Category: vaccinia
Eczema patients at risk for serious viral infections have more severe disease, are more likely to be allergic to food and other allergens, and have a frequent history of staph infections, according to researchers at National Jewish Health and other institutions in the NIH-funded Atopic Dermatitis Vaccinia Network.
Rapamycin, a drug given to transplant recipients to suppress their immune systems, has a paradoxical effect on cells responsible for immune memory, scientists at the Emory Vaccine Center have discovered.
A promising antimicrobial agent already known to kill bacteria can also kill viruses and stimulate the innate immune system, according to researchers at National Jewish Health.
SAN DIEGO ? (May 25, 2009) Researchers from the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology have pinpointed the cellular defect that increases the likelihood, among eczema sufferers, of developing eczema vaccinatum, a severe and potentially fatal reaction to the smallpox vaccine.
There are many misconceptions about hand hygiene on the Internet. Hopefully, this information will help clear up some of those misconceptions.Washing your hands with soap and water will kill germs.
Truth or misinformation?
Misinformation
1. Plain soaps have minimal if any antimicrobial activity.
In the first successful study of its kind, scientists have shown that a DNA-based vaccine for smallpox can protect nonhuman primates from monkeypox, a disease that resembles smallpox in humans. The study, performed at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and published in the May issue of the Journal of Virology, suggests a promising alternative approach to conventional smallpox vaccination. Smallpox, a devastating disease caused by the variola virus, was eradicated in 1979 through the efforts of the World Health Organization (WHO). Currently, infectious variola (one of a class of viruses called orthopoxviruses) is known to exist only in two WHO-sanctioned repositories, one in Russia and the other in the United States.
A mild, experimental smallpox vaccine known as modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) is nearly as effective as the standard smallpox vaccine in protecting monkeys against monkeypox, a study by researchers of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of the National Institutes of Health, has found. Monkeypox is used to test the effectiveness of a smallpox vaccine because of its similarity to the smallpox virus.
The threat of bioterrorism has led to the recommendation to vaccinate health care workers and other first responders, but some worry about the side effects of smallpox vaccination, which can harm children, pregnant women and people with immune disorders or certain skin conditions. According to a new study, people vaccinated against smallpox pose a low risk of accidentally inoculating others if they follow proper bandaging and hand-washing procedures.
In a new study in mice, a modified form of an innocuous chimpanzee virus has shown marked potency as a protective vaccine against HIV, itself believed to have crossed into the human population from chimpanzees sometime in the 1930s. The study, led by researchers at The Wistar Institute, appears in the February issue of the Journal of Immunology. "Our results show this new vaccine is capable of inducing the kind of powerful immune response that we and others believe will be critical for controlling HIV infection," says Hildegund C.J. Ertl, M.D., professor and immunology program leader at The Wistar Institute, and senior author on the new study.
Two versions of an oral drug that halts the deadly action of smallpox and related orthopox viruses have been shown by researchers in Alabama and California to be effective in cowpox-infected mice, whether given three to five days before or two to three days after infection. The study evaluated the dosage regimen and effectiveness of four different ether lipid analogs of cidofovir (CDV), a compound that blocks the activity of variola, the virus that causes smallpox, cowpox, vaccinia and other orthopox viruses. Shown most effective in treating lethal cowpox infection in mice were hexadecyloxypropyl-CDV (HDP-CDV) and octadecyloxyethyl-CDV (ODE-CDV). In addition, the study pinpointed the time period for effectiveness when the drug is administered prior to or after infection.
HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced the award of two contracts totaling up to $20 million in first-year funding to develop safer smallpox vaccines. The three-year contracts were awarded to Bavarian Nordic A/S of Copenhagen, Denmark, and Acambis Inc. of Cambridge, Mass. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) will administer the contracts.
In a new study in mice, a modified form of an innocuous chimpanzee virus has shown marked potency as a protective vaccine against HIV, itself believed to have crossed into the human population from chimpanzees sometime in the 1930s. The study, led by researchers at The Wistar Institute, appears in the February issue of the Journal of Immunology. "Our results show this new vaccine is capable of inducing the kind of powerful immune response that we and others believe will be critical for controlling HIV infection," says Hildegund C.J. Ertl, M.D., professor and immunology program leader at The Wistar Institute, and senior author on the new study.
A new reports says that up to half of all U.S. residents may be ineligible for smallpox vaccination because of the growing incidence of eczema. In a report appearing in the September issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Dr. Renata J.M. Engler from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, and colleagues note that in people with eczema, exposure to vaccinia --- a relative of smallpox used to inoculate people --- or even contact with someone who was recently vaccinated can cause a condition that can lead to scarring, blindness and even death. "A major challenge lies in the ability to protect the population from the disease while minimizing the considerable side effects from the vaccine," Reuters quotes from their report. The researchers say more studies should be conducted to help identify people who are prone to side vaccinia effects. Others who should avoid smallpox vaccination include people with immune deficiency diseases such as AIDS, and those on immune system-suppressing drugs, such as transplant patients.
