LONDON — An investigation is under way after a newborn baby was given 10 times the normal dose of a tuberculosis vaccine at a hospital in North Lincolnshire, England.

Hepatits B

About one in five babies born to mothers with hepatitis B aren't getting treatments that have been shown to prevent the infection in newborns, a study whose findings were released online March 8 in advance of the April print issue of Pediatrics.

H1N1

WASHINGTON — First, people were clamoring for H1N1 vaccines, but there were not enough to go around. By the time vaccines were available in any quantity, most of the public had lost interest.

Polio

More than 85 million children under five years old will be immunized against polio in 19 countries across West and Central Africa in a massive cooperation aimed at stopping a year-long polio epidemic the World Health Organization announced.

H1N1

NEW YORK — New research from Australia confirms that the HIN1 flu hits pregnant women particularly hard — especially if they have asthma, obesity or diabetes.

A new coalition is calling for hearings to investigate HHS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other government agencies for what it describes as a failure to fully address issues of vaccine safety.

NEW ORLEANS — Most children with egg protein allergies who received influenza vaccinations had no adverse reactions, researchers said at the annual meeting of American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, according to MedPage Today.

Cholera

GENEVA — Because deadly cholera infections are still on the rise, producing oral cholera vaccines in poor countries could help boost the immunity of those most vulnerable to the water-borne disease, a World Health Organization official said March 1.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health unveiled an initiative designed to accelerate the process from scientific breakthrough to the availability of new, innovative medical therapies for patients.

HPV

Women older than 40 are unlikely to get much benefit from the vaccine for the virus that causes cervical cancer, a new study reports.

The 2009 H1N1 flu virus, which has sickened millions and killed at least 15,000 people worldwide, will be included in the United States’ next seasonal flu vaccine when it becomes available in the fall, government health experts decided.

HIV

The head of an association that represents Canada's HIV researchers is criticizing a federal government decision to scrap plans for an $83.5 million facility that would manufacture potential vaccines.

Measles

More than 20 million Bangladeshi children will be vaccinated against measles over the next two weeks as part of a campaign backed by UNICEF to try to eradicate the deadly disease in the South Asian nation, the UN News Service reported Feb. 15.

HIV

WASHINGTON — A company using genetically engineered versions of the AIDS virus says its unusual approach is getting some results, both for treating and perhaps as a vaccine against HIV.

Andrew Wakefield

Andrew Wakefield, the British doctor whose research triggered a health scare over the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, has resigned from the autism center he founded in Texas, The Guardian reported Feb. 18.

H1N1

DAKAR, Senegal — Modou Diagne Fada, Senegal’s minister of health and preventive medicine, confirmed that the country had been hit by the epidemic H1N1 influenza, AfricaNews reported Feb. 9

Measles

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Measles continues to spread in Zimbabwe despite intensified efforts by the government and its partners to contain the outbreak, which has affected more than 1,200 people since October, The Herald reported Feb. 10.

Mumps

In a recent mumps outbreak occurring in the eastern United States, even some of those who were vaccinated against the infectious illness got sick, health officials report according to HealthDay News.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is partnering with the Indian Health Service to launch a campaign informing American Indian and Alaska Native parents about the importance of a preteen medical check-up and preteen vaccines.

World Health Organization

The World Health Organization reported that 225 cases of H1N1 flu with resistance to oseltamivir (Tamiflu) have been found worldwide, and resistant viruses have spread from person to person in several clusters but have not spilled into the community.

WASHINGTON — H1N1 flu is still circulating around the world and still killing people, although it is on the decline everywhere, global health officials said Feb. 5.

Polio

NEW DELHI — Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Feb. 7 launched the bivalent oral vaccine against polio in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh states to mark India’s national immunization day, The Hindu reported.

More than 75 million Americans, or close to 25 percent of the population, have been vaccinated against the pandemic H1N1 virus, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated Feb. 4.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's budget proposes a unique new initiative — battling some tropical diseases not just to improve health but as a national security strategy, Reuters reported Feb. 2.

SANTIAGO, Chile — Dengue cases in Central and Latin America have increased almost five-fold in incidence in the last 30 years, researchers have found.

NicVAX

Oregon Health & Science University is participating in a Phase III clinical trial to determine whether a new investigational smoking cessation aid called NicVAX is safe, effective and capable of stimulating an immune response, the school announced Feb. 3.

LONDON — The Lancet medical journal formally retracted a paper that caused a 12-year international battle over links between the three-in-one childhood measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and autism.

Bill Gates

DAVOS, Switzerland — Bill and Melinda Gates announced plans Jan. 29 to invest $10 billion in the fight against a number of illnesses including AIDS and said the record donation could save nearly nine million lives.

H1N1

TORONTO — Canada has revealed what it will do with a portion of the country's large H1N1 vaccine surplus, announcing Jan. 28 that it is giving 5 million doses to the World Health Organization.

Vical Inc. announced that it would present an overview of its DNA vaccine and adjuvant technologies and an update on its clinical-stage vaccine development programs at the Phacilitate Vaccine Forum in Washington.

ROCKVILLE, Md.--Two officials from Novavax Inc. announced Jan. 25 that they will be presenting at Phacilitate's eighth annual Vaccine Forum Washington 2010.

H1N1

Two weeks after A/H1N1 killed a 38-year-old woman and eight others subsequently tested positive, Lagos state government disclosed that Nigeria currently "has no vaccine to treat the flu virus in stock," AllAfrica.com reported Jan. 20

Measles

BIKITA, Zimbabwe — Ten infants have died of measles in the past five days, health authorities here told Radio VOP on Jan. 20.

ZURICH — Switzerland's medical regulator recommended that patients with serious autoimmune diseases should not use an H1N1 flu vaccine from Novartis, saying there were no studies assessing the inoculation in that segment of the population.

World Health Organization

LONDON — GlaxoSmithKline confirmed Jan. 15 that approximately 130 million doses of its pandemic H1N1 adjuvanted vaccine were shipped to governments in the fourth quarter of 2009.

NEW YORK — Merck & Co on Jan. 13 said it had provided U.S. regulators with new information needed for approval to market its Gardasil cervical cancer vaccine to women between the ages of 27 to 45, Reuters reported.

Yellow Fever

DAKAR, Senegal — Guinean health officials plan this month to vaccinate more than 250,000 people in the northeast against yellow fever after one confirmed and several suspected cases emerged in the region.

H1N1

Citing mistakes made in the 1957 flu pandemic, federal officials on Jan. 7 urged hesitant Americans to get vaccinated now against H1N1 flu to prevent any possibility of another wave of illness and deaths.

Leukemia

LONDON — A vaccine for leukemia is about to be tested on human patients for the first time, in a breakthrough that could offer hope to thousands of people, the Telegraph reported Jan. 4.

Short-term school closings are not an effective way to block the spread of influenza viruses, and may even be counterproductive, Pennsylvania researchers have found.

TB

The number of people developing tuberculosis continues to increase despite earlier signs of stabilizing, according to a report released Dec. 2 by the United Kingdom’s Health Protection Agency.

Measles

Measles primarily affects children younger than 5 and can lead to blindness, inflammation of the middle ear, brain damage and death.

World Health Organization

TORONTO — Canada is in discussions with pandemic vaccine maker GlaxoSmithKline and with the World Health Organization about what to do with the country's expected surplus of H1N1 vaccine, the head of the Public Health Agency of Canada said Dec. 9.

WASHINGTON — The swine flu pandemic may have changed the U.S. approach to handling influenza forever, and for the better, U.S. officials said Dec. 17 according to Reuters.

Dr. Julie Gerberding

WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J. — Merck & Co. Inc. announced that a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been named president of Merck Vaccines, effective Jan.

World Health Organization

There have been more than 10,000 swine flu deaths worldwide since April, the World Health Organization said Dec. 18.

MF59

Novartis's pandemic H1N1 flu vaccine generated stronger immune responses when it was combined with an adjuvant than when used alone, though both formulations yielded good results, according to a report published by the New England Journal of Medicine.

As soon as babies are born, they are susceptible to diseases and infections, such as jaundice and E. coli. For up to a month, their immune systems aren't adequately developed to fight diseases.

Manon Cox

Someday, effective vaccines might be produced two to four times the speed of vaccines manufactured in fertilized chicken eggs, according to a researcher in the Netherlands.

HIV

Researchers have for the first time demonstrated that human blood stem cells can be engineered into cells that can target and kill HIV-infected cells — a process that potentially could be used against a range of chronic viral diseases.

Helicobacter

Human trials are soon to begin on an Australian-pioneered technique that could revolutionize the way we vaccinate — by replacing the syringe with the spoon, the Australian Associated Press reported Dec. 8.

H1N1

In fatal cases of 2009 H1N1 influenza, the virus can damage cells throughout the respiratory airway, much like the viruses that caused the 1918 and 1957 influenza pandemics.

H1N1 Vaccine

Fewer Europeans are getting pandemic flu vaccine than typically get seasonal flu shots, as safety concerns and lower-than-expected death rates have damped demand, Bloomberg reported Dec. 8.

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA — A union is taking the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to arbitration because five people who refused to get the seasonal flu vaccine said they were fired.

Harald zur Hausen

CALCUTTA, India — Cervical cancer vaccines should cost less to be more effective in lowering the death rate caused by the disease a Nobel laureate said, according to a report in The Times of India on Dec. 3.

LONDON — GlaxoSmithKline announced Dec. 1 that the World Health Organization has awarded prequalification for global use of Arepanrix, its adjuvanted H1N1 pandemic vaccine manufactured in Canada.

H1N1 Vaccine

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio Department of Health reminded parents and health care providers Nov. 30 that children younger than 10 should receive two doses of H1N1 flu vaccine in order to achieve optimal protection against pandemic flu.

MANILA, Philippines — The World Health Organization promised on Nov. 26 to donate 9 million H1N1 flu shots to the Philippines, and assured the country the vaccines were safe, Reuters reported.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Baxter International Inc. says it is looking into building a cell-based vaccine manufacturing plant in the U.S. to produce seasonal and pandemic flu vaccines, the Chicago Tribune reported Nov. 26

GENEVA and SHANGHAI — According to new data in the 2009 AIDS epidemic update, new HIV infections have been reduced by 17 percent over the past eight years, the World Health Organization and United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS announced Nov. 24.

GENEVA -- The Norwegian Institute of Public Health has informed the World Health Organization of a mutation detected in three H1N1 viruses.

Staph Leavenworth Bakali

Genocea Biosciences, a vaccine discovery and development company, announced Nov. 16 that it was named one of BusinessWeek’s “World’s Most Intriguing Startups” for 2009.

H1N1

OTTAWA — Canada's top medical official defended the national H1N1 vaccination campaign on Nov. 12, and said the costs of doing nothing would be far higher than the money spent immunizing millions of people.

Malaria

ATLANTA -- There were ten cases of malaria reported across the United States during the week ending October 10th, four of which occurred in Virginia.

GALVESTON, Texas — Vical Inc. reported Nov. 10 that it has a strong rationale advocating the use of DNA vaccine technology for emerging and/or pandemic infectious diseases.

Polio

GOZ BEIDA, Chad —A three-day nationwide polio vaccination campaign began Oct. 30 throughout Chad, including in the east where according to the World Health Organization the rate of routine immunizations is among the weakest nationwide, IRIN news reported.

Tatyana Golikova

MOSCOW — Russia's health minister warned the media against spreading panic over a swine and seasonal flu outbreak and said the situation was under control.

Andrin Oswald

BASEL, Switzerland — Novartis announced Nov. 5 that it received approval from the German regulatory authorities for its adjuvanted cell culture-based Influenza H1N1 2009 monovalent vaccine, Celtura.

MALAKAL, Sudan — Southern Sudan is facing a "serious outbreak" of the deadly kala azar tropical disease, the aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres, also known as Doctors Without Borders, warned Friday.

Dr. Brian J. McMahon

The hepatitis B vaccine – given to protect against infection by a virus that can cause severe liver damage and cancer — may protect for more than two decades, according to a new study.

NIAID

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases announced interim trial results showing that children 9 years old and younger have improved immune response when given a second 15-microgram dose of 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine.

Dr. Anne Gershon

To better protect patients and health care workers, the Infectious Diseases Society of America recently strengthened its policy on mandatory immunization of workers. The strengthened statement applies to both seasonal influenza and 2009 H1N1 influenza.

Gov. Paterson

The mandatory influenza immunization requirement for New York health care workers was suspended Oct. 22 so that the limited vaccine supplies can be used for populations most at risk of serious illness and death.

Rahul Singhvi

Novavax Inc. announced Oct. 23 that it has initiated a two-stage clinical study of its virus-like-particle (VLP) H1N1 influenza vaccine in Mexico in collaboration with Avimex Laboratories and GE Healthcare.

MEXICO CITY — Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jane Holl Lute joined her Mexican and Canadian counterparts in Mexico City to discuss continued collaboration to confront the spread of global H1N1 flu.

A cholera vaccine has proved to be safe and effective in young children in a part of India where the disease is endemic, a new study in The Lancet says.

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

ROCKVILLE, Md. — Emergent BioSolutions Inc. announced March 17, 2009, that the Phase I/II clinical trial for its anthrax immune globulin (AIG) therapeutic candidate has commenced with the initial treatment given to the first subject.

BioThrax

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. announced that it has signed a contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to supply an additional 14.5 million doses of BioThrax for inclusion in the Strategic National Stockpile.

Anthrax

ROCKVILLE, Md. — Emergent BioSolutions Inc. announced Sept. 3, 2008, that it has received a contract from the Department of Health and Human Services for about $24.3 million to further develop of its anthrax monoclonal antibody AVP-21D9.

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. announced that it has secured two grants totaling more than $4.5 million from the NIAID to fund the continued development of the company’s recombinant botulinum (rBOT) and next-generation anthrax vaccine (NGAV) candidates.

Daniel J. Abdun-Nabi

ROCKVILLE, MD. —Emergent BioSolutions Inc. announced that dosing of patients has begun in a U.S. Phase II clinical trial of the company’s single-dose oral typhoid vaccine candidate.

BioThrax

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. that it has successfully completed the fourth-quarter 2006 deliveries of more than 3 million doses of BioThrax (Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed) to the Department of Health and Human Services.

GAITHERSBURG, Md. — Emergent BioSolutions announced positive results from a Phase II clinical study evaluating a simplified dosing regimen for the company’s next-generation single-dose oral typhoid vaccine.