, where I guess I would pick up the vaccine - keep it frozen - - and then bring it to the doctor's office to get the injection. I am willing to pay for...

AUSTIN, Texas - Several key Republicans urged Gov. Rick Perry on Monday to rescind his executive order making Texas the first state to require girls to be vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer. Lawmakers should have been allowed to hear from doctors, scientists and patients before the state implemented such a sweeping mandate, said state Sen. Jane Nelson, chairwoman of the health and human services committee. "This is not an emergency," said Nelson, adding that she plans to ask Attorney General Greg Abbott for an opinion on the legality of Perry's order. "It needs to be...

Gov. Rick Perry ordered Friday that schoolgirls in Texas must be vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer, making Texas the first state to require the shots. The girls will have to get Merck & Co.'s new vaccine against strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV, that are responsible for most cases of cervical cancer. Merck is bankrolling efforts to pass laws in state legislatures across the country mandating it Gardasil vaccine for girls as young as 11 or 12. It doubled its lobbying budget in Texas and has funneled money through Women in Government, an advocacy...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Infants and toddlers given two doses of the influenza vaccine are less likely to contract flu, pneumonia and influenza-like illnesses, but one dose does not appear to have any effect, according to findings published in the Journal of Pediatrics. Dr. Mandy A. Allison, of the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, and colleagues examined the effectiveness of the currently recommended two-dose influenza vaccine for young children, as well as the effect of one dose of the vaccine, in preventing visits to the doctor for influenza-like illness. They analyzed data for 5193 healthy children between the...

The D.C. Council opened its legislative year by introducing a bill that could make the District one of the first jurisdictions in the country to require girls younger than 13 years old to get a new nationally debated vaccine against cervical cancer. Female students enrolling in the sixth grade would be asked to show proof of receiving the vaccine against the sexually transmitted human papilloma virus (HPV) under the bill, introduced yesterday by council members David A. Catania (I-At Large) and Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3). A parent or legal guardian would have the right to "opt out" of the...

World unprepared for bird flu pandemic, warns expert By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 1:29am GMT 18/11/2006Vaccines are made by growing viruses in hen eggs" The world is unprepared for a bird-flu pandemic because it has not carried out enough research to create an effective vaccine, a leading specialist told The Daily Telegraph yesterday. For "at least one year" the global population would be vulnerable when the virus mutates into a super-flu that can spread among people, said Prof Albert Osterhaus, of Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, a world authority on viruses. "No country is sufficiently prepared at the moment,"...

Vaccine protects mice against MRSA superbug 22:36 30 October 2006 NewScientist.com news service Roxanne Khamsi A newly developed vaccine might serve as a useful weapon against the drug-resistant superbug MRSA, researchers say. Tests in mice have shown that the vaccine can protect against multiple types of MRSA, which can cause fatal infections in humans. Experts say the discovery of a broadly effective vaccine is especially important as more infectious MRSA strains have recently emerged. They also stress that patients with compromised immune systems face an ever-increasing risk of acquiring MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, while in hospital. Olaf Schneewind at...