Most parents want to protect their children from the variety of illnesses and experiences that can occur in the early years of life. Explores some of the biggest issues in children’s health in this Nature Outlook that I edited. Read more in Nature.
vaccines
Kids Should Get the Flu Shot This Season
With the potential for a big outbreak of flu this winter, it is more important than ever to make sure that children get the flu vaccine as soon as possible, according to flu trackers. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends everyone over the age of 6 months get an annual flu shot, ideally by the […]
Flu Shot Highly Recommended This Year
With the Delta variant of COVID-19 still raging in the United States and intensive care units in parts of the country filled with patients with the coronavirus, experts are voicing concern about the added risk of a difficult flu season. Two mathematical models are predicting a big rebound in the number and severity of flu […]
No Flu Season Will Affect Next Year’s Vaccine Prep
Experts predicted that the 2019/20 flu season in the Northern Hemisphere would be a bad one. And then it wasn’t. The COVID-19 pandemic hit, international travel ground to a halt, physical distancing and mask wearing became more common, and the flu went away. Read more in Medscape.
Why Don’t We Have a Hepatitis C Vaccine Yet?
The research that won this year’s Nobel Prize in medicine has saved millions of lives, but it has not yet led to a vaccine. This year, the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine went to three scientists for their discovery of the hepatitis C virus, a significant global health problem that causes cirrhosis and liver […]
How plants and insects inherit immunity from their parents
Passing on short-term immunity to offspring is common in vertebrates, but plants and invertebrates take transgenerational immunity much further. An organism’s immune response to attack is usually considered to be a personal battle. A pathogen or parasite attacks, the organism mounts a defence, and one of them wins. But sometimes, the target’s relatives get involved. […]
Zika vaccine development: two years on from the outbreak
Two years after the World Health Organization declared the Zika virus outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, researchers have made good progress in developing vaccines against the disease, with some candidates now in Phase II trials. However, the brief nature of the outbreak is making wide-scale testing of the new vaccines difficult and some […]
Rhinovirus vaccine development is about more than fighting colds
Rhinovirus, the pathogen behind the common cold, can cause severe, acute lung disease in children and those with underlying respiratory conditions. Since the 1970s, vaccine development has been hindered by the presence of numerous virus serotypes and the lack of a good animal model to test vaccine candidates. However, several different research groups are now […]