Feds Destroy Long-Time Smallpox Vaccine
February 29, 2008 on 11:19 pm | In Uncategorized | Comments Off ATLANTA (AP) -- The government announced Friday that it has said goodbye to one of the world's greatest lifesavers - the original smallpox vaccine. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this month made arrangements to dispose of its 12 million doses of Dryvax, and notified other health departments and the military to do the same by Feb. 29.Dryvax - produced by scraping virus off the skin of infected calves - is being replaced in federal vaccine stockpiles by a more modern product manufactured in laboratories.
Dryvax was unusually dangerous for a vaccine, blamed in recent years for triggering heart attacks and a painful heart inflammation in some patients.
Still, attention should be paid on the occasion of its demise, said Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of Vanderbilt University's department of preventive medicine.
It is a "historical moment, because it's our oldest vaccine," Schaffner said. "It was a vaccine that eliminated smallpox from the United States."
Smallpox is a deadly, infectious disease that plagued the world for centuries and killed nearly a third of the people it infected. Victims suffered scorching fever and body aches, then spots and blisters that would leave survivors with pitted scars.
Dryvax was created in the late 1800s, by the company that became Wyeth Laboratories. Wyeth was a primary U.S. manufacturer of smallpox vaccine by the mid-1940s, and was the only company left making it by the early 1960s, said Dr. D.A. Henderson, a University of Pittsburgh vaccine expert who played a key role in international smallpox eradication efforts.
The United States was able to end routine childhood vaccination against the disease by the early 1970s. World health authorities declared the disease was eradicated from nature in 1980.
Wyeth stopped making the vaccine in the 1980s. But government officials kept a stockpile of about 15 million doses. The Dryvax came in handy in 2003, when it was used to help contain an outbreak of monkeypox in the United States.
"There are situations where one does have to have a smallpox vaccine," said Dr. Neal Halsey, director of John Hopkins University's Institute for Vaccine Safety.
U.S. officials had also been worried that smallpox might resurface as a result of bioterrorism. Following the 9/11 attacks and the anthrax-containing letters that surfaced a month later, the government in 2002 ordered certain military personnel vaccinated and recommended shots for front-line health care workers.
The government also pushed for manufacture of a new vaccine. It hired a company named Acambis Inc., which had produced nearly 200 million doses by the end of 2003, Henderson said.
Last September, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved licensure of the company's ACAM2000 vaccine, and that product is now the mainstay of the CDC stockpile.
Dryvax had problems. It was long suspected of triggering neurological complications, including encephalitis, in rare cases. Then, in 2003, three adults who received the vaccine died suddenly of heart attacks. As a precaution, health officials advised people with heart disease to skip the vaccination.
A study published in 2005 suggested that Dryvax triggered a painful heart inflammation in a small number of emergency workers vaccinated after Sept. 11.
"Times had changed, and our awareness, sensitivity and tolerance for adverse events associated with vaccines was much greater" than during the smallpox vaccination campaigns of the 20th century, Schaffner said.
ACAM2000 is created in laboratories, not on a farm, so there's much less possibility of bacterial contamination in the production process. However, it's derived from Dryvax, and it's not clear it will have fewer side effects than the old vaccine, some vaccine experts said.
© 2008 The Associated Press.
Lawmakers to Probe Delay in CDC Report
February 29, 2008 on 11:19 pm | In Uncategorized | Comments Off TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) -- A congressional panel will investigate why a federal agency is withholding a report describing potential health threats near 26 heavily polluted areas in the Great Lakes region, lawmakers said.The handling of the matter by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "raises grave questions about the integrity of scientific research" at the agency, "as well as the treatment of its scientists," U.S. Reps. John Dingell and Bart Stupak said in a letter Thursday to CDC Director Dr. Julie Louise Gerberding.
Dingell is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, while Stupak is chairman of its Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. Both are Michigan Democrats.
CDC spokesman Glen Nowak said the agency would make an announcement soon about its plans for the report. Earlier this month, he said it was being revised to correct flaws.
"We want to make sure its science meets the standards it needs to meet and make sure the final report is helpful" to the agency that requested it, Nowak said.
The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit journalism organization in Washington, D.C., earlier published what it said were excerpts from a version that had been scheduled for release in July.
It said many of the counties where the 26 "areas of concern" are located have abnormally high rates of cancer and other health problems such as infant mortality, low birth weight and premature births. Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland and Milwaukee are among the areas of concern.
Altogether, the areas have more than 100 sites polluted with toxic wastes such as PCBs, mercury and dioxins, the report said. Of those, 71 were identified as having "a potential human health impact."
The report doesn't say the waste sites caused the health problems but raises questions for further study, according to scientists who have reviewed it.
But Dingell and Stupak said that if its conclusions are accurate, "the health of millions of people in the Great Lakes region may be at risk."
The CDC's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry conducted the study. It was requested in 2001 by the International Joint Commission, an independent panel that advises U.S. and Canadian officials on Great Lakes water quality issues.
"The validity of the findings in this report deserve a fair and open debate within the scientific community," Dingell and Stupak's letter said.
The lawmakers asked the CDC for records involving the decision to withhold the report. They requested copies of communications between Christopher De Rosa, the scientist who led the study, and his superiors - Gerberding and Dr. Howard Frumkin, director of the toxics agency.
Dingell and Stupak said they had been told De Rosa was demoted after pushing for release of the Great Lakes report. Nowak said De Rose was reassigned, but that he didn't know whether the move was related to the report. He declined further comment, saying the CDC would not discuss personnel matters.
© 2008 The Associated Press.
Swiss Say Fans Should Get Measles Shot
February 29, 2008 on 11:19 pm | In Uncategorized | Comments Off GENEVA (AP) -- Soccer fans and players should take precautions against measles before coming to Switzerland for the European Championship in June, authorities said Thursday. The highly contagious disease has infected more than 420 people this year in the Alpine nation, which is co-hosting with Austria the soccer event that is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of fans and tourists."We recommend that those who are not immunized, including the Swiss, get vaccinated," said Jean-Louis Zuercher, a spokesman with the Federal Office of Public Health. Players and teams should also check their vaccine status and get a shot if necessary, he said.
Measles, once a scourge of children in Europe, has become extremely rare in recent decades as a result of vaccination programs.
But a fear of side-effects has led some parents to refuse immunization for their children, a reluctance that Swiss officials blame for an epidemic that began two years ago and infected 1,081 people in 2007.
Dr. Peter Strebel, of the World Health Organization, said there is a risk the disease might spread to thousands of soccer fans and teams who come for the 15 international games Switzerland will host during the Euro 2008.
"There are some studies that have shown transmission in settings like that," he said.
Measles symptoms include high fever, coughing and red skin spots. The fatality rate is low in developed countries, but higher in underdeveloped nations with poor health care.
The disease spreads very easily, jumping from person to person through droplets emitted in sneezing or coughing. But a person becomes immune once infected with the virus or, of course, through vaccination.
Switzerland, one of the world's richest and most developed nations, has a surprisingly low immunization rate of only 86 percent. France, Italy and Portugal - which all are sending teams and thousands of fans to Switzerland - also have coverage of less than 95 percent, which is the national immunization rate recommended by the U.N. health body.
Strebel said the risk of transmission is higher "when a lot of people, especially from different countries, come together and live in accommodation where they may be close to each other, as well as in locker rooms, dressing rooms and in stadiums."
He said he was concerned that the current Swiss epidemic was continuing, especially as the country shares a border with so many others.
European soccer body UEFA, which is organizing the tournament said it was "concerned about this measles epidemic with regard to players and other members of the national associations' delegations."
UEFA will tell team doctors at a meeting in Vienna next month that unvaccinated players and staff should be protected against the virus, the Swiss-based body said in an e-mailed statement.
Zuercher said the same should be recommended of fans.
But, he added, it would be unthinkable to bar soccer fans from entering Switzerland for lack of vaccination.
© 2008 The Associated Press.
Bacteria Assists in Formation of Ice and Snow
February 29, 2008 on 8:32 pm | In Uncategorized | Comments OffChances are, that pile of snow in your yard contains bacteria -- but not because it's dirty. New work in the journal Science suggests that bacteria may have played an important role in forming those snow crystals. Researchers explain the connection between microbiology and meteorology.
Animal Research: A Discussion of Ethics
February 29, 2008 on 8:20 pm | In Uncategorized | Comments OffOne of the most contentious topics in medical research is the issue of experimentation on animals. How well do animal models predict what might happen in humans? What alternatives to animal testing exist, and how well do they work?
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