Influenza A (H1N1) Cases and Deaths*
International News
Potential source for universal flu vaccine discovered
The American Society for Microbiology’s journal, mBio, has published a study outlining the construction of a headless version of the flu virus which may be used to create a universal flu vaccine. Currently, annual flu shots use epidemiological research and some guesswork to assemble a cocktail of three vaccines that target a narrow band of virus strains suspected of becoming that year’s dominant bug. Every so often a significant mutation occurs that allows the virus to sidestep existing vaccines and elude the body’s immune system, and a pandemic strain emerges.
The key lies in the hemagglutinin, which is what gives influenza virus strains the ‘H’ in their designations. Hemagglutinin is a protein structure on the virus that it uses to “glue” itself to the cells it infects. Because this attachment is an operation all viruses must be able to perform, portions of the protein are common to all strains, even mutated ones. Researchers at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York isolated these conserved sequences on the protein to create a universal vaccine type. The experimental vaccine has already been used to protect mice from lethal doses of influenza virus.
Annual vaccines represent millions of dollars in income for the pharmaceutical industry. Last year Canada bought over 50 million doses of flu vaccine for its public vaccination program. The US bought over 162 million. Reuters
Doctor who was architect of vaccine-autism link banned from practicing medicine.
After finding him guilty of over 30 charges of professional misconduct and unethical behaviour, the United Kingdom’s General Medical Council has stricken Dr. Andrew Wakefield from the medical registry. In 1998, a research team led by Dr. Wakefield published a study in British medical journal The Lancet that concluded there was link between the administration of measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccines and the onset of autism. The paper set off a 10-year storm of controversy as vaccine rates in England dropped, and measles case numbers rose. The Lancet retracted Wakefield’s study in February
No large scientific study has been able to reproduce these findings, but the General Medical Council (GMC) said their investigation was not concerned with whether or not the study’s findings were right or wrong, but the manner and the circumstances under which the study was conducted. Dr. Surendra Kumar, chair of the hearing committee said that the application of the council’s most severe sanction was the only measure “appropriate to protect patients and is in the wider public interest, including the maintenance of public trust and confidence in the profession, and is proportionate to the serious and wide-ranging findings made against him.”
Among the offences listed at the hearing were the way Dr. Wakefield gathered his blood samples, he paid children £5 each for them at his son’s birthday party; and his nondisclosure of the fact that had been paid £50,000 (about $72,000) by the lawyers of a parents’ group who were suing vaccine makers.
In a BBC interview, Wakefield said he never claimed to prove a link between MMR vaccines and autism, but at an appearance on NBC’s Today show, he claimed the autism link he established was the basis of a smear campaign against him of which the GMC’s ruling was a part. BBC News
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