CDC data shows 9% vaccine effectiveness for influenza A, virus H3N2 flu shot last year

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While governments, international bodies and the public health community scramble to arrest the COVID-19 virus, now a pandemic, and with states of emergency declared nationwide and in Massachusetts, medical experts are still trying to come up with vaccines that can do a better job against various strains of influenza that have sickened and killed people for many decades.

The experts say the effectiveness rate of flu shots should be at least 90% successful.

But data collected for nearly two decades by the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention show effectiveness rates often hovers between 40 and 50%.

Data from the 2018-2019 flu season, the most recent set of complete information, first published in June, indicated that a flu shot to prevent influenza A, the H3N2 strain, was only 9% effective in preventing onset of the flu, among all age groups.

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Sanaria will use robots to mass produce a promising new malaria vaccine

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SporoBot would increase the speed of production 20 – 30 times over.

What if you had developed a vaccine for malaria that, in early trials, was 100% effective. But you couldn’t get the funding you needed to produce enough of the vaccine to market it because of political wrangling over the budget. What would you do? (Video)

 

 

 

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A universal flu vaccine may be possible in five years

Nobody enjoys getting the flu.

Almost everyone has had to deal with the flu sometime in their lives. Flu viruses are almost impossible to avoid, since the shape-shifting little bugger is always changing its form and creating new strains each year. Yet researchers at the Imperial College London say they have made a “blueprint” for a universally effective flu vaccination that will be effective in treating any new strains that come along.

 

 

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A nanotechnology fix for nicotine dependence

The research effort will attempt to design a vaccine conferring immunity to nicotine, using nanotechnology.

At Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute, Yung Chang and her colleagues have launched an ambitious new project designed to attack nicotine dependence in a radically new way.

 

 

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A Step Closer to a Universal Flu Shot That Protects for Life

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Antibodies developed in patients who had the H1N1 pandemic flu strain that protect against a variety of flu strains.

The swine flu outbreak that swept across the globe claiming over 14,000 lives could provide scientists with a vital clue to creating a universal vaccine, a study claims. Researchers have found several patients infected with the 2009 H1N1 pandemic flu strain have developed antibodies that are protective against a variety of flu strains.

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Scientists Develop First Successful Cocaine Vaccine

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Researchers develop cocaine vaccine that works in mice.

The first ever vaccine for drug addiction has just been created. By combining a cocaine-like molecule with part of the common cold virus, you get a vaccine that turns the immune system against cocaine, keeping it away from the brain.

 

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Genetic Secret to AIDS Immunity Discovered

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HLA molecule helps determine whether someone will be able to fight off HIV.

As long as HIV and AIDS have existed, there has been a small minority who have contracted the virus, but not the disease. Their bodies are somehow able to control HIV, making them less contagious and immune to AIDS symptoms, sometimes forever. A new genomic study of nearly 1,000 of these people, known as “HIV controllers,” has found the genetic reason behind this.

 

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Breast Cancer Vaccine Trials to Start on Women Within One Year

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Breast cancer vaccine successful in mice, trials to start on humans in just a year.

American scientists say they have developed a vaccine which has prevented breast cancer from developing in mice.  The researchers – whose findings are published in the journal, Nature Medicine – are now planning to conduct trials of the drug in humans.

 

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Scientists Believe They Have Found A Cure For Skin Cancer

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A cure for skin cancer?

A vaccine being tested in the UK has helped been shown to help some patients fully recover from melanoma, even in its advanced stages.  It attacks tumour cells, leaving healthy cells undamaged and carries agents that boost the body’s response to skin cancer.

 

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Man Saves 2 Million Babies Donating Rare Type Of Blood

James Harrison

Thank you Mr. baby saver!

An Australian man who has been donating his extremely rare kind of blood for 56 years has saved the lives of more than two million babies.

James Harrison, 74, has an antibody in his plasma that stops babies dying from Rhesus disease, a form of severe anaemia.

He has enabled countless mothers to give birth to healthy babies, including his own daughter, Tracey, who had a healthy son thanks to her father’s blood.

Mr Harrison has been giving blood every few weeks since he was 18 years old and has now racked up a total of 984 donations.

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