Fox: Nearly Half of Americans Think Flu Shot Can Make You Sick

Colorized transmission electron micrograph of
Avian influenza A H5N1 viruses (seen in gold)
Image from Cynthia Goldsmith at the CDC

Is it just me or does there need to be a "[sic]" in the title of today's post? I'm pretty sure it should read "...Think the Flu Shot..." but either way, today's article comes from Fox News. It shares the findings of a study published earlier this week in the journal Vaccine about how sharing information with patients affects their willingness to get their annual flu shot.

According to Fox, researchers found that 40% of adult Americans believe that the flu vaccine can give you the flu, and that explaining to patients that this is a myth is not as effective as researchers expected it to be. The researchers polled 1,000 people about their perception of the dangers of flu shots, then they gave some people information about flu shots, some information about the flu, or no new information (control). In addition to the finding regarding belief that the flu shot could give you the flu, they found that the participants who had initially believed the flu shot to be the most dangerous were actually more convinced of their position after reading the information about the flu shot's safety. The flu kills many people every year, and the annual vaccine is the best protection we've been able to develop. So then the question is, what should a health care professional say to some one who is worried about the safety of the flu shot?

Science World Report: New, Promising Compound Eliminates Malaria Parasites in Only Two Days

Malaria parasites infecting a red blood cell. Image from CDC.

Today's article comes from Science World Report; it's about the findings of a research paper just published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences regarding a potential new drug for the treatment of malaria. They found that treating the malaria parasites with a compound named (+)-SJ733 caused the parasites to be unable to hide from the infected host's immune system. This resulted in rapid recovery from infection.

According to the news article, the new potential drug allows the immune system to clear 80% of the parasites from the body in 24 hours, and all of them by 48 hours from the beginning of treatment. Given these promising results researchers are working to begin safety trials in humans and are hoping that within the next few years this drug will prove safe, effective, and relatively inexpensive. If so this will be a big advance for the treatment of malaria, which is currently problematic due to the high rate of dangerous side-effects and the evolution of drug resistant strains of malaria.

USA Today: 5 Facts about HIV on World AIDS Day.

Red Ribbon for AIDS Awareness

Today is not just Cyber Monday, today is also World AIDS day. A day for awareness of the continuing threat the disease poses to people all around the world. Today's article, from USA Today, is one of many that has come out today to help remind and educate people about HIV and AIDS.

The five facts today's article shares are that 34 million people world wide are HIV positive--with 1.2 million of those living in the US, 70% of new HIV cases occur in Sub-Saharan Africa, the rate of new infections in the US is down to about 50,000 per year from a height of 130,000 per year in the 1980s, advances in anti-retroviral treatments means that many people can live relatively normal lives after an HIV diagnoses even though there is still no cure, and though the death rate due to AIDS has dropped overall teens are still dying of AIDS at the same rate they were in 2005.

For my contribution to spreading awareness and understanding about AIDS, I would like to look into that last fact in more detail. What has research shown to be the cause of the consistent high death rate of HIV+ teens in spite of the dropping death rate overall?

Nature News: HIV Vaccine Raised Infection Risk

Or, What Several Failed HIV Vaccine Studies Can Teach Us about the Risks of the Planned Phase III Ebola Vaccine Study.

 

HIV infecting a human T cell. From NIH via Wikimedia commons

Last week I wanted to start an informed discussion about the complications involved in the plan to begin phase 3 trials of at least two Ebola vaccines in response to the current pandemic in west Africa. Particularly regarding the study design, should a control group (who receives inactive placebo shots) be included, or not? As part of my attempt to explain the considerations I mentioned the story of the failed HIV vaccine trials, but I did not go into any detail, as the post was about Ebola and not HIV. I have decided that was a mistake. So today I will tell you about the HIV vaccine trials, as understanding what went wrong has the potential to teach us a lot about how to go forward with both new HIV vaccines and the Ebola vaccine trials scheduled to start early 2015. The news article we are starting with comes from the news desk of the scientific journal Nature, as Nature is edited by scientists for scientists I'm confident in the quality of it's science journalism, this post will focus on breaking down the story they've told.

Medpage Today: Enterovirus infection linked to type 1 diabetes in children?

An insulin pump. Image from Wikimedia Commons

Today's article, published in Medpage Today, is from a few days ago; it is about a paper just published in Diabetologia that shows a possible link between Enteroviruses and type 1 diabetes. Enterovirus has been in the news lately because the US has been suffering an outbreak of EV-D68 since August, putting many children in the hospital. Seven children have died. EV-D68 a nasty virus, a distant cousin of Polio, that causes a respiratory infection with coughing, wheezing, and fever in children. In rare cases the infection causes paralysis, much like Polio. EV-D68, Polio, and Coxsackie A virus, which causes Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease, are all specific types of Enteroviruses. Does this new research show that in addition to respiratory disease and possible paralysis that this viruses cause diabetes?

NY times: Testing for Ebola Vaccines to Start Soon, W.H.O. Says

Ebola virus. Image from Thomas W. Geisbert via WikiMedia Commons

Everyone is very worried about Ebola right now, so it seems like a good choice of topic. The news story I'm going to talk about is from today's NY Times, Testing for Ebola Vaccines to Start Soon, W.H.O. Says.