Repeat Influenza Vaccination Yields Reduced Antibody Response
Multiple vaccinations may not afford better protection against influenza viruses than fewer inoculations, according to an Australian study of vaccine responses in health care workers (HCWs) reported in Vaccine. Postvaccine protective antibody titers were highest in HCWs who were vaccinated…
France Has Lowest Confidence in Vaccines
A recent study published in EBioMedicine conducted by researchers from the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and other institutions reveals that public confidence in vaccines varies among different nations with European nations being the most skeptical of vaccines. The purpose of the study is to provide insights for policy makers to identify…
Alzheimer’s Vaccine: Researchers Target Brain Proteins in Mouse Study
U.S. and Australian scientists are reporting that they have developed a promising vaccine platform for Alzheimer’s disease. Investigators at Flinders University in Australia have teamed with researchers from California’s Institute of Molecular Medicine and the University of California on the international quest to discover a vaccine formulation for Alzheimer’s disease.
Study: Febrile Seizure Risk Higher When Childhood Vaccines Given Simultaneously
The link between febrile seizures—seizures associated with a fever in a child—and vaccines may be old news, but a new study published in the June 2016 issue of the journal Pediatrics confirms what parents have suspected for a long time: the risk of seizures is higher for children when doctors give them many vaccines at the same time. Public health officials at the U.S. Centers…
New Report Questions Causal Link Between Zika and Microcephaly
A recent news article in Science Daily cites a “status report” by New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI) of Cambridge, MA raising questions about the supposed causal link between the Zika virus and the birth defect known as microcephaly. According to the article: “Brazil’s microcephaly epidemic continues to pose a mystery—if Zika is the culprit, why are there no similar epidemics in other countries also hit hard by the virus? In Brazil, the microcephaly rate soared with more than 1,500 confirmed cases.
Brazilian Study Unable to Determine Causal Link Between Zika and Brain Disorders
According to a new study led by neurologist Maria Lucia Brito Ferreira, MD of Restoration Hospital in Recife, Brazil, the Zika virus may be linked to an autoimmune disorder, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), that is similar to multiple sclerosis. ADEM is an immune mediated inflammatory disorder of the central nervous system that can be triggered by viral or bacterial…