Elizabeth Winzeler

An international team of scientists plans to begin clinical trials for a new malaria vaccine later this year.

A dramatic rise in the number of dengue hemorrhagic fever cases has led the Philippines Department of Health to issue a national warning against the disease.

H5N1

A recent study has revealed that pre-exposure to the H1N1 influenza virus, or a single dose of DNA vaccine encoding H5N1 influenza proteins, can be useful in protecting the human body from H5N1 influenza virus infection.

Kathleen Sebelius

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued a new report outlining a more aggressive national strategy for the production of medical countermeasures used to new viruses or superbugs in emergency situations.

Anne Schuchat

Vaccination rates among U.S. teens have increased, though they are still below the desired level and also below rates for younger children.

Following febrile fits and deaths in children, the United States and Europe have banned an influenza vaccine for use in children produced by CSL, Ltd..

Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine

A study conducted in Mali found that global health initiatives in developing countries to control specific diseases can often work against public health by diverting much needed resources.

NDM-1

A Belgian man has become the first known to die from an infection caused by bacteria containing an enzyme gene called New Delhi metallo-lactamase-1, or NDM-1.

H1N1

Canada’s problems in handling the recent H1N1 pandemic have prompted three healthcare groups to call for an overhaul to the nation’s public health system.

Malaria

Members of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance met recently to discuss the continent’s malaria priorities.

Anthony Fauci

Human clinical trials have begun on a tetravalent vaccine candidate to protect against the mosquito-borne dengue virus.

John Kerry

Sen. John Kerry (D – Mass.) introduced legislation on August 4 that would fund and direct the Department of Health and Human Services to create a national strategy to control viral hepatitis.

H3N2

Two small outbreaks of influenza A/H3N2 in Iowa and cases of H3N2 in 11 other states have caused the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to urge healthcare providers to be vigilant.

Mumps

American’s immunity against the mumps is at a level barely capable of preventing an outbreak, experts have revealed.

Yellow fever

Oxfam and the U.N. Children’s Fund recently reported that West Africa is not yet fully prepared for the rapid outbreaks of cholera, dengue fever and yellow fever that are expected to coincide with the onset of this year’s rainy season.

An experimental vaccine may be able to block tumor growth in some forms of cancer even when an immune system has become suppressed, a recent Journal of Clinical Investigation study has revealed.

The French drug manufacturer Sanofi-Aventis announced on August 3 that one of its subsidiaries in India, Shantha Biotechnics Ltd., had failed to meet quality standards for the World Health Organization with regards to its Shan5 combination vaccine.

Scientists from the Infectious Disease Research Institute of Seattle hope to have a new leprosy vaccine ready for safety trials by 2011.

A malaria vaccine for children, dubbed RTSS, is currently being tested in Uganda.

The Food and Drug Administration recently cited several major problems it found during an inspection at a Sanofi Pasteur vaccine manufacturing facility in Marcy l’Etoile, France.

Dengue mosquito

An epidemic of dengue fever that has hit Latin America and the Caribbean has increased the risk of a similar outbreak occurring in South Florida, an expert on the disease has told Reuters.

Antigenics, a Massachusetts-based biotech firm, recently reported positive results for a human trial of a potential herpes vaccine.

Pertussis

Federal health officials are currently searching for the cause of what is set to be California’s worst pertussis, or whooping cough, outbreak in the last 50 years, in hopes that the information may be able to slow the disease's transmission.

Smallpox

According to a new study released on July 22, smallpox inoculation may offer some protection against primary HIV infection.

Celiac disease

It has been 60 years since scientists found the link between gluten and celiac disease, but only recently have they found the precise cause of the immune reaction that can cause so much pain and discomfort to sufferers.

California health officials have recently urged residents to take precautions after the first two positive cases of West Nile Virus were reported in the state.

A new vaccine against the deadly rotavirus is being developed in Melbourne, Australia that, unlike current vaccines, has the potential to protect infants from birth.

Ebola

The results of NanoViricide, Inc.’s research into anti-Ebola agents were presented on July 17 to the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Virology at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana.

Mark Prausnitz

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, in collaboration with researchers from Emory University, have developed a new method of vaccine delivery that requires a simple patch and could potentially be done at home.

Paul Lucas

The government of Queensland, Australia, has invested 300,000 for the development of an antibody for the Hendra virus.

Measles

The Connecticut Department of Health issued a warning this week that members of the public may have been exposed to measles.

Francis Nano

By replacing some of the genes in mammalian pathogens with those found in arctic bacteria, Francis Nano of the University of Victoria in Canada may have found the key to make a new class of vaccines.

Dr. James Kazura

The National Institute of Health has given a $7.9 million grant to the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine to send a research team to Southeast Asia to help eradicate malaria.

Joseph Vinetz

The National Institutes of Health have given the University of California San Diego a seven-year, $9.2 million grant to develop a joint Peruvian/Brazilian malaria research center.

Pertussis

Following the declaration by the California Department of Public Health of a pertussis epidemic, reports of pertussis activity have spiked nationwide.

Dengue mosquito

Puerto Rico’s health secretary issued a warning on July 5 that the island could potentially face its worst outbreak of dengue fever if action is not taken immediately.

The surge in childhood vaccination coverage for hepatitis A that began in 2006 has since fallen off, the July 2 issue of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report reveals.

Marburg

According to research published online in the July edition of Emerging Infectious Diseases, an experimental post-exposure vaccine for the Marburg haemorrhagic fever virus allowed five of six monkeys to survive infection.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration released a copy of a June 28 letter sent to CSL Biotherapies, the operators of an Australian influenza vaccine producing facility, detailing irregularities there.

Whooping cough

California's low immunization rates might be at the heart of the recent whooping cough epidemic, public health officials have said.

After the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Provenge, Dendreon's groundbreaking prostate cancer vaccine, in late April, the company announced that it would only be able to supply 2,000 patients over the following 12 months.

While California faces one of its worst whooping cough outbreaks in 50 years, New York, Indiana and Oregon have seen cases of the disease steadily increase, worrying public health officials.

H1N1

H1N1 influenza, in federal terms, is no longer a public health emergency.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that it has developed a test to diagnose human infections with the H1N1 influenza virus that can now be used by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recently declined to include mandatory vaccination policies for healthcare workers as a strategy to improve vaccination rates.

H1N1

Chinese researchers have announced that a hybrid virus that has been found in pigs in Hong Kong contains elements of the 2009 human pandemic flu virus as well as two swine flu strains.

Dengue mosquito

Approximately 11,000 people in Honduras have been infected with dengue and at least 10 have died, leading the nation's authorities to announce a nationwide red alert.

Testing has resumed on an experimental lung cancer vaccine by Germany's Merck KGaA and Oncothyreon, its U.S. partner.

H1N1

In a finding that could reduce concern over a potential release of the strain, a team of researchers in the U.S. reported this week that the current H1N1 vaccine protects mice and possibly humans against the 1918 pandemic virus.

Malaria

The World Health Organization has certified Morocco - a country with a population of approximately 31.6 million people - as malaria-free, according to a press release from the WHO.

H1N1

Oseltamivir ring prophylaxis helped slow down H1N1 influenza outbreaks in Singapore military camps in 2009, according to the results of a study reported in the June issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

H1N1

Pandemic flu activity is picking up in parts of India and Colombia, and New Zealand is seeing a rise in flu-like illnesses in young children, CIDRAP News has reported.

Yellow fever

Government officials, researchers and pharmaceutical representatives agreed last week at the Congressional Malaria and NTD Caucus in Washington, D.C., that progress is being made to curb neglected tropical diseases.

Health officials in West Virginia are hoping to encourage influenza immunizations by holding the state's first annual flu summit.

Two investigations suggesting that the World Health Organization exaggerated a pharmaceutical industry warning of the H1N1 flu becoming a pandemic have been rejected by scientists.

German researchers have announced that Tamiflu given to infants hospitalized with influenza had similar benefits to those in older children, though mild gastrointestinal symptoms were a common side effect.

Tuberculosis

The Bangladesh New Nation reports that new tuberculosis vaccines are promising but need to be researched far more before they become available to the public.

Gardasil

FoxNews has reported that only a third of young women are being vaccinated for cervical cancer prevention.

H1N1

In a statement released on its website, the World Health Organization's Emergency Committee said on Tuesday that the worst of the H1N1 pandemic influenza outbreak that spread rapidly last summer appears to have passed, though it did not go so far as to ca

Gardasil

Time Magazine reports that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says men can also benefit from the HPV vaccine Gardasil and that it is a safe method of preventing genital warts.

H1N1

The H1N1 virus outbreak appears to be contained and conquered in Alabama, according to a report by WAFF.

H1N1

Quicker identification of pandemic viruses and a switch from egg to cell-based production were short term measures President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology made to help quicken influenza vaccine production, according to a report by

H1N1

A test for the 2009 H1N1 Influenza Virus in patients displaying signs and symptoms of respiratory infection has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Tuberculosis

Pharmaceutical giant Archivel Farma has announced that it is considering a new theory about tuberculosis and is taking steps to combat the disease, which has caused two million deaths in the past year.

Polio

Scientists and researchers gathered in Geneva this week at the World Health Organization's annual meeting of health ministers discussed a new strategy to rid the world of polio, The Associated Press reports.

Dengue Fever

The Fort Collins Coloradoan reports that a biotech company located in Fort Collins, Colo., is beginning its first clinical trials of a vaccine for dengue fever.

The immune system at work

A new study reports that gender can play a role in how an immune system responds to certain vaccines and their side effects.

Flu vaccine

Extra precautions are being put in place in South Africa to prevent a potential flu outbreak during next month's World Cup, FT.com reports.

The American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists' National Biotechnology Conference will be held this weekend in the Hilton San Francisco Union Square starting this Sunday, May 16.

Pertussis

Just one booster dose helped adults ages 55 and older respond well to a series of antigens that included diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, Doctor's Guide Channels reports.

According to a news release from MarketWire, a second human safety study of a Cleveland BioLabs, Inc., drug used to treat Acute Radiation Syndrome is underway.

Hepatitis B

Dynavax Technologies reports that it has completed immunizing over 2,000 subjects in a Phase 3 study of HEPLISAV, an adult hepatitis B vaccine.

Tuberculosis

Archivel Farma, S.L. has announced at the 2010 BIO International Convention that its therapeutic TB vaccine, RUTI(R), can cut treatment time for the virus from nine months to one month when used with an antibiotic.

UNICEF in Haiti

A major immunization campaign will begin on Saturday in Haiti to give life-saving vaccinations to an estimated 60,000 Haitian children, the United Nations Children's Fund has announced.

H1N1

Thousands of doses of the H1N1 flu vaccine in Florida are on the verge of expiration or have already expired following a dip in demand for the vaccine.

PPD U.S. headquarters

A vaccine clinical research center has been opened by PPD, Inc., in Taizhou, China, one of the country's major regions for conducting vaccine studies.

The third phase of testing for the world's most clinically advanced malaria vaccine candidate began last year and researchers at the Kenya Medical Research Institutes and Centers of Disease Control believe it could lead to the nation's first malaria vacci

diphtheria

An agreement has been announced between MassBiologics of the University of Massachusetts Medical School and Merck & Co., Inc., that provides the exclusive rights to market and distribute MBL's tetanus and diphtheria toxoids adsorbed vaccine in the United

A new study in mice has shown that a transcription factor normally found in male germ cells could become a target for cancer vaccines, according to a report by HealthDay News.

hepatitis C

PHILADELPHIA — Inovio Biomedical Corp. and its university research partners were awarded a $2.8 million Pennsylvania state grant to develop a DNA vaccine to treat hepatitis C, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported April 9.

TB

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) possesses extraordinary survival ability by masking itself from the host immune system and persisting for decades inside the host.

Measles

The British Columbia Centre for Disease Control is warning health care professionals and the public to be on the alert for measles after nearly a dozen people in Vancouver were diagnosed recently with the disease, Canwest News Service reported.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the vaccination rates for the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus are different around the country. New England has the highest rates while the South is having the lowest.

ROCKVILLE, Md. — The Tech Council of Maryland has selected finalists for its awards that recognize individuals and organizations for innovation, dedication and outstanding service to Maryland's technology community.

World Health Organization

A group of outside experts will scrutinize the WHO's response to the H1N1flu outbreak and likely examine whether the global body could have been clearer when it declared a pandemic of what has turned out to be a relatively mild disease.

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

The influenza viruses responsible for the pandemics of 1918 and 2009 share a structural detail that makes both susceptible to neutralization by the same antibodies, according to research by the NIAID.

FRANKFURT, Germany — German drugmaker Merck KGaA put on hold all testing on humans of its experimental cancer vaccine Stimuvax after a Phase II trial participant contracted encephalitis.

Tevi Troy

There is relatively little interest about tuberculosis in the United States because there is a perception that this is just a developing world issue, says Tevi Troy, a writer and consultant on health care and domestic policy

World TB Day is March 24. This annual event commemorates the date in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch announced his discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that cause tuberculosis.

Pneumococcal

LONDON — Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline signed a landmark 10-year deal March 23 to supply 60 million doses a year of cut-price pneumococcal vaccines to developing nations.

TB

Even with tuberculosis cases falling sharply in the United States to historic lows, strains of drug-resistant disease are gaining ground elsewhere in the world, the Centers for Disease Control Prevention and the World Health Organization report.

Experts in Japan developed a mosquito that spreads vaccine rather than disease when it bites humans, it emerged March 19.

Chickenpox

Since the varicella vaccine was introduced in the mid-1990s, the number of people receiving medical care for chickenpox in the U.S. has decreased sharply — particularly among children.

Hepatitis B

Dynavax Technologies Corp. said March 16 that its auditors have expressed doubts about the company's ability to continue as a going concern as a result of the company's current financial position, according to Reuters.

A new study shows that when children get vaccinated against seasonal influenza, the entire community can benefit.

GlaxoSmithKline

LONDON — British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline PLC on March 12 announced two changes in the executive lineup of its vaccines business.

Pneumococcal

LONDON — Several drug companies have agreed on a landmark deal to supply up to 200 million doses a year of cut-price pneumococcal vaccines to developing nations, according to the global immunization alliance that is overseeing the deal.

Up to 50,000 U.S. adults die each year from vaccine preventable diseases, and the direct health care burden of vaccine preventable diseases in American adults is $10 billion a year.

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.