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August 30, 2009)
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25 August 2009
Research and Markets has
announced the addition of the "China Vaccine Industry Report,
2008-2009" report to their offering.
In the past decade, the
Chinese vaccine market tripled in scale.
Output of common vaccine
reaches 500 million person-portions such as HBV vaccine, measles vaccine, etc.
Fully planned immunization has been realized.
Compared to developed
countries, expenses of
Based on authoritative
statistics, this report gives an in-depth analysis on China vaccine industry
development, vaccine market, vaccine import & export, key vaccine producers,
and also forecasts the development trend of China's vaccine industry in 2009.
Vaccines involved in this report are Flu Vaccine, HBV Vaccine, Cerebrospinal
Meningitis Vaccine, HIV vaccine, A/HINI vaccine as well as anima vaccines.
By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical
Writer Mike Stobbe, Ap Medical Writer Tue Aug 25, 4:04 pm ET
The research, presented at
a conference Tuesday, is expected to influence the government's first guidance
on circumcision.
Circumcision "is not
considered beneficial" in stopping the spread of HIV through gay sex, said
Dr. Peter Kilmarx, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
However, the CDC is still
considering recommending it for other groups, including baby boys and high-risk
heterosexual men.
UNAIDS and other
international health organizations promote circumcision, the cutting away of the
foreskin, as an important strategy for reducing the spread of the AIDS virus.
There hasn't been the same kind of push for circumcision in the
For one thing, nearly 80
percent of American men are already circumcised — a much higher proportion
than most other countries. Worldwide, the male circumcision rate is estimated at
about 30 percent.
Also, while HIV spreads
primarily through heterosexual sex in Africa and some other parts of the world,
in the
Previous research has
suggested circumcision doesn't make a difference when anal sex is involved. The
latest study, by CDC researchers, looked at nearly 4,900 men who had anal sex
with an HIV-infected partner and found the infection rate, about 3.5 percent,
was approximately the same whether the men were circumcised or not.
Government recommendations
on circumcision are still being written and may not be final until next year,
following public comment. CDC doctors and many experts believe there is a good
argument for recommending that baby boys and heterosexual men at a higher risk
for HIV be circumcised.
The definition of
"high risk" is still being discussed, said Kilmarx, chief of the
epidemiology branch in the CDC's HIV division.
Circumcision is a
sensitive issue laden with cultural and religious meaning, particularly when
babies are involved, Kilmarx acknowledged.
"It's seen by many as
more than just as medical procedure," he said. It's possible the government
would just recommend better education for doctors and parents about the
procedure's benefits and risks, he added.
The prospect of the
government promoting circumcision of infants has already drawn fire from an
advocacy group called Intact America. The organization, based in
"It's removing
healthy, functioning, sexual and protective tissue from a person who cannot
consent. You're mutilating a child," said Georgeanne Chapin, the group's
executive director.
J&J's Tibotec unit has
issued a letter to physicians about severe skin reactions and liver damage among
patients taking the drug. The
The skin reactions
included cases of Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, a life-threatening skin disorder
that begins with fever, sore throat and fatigue.
The new label warns
physicians to discontinue use of the drug if patients develop rash, fever,
fatigue and other signs of an adverse reaction.
Intelence, approved in January, works by blocking the enzyme HIV needs to multiply.
25 August 2009
TuBerculosis Vaccine
Initiative (TBVI) recently received a $3million grant for a three year term from
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This grant enables the nonprofit
organization to strengthen its fundraising and communication activities in order
to increase awareness and support for tuberculosis (TB) vaccine research and
raise funds for the development of safer and more effective vaccines.
In the coming 10 years
TBVI hopes to raise 200 million euros from governments, foundations and private
industry for the discovery and early clinical development of new vaccines.
Development of new vaccines is crucial because the only existing vaccine, BCG,
is not very effective in young adults, the group of people mostly affected by
the disease.
"New vaccines are
essential to achieve the international aim of a TB-free world in 2050. We need
several types, not only for initial protection against TB, but also to boost
adolescent immunity and prevent disease in latently infected individuals,"
explains Jelle Thole, director of TBVI. "To enable development of these
vaccines, more investment is needed."
TBVI financially and
practically supports and facilitates a growing international network of over
thirty universities, institutes and industries involved in research and
development of new TB vaccines. The organization evolved from TBVAC, a European
Union (EU) funded project to identify good candidates for new TB vaccines. TBVAC
has yielded five new TB vaccine candidates, fifteen candidate biomarkers and
three candidate adjuvant molecules. These hopeful candidates are now in
preclinical development or even clinical phase.
TBVI is extremely pleased
with the encouraging new signs of progress on TB. "Because of this funding,
we can continue to change new discoveries into real vaccines," says Joris
Vandeputte, senior vice president Fundraising & Advocacy at TBVI.
"These vaccines are urgently needed, as the resurrection of TB is a ticking
time bomb. Many people believe it is a disease of the past, but in fact it is
endangering our future, taking almost 1.8 million lives a year."
The global burden of TB is
slowly falling, but still two billion people, about one third of the world's
population, are estimated to be infected with the mycobacteria that cause TB.
Most of them develop a latent infection, with about a 10 percent risk of
developing the infectious disease later in life. People with HIV are 20 times
more likely to develop the symptoms once they are infected. Efficient drugs to
treat TB are available, but involve a long and burdensome treatment period of up
to a year. Additionally, worldwide prevalence of various forms of drug-resistant
TB poses an increasing problem and enormous challenges to effective treatment.
With new infections
occurring at a rate of one per second, millions of people develop TB symptoms
every year. In 2007, there were 9.27 million new cases. 500,000 of those were
multi-drug resistant and 50,000 of those were extensively drug resistant
(source: World Health Organization).
Mon Aug 24, 2009 7:45am
EDT
By Tan Ee Lyn
HONG
KONG (Reuters) - A study in
The study tracked nearly
18,000 people in
"We found a two-fold
increase in the risk of active TB in current smokers compared with never-smokers
(those who have never smoked)," wrote the lead author Hsien-Ho Lin, a
postdoctoral research fellow from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
One in three people in the
world is infected with TB but 90 percent of these will remain latent infections.
The remaining 10 percent will develop active TB and fall sick at some point in
their lives because of weak immune systems. For example, many people who are
infected with HIV/AIDS fall sick and die from TB.
Among the 17,699
participants in the
After factoring in
considerations like sex, age, living in a crowded home, household income,
marital status, alcohol use and employment, the researchers still found a higher
risk of active TB among current smokers.
"Based on our
analysis, 17 percent of incident TB cases in this population were attributable
to smoking," they wrote.
Smokers may have reduced
ability to fight intruding viruses and bacteria, such as TB, in their lungs, the
experts wrote.
"When these normal
defense mechanisms are compromised, the development of TB might ensue upon
exposure to the TB pathogen," they wrote in a paper published in the
American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Addressing smoking would
be key in any fight against TB.
"Based on results
from ours and other studies, policymakers and public health personnel should
consider addressing tobacco cessation as part of tuberculosis control," Lin
wrote.
TB is still a leading
cause of death in the world. There were 9.3 million new cases of TB in 2007 and
1.8 million deaths.
The World Health
Organization aims to bring the incidence of TB down to one case per million each
year by 2050.
Dennis Yip, clinical
assistant professor at the
"Previous studies
have been much smaller. This is a
(Editing by Chris Lewis)