How much difference does the flu shot really make?
Various studies offer wide-ranging conclusions. One, for instance, found that seasonal influenza vaccine halves elderly deaths from any cause in the winter months. But another found it has no impact at all on this age group’s health. These and other conflicting findings are pushing public health officials and scientists to look for better ways to quantify the preventive’s impact.
“Flu vaccine Read the rest of this entry »

TOKYO — A group of researchers has developed a new vaccine effective against many types of influenza, a breakthrough that could be a possible silver bullet against new strains of the virus.
Although practical application of the vaccine is still several years away, trials conducted on mice have shown promising results even on flu strains that can quickly mutate.
Researchers from the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Hokkaido University, Read the rest of this entry »

VIENNA, Dec 29 (Reuters) – Austrian biotech firm Intercell
(
ICEL.VI
) said on Monday it expects U.S. approval for its
Japanese Encephalitis (JE) vaccine to move into early 2009,
later than expected.
The company, which had hoped the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) would approve the vaccine by the end of
2008, said the delay should not cause problems for its overall
timeline for the vaccine.
“Although our year end target date for approval Read the rest of this entry »

Chinese health authorities have confirmed that a 19-year-old woman has died of the H5N1 bird flu virus, according to the
. The report appeared in a story from
. Experts are worried the virus could mutate into a form that may be transmitted from person to person, but authorities say the woman who died had recently purchased ducks at a market near Beijing.
vaccine in boys and young men,
. The HPV vaccine protects against
.
Even in a bad Read the rest of this entry »

-(Dow Jones)- A new, expanded version of
(WYE) Prevnar
vaccine may be as effective as the current version, according to the first look
at advanced clinical studies of the vaccine released Monday.
Prevnar, given to infants and toddlers, is designed to protect against seven
types of streptococcus pneumoniae, strains of bacteria that cause a range of
illnesses like ear infections, pneumonia, bloodstream infections and meningitis,
an infection of Read the rest of this entry »

FDA Expands Use Of HPV Vaccine Gardasil For Vaginal, Vulvar Cancer Prevention
to protect against cancers of the vagina and vulva, the
reports (AP/MSNBC.com, 9/12). According to an FDA
, Gardasil first was approved by FDA in 2006 for girls and women ages nine to 26 to prevent cervical cancer cases caused by HPV strains 16 and 18, genital warts cases caused by HPV strains 6 and 11, and precancerous genital lesions caused by HPV strains 6, 11, Read the rest of this entry »

, though it’s probably several years from becoming available for human use, the
reports. Experiments indicate that the vaccine was useful even against flu strains that mutate. The vaccine was developed by researchers at Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases, chemical maker NOF Corp., Hokkaido University, and Saitama Medical University—all working under the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry in Japan. The team developed the vaccine Read the rest of this entry »

THURSDAY, Feb. 12 (HealthDay News) — There’s no scientific evidence that childhood vaccines such as the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine caused autism in children of parents seeking compensation from a federal fund, a U.S. court ruled Thursday.
The ruling, which involved test cases of children from three different families, was a setback for parents who had filed claims seeking monetary awards from a U.S.-run vaccine compensation program. More than Read the rest of this entry »

FRIDAY, Feb. 13 (HealthDay News) — Drug industry-funded flu vaccine studies are more likely to be published in prestigious journals and are cited more often in the scientific literature than other studies, according to researchers who assessed 274 flu vaccine studies.
The team at the Cochrane Vaccine Field in Italy found no relationship between study quality, publication in prestigious journals, or subsequent citation of the studies in other articles. Read the rest of this entry »

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 — An FDA advisory panel has agreed that H5N1 avian flu vaccine should continue to be tested in pediatric populations to prepare for a pandemic.
In 2007, the FDA approved the vaccine from manufacturer sanofi pasteur solely to stockpile it in case of a pandemic. (See:
As part of that approval, the agency directed sanofi-pasteur to conduct a trial in children.
The Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, Read the rest of this entry »