scholarly journals Smarter, faster, better vaccines

2015 ◽  
pp. 7-12
Author(s):  
Evin Allen

Since Edward Jenner pioneered modern vaccination in the late 18th century, no other public health intervention has saved as many lives. Vaccines keep us safe and dramatically reduce the mortality and morbidity from many infectious diseases such as measles, diphtheria and influenza. Vaccines are safe, non-viable versions of pathogens (viruses, bacteria) that when administered directs the body into producing an immune response against the pathogen, and it is this that prevents any subsequent infection by the live bacteria or virus. Vaccines are composed of proteins, unlike most medicines that we are prescribed which are chemical molecules produced synthetically by a series of chemical reactions. Chemical molecules are quite small in size and are very stable to the environment; in contrast proteins are large and complex and very unstable. This means that generally we can’t give vaccines as tablets because they would be degraded in the stomach by the same enzymes ...

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah J. Halvorson ◽  
James L. Wescoat Jr.

Drinking water supply and sanitation have had a strong association with military institutions in South Asia from the colonial period to the present. This paper shows how military-state-society relationships created spaces of differential water access and sanitation burdens in mid-19th-century cantonments in ways that involved complex gender relations. In comparison with previous research, we argue that privileged military enclaves were segregated but never fully separated from larger urban water and sanitation systems. We use historical geographic methods to review the evolving role of military sanitation regulations in cantonments from late-18th-century policies of the East India Company (EIC) through mid-19th-century rule by the British Crown, during which time military cantonments, regulations, and formal monitoring reports were established. Close reading of the British Army Medical Department’s Statistical, Sanitary, and Medical Reports (Sanitary Reports) in the 1860s then shows how military-state-society relations diverged from civilian public health programs in ways that persist to some extent to the present day. Health advisors, some of them women, pursued an ideology and tactics to “guard the sons of empire”, from what they perceived to be a disease-filled landscape of “lurking evils”, “choleric attacks”, and “native offensives”. We conclude with a discussion of both continuities and change in the relationships between military and civilian public health reforms beyond the barracks.


2022 ◽  
Vol 163 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-38

Összefoglaló. Bevezetés: Nagyszámú kutatás igazolta, hogy a dohányzás növeli a legjelentősebb krónikus betegségek kockázatát. Habár 2009 óta csökkenő tendenciát mutat Magyarországon a hagyományos dohányzók aránya, az e-cigarettát kipróbálóké az utóbbi években folyamatosan növekszik. Célkitűzés: A 2018-ban a felnőtt lakosság körében végzett Népegészségügyi Felmérés dohányzásra és e-cigaretta-használatra vonatkozó eredményeinek bemutatása az előző vizsgálatok tükrében. Módszer: A kérdőíves felmérésben 1586 fő került személyesen lekérdezésre. Az iteratív súlyozás a többlépcsős mintavételi designhatást és a 2016-os mikrocenzus adatait vette figyelembe. Eredmények: 2018-ban a dohányzók aránya a magyar felnőtt lakosság körében 28,7% (95% MT: 26,3–31,1%), az e-cigarettát használók aránya pedig 1,7% (95% MT: 1,1–2,5%) volt. Az iskolai végzettség a 65 év alattiak esetében a dohányzást befolyásoló tényező volt (EH: 3,32; 95% MT: 2,53–4,34), de a 65 éves és annál idősebb korcsoportban már nem (EH: 1,11; 95% MT: 0,59–2,09). Az e-cigarettát kipróbálók és használók között a leginkább említett (54,3% 95% MT: 44,0–64,5%) motivációs tényezőcsoport a dohányzásról való leszokással, az ártalomcsökkentéssel és a visszaesés megelőzésével volt kapcsolatos. A 65 éves és idősebb korcsoportban a dohányzók aránya 2015-höz képest emelkedett. 2018-ban az alapfokú iskolai végzettségűek körében volt a legmagasabb a dohányzók aránya, míg 2014-ben az érettségivel nem rendelkező középfokú végzettségűek körében. Következtetés: Bár összességében csökkent, az alacsony iskolai végzettségűek és az idősek körében emelkedett a dohányzók aránya Magyarországon. Az e-cigarettát kipróbálók és használók száma növekvő tendenciát mutat hazánkban. Eredményeink az alacsony iskolai végzettségűekre kiemelten fókuszáló, megelőző és leszokást támogató népegészségügyi alprogramokat is tartalmazó komplex beavatkozást sürgetnek. Orv Hetil. 2022; 163(1): 31–38. Summary. Introduction: The body of evidence suggests that smoking increases the risk of the most prevalent chronic diseases. Although the proportion of traditional smokers in Hungary has been on a declining trend since 2009, the proportion of those who tried e-cigarette has been steadily increasing in recent years. Objective: To present – in the light of previous studies – the results of the Public Health Survey among adults in 2018 on smoking and e-cigarette use. Method: 1586 persons were personally interviewed in a survey. The iterative weighting algorithm considered both the design effect of multistaged sampling and the 2016 Hungarian microcensus. Results: In 2018, the proportion of smokers in the Hungarian adult population was 28.7% (95% CI 26.3–31.1%), and the proportion of e-cigarette users was 1.7% (95% CI 1.1–2.5%). Educational level was a predictor of smoking among respondents younger than 65 years old (OR 3.32; 95% CI 2.53–4.34), but not for those aged 65 years or older (OR 1.11; 95% CI 0.59–2.09). Among e-cigarette ever or current users, the most commonly mentioned (54.3% 95% CI 44.0–64.5%) motivational factor-group to try or use e-cigarettes included motivations to quit smoking, to reduce harm, and to avoid relapsing. In the population aged 65 years old or older, the proportion of smokers increased compared to 2015. The proportion of smokers was the highest among those with primary education in 2018, while in 2014, it was the highest among those with secondary education without a graduation certificate. Conclusion: In Hungary, although overall smoking rates are declining, the smoking rate in the low educational group and among the elderly increased. The number of people trying or using e-cigarettes is showing an increasing trend in our country. Our results call for a complex public health intervention program including prevention and smoking cessation supporting subprograms with high focus on those with primary education. Orv Hetil. 2022; 163(1): 31–38.


Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 1350
Author(s):  
Mariana Rivera-Patron ◽  
María Moreno ◽  
Mariana Baz ◽  
Paulo M. Roehe ◽  
Samuel P. Cibulski ◽  
...  

Vaccination is the most effective public health intervention to prevent influenza infections, which are responsible for an important burden of respiratory illnesses and deaths each year. Currently, licensed influenza vaccines are mostly split inactivated, although in order to achieve higher efficacy rates, some influenza vaccines contain adjuvants. Although split-inactivated vaccines induce mostly humoral responses, tailoring mucosal and cellular immune responses is crucial for preventing influenza infections. Quillaja brasiliensis saponin-based adjuvants, including ISCOM-like nanoparticles formulated with the QB-90 saponin fraction (IQB90), have been studied in preclinical models for more than a decade and have been demonstrated to induce strong humoral and cellular immune responses towards several viral antigens. Herein, we demonstrate that a split-inactivated IQB90 adjuvanted influenza vaccine triggered a protective immune response, stronger than that induced by a commercial unadjuvanted vaccine, when applied either by the subcutaneous or the intranasal route. Moreover, we reveal that this novel adjuvant confers up to a ten-fold dose-sparing effect, which could be crucial for pandemic preparedness. Last but not least, we assessed the role of caspase-1/11 in the generation of the immune response triggered by the IQB90 adjuvanted influenza vaccine in a mouse model and found that the cellular-mediated immune response triggered by the IQB90-Flu relies, at least in part, on a mechanism involving the casp-1/11 pathway but not the humoral response elicited by this formulation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 47-49
Author(s):  
Joud M. Kossai Enabi ◽  
Abdulmohsen A. Alhumayn ◽  
Hisham Alomari ◽  
Yousef Ibrahim S. Alawad ◽  
Sharafaldeen Bin Nafisah

Drug overdose is a common presentation in emergency departments, and overdose of cardioselective agents warrants special attention, given its association with high mortality and morbidity. This study reports a case of cardioselective overdose with suicidal intent. We shed light on the accessibility in Saudi Arabia of these life-threatening drugs, and explore the nature of public health intervention to reduce to reduce the risk of misuse.    


2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 381-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Walmsley

Heroin withdrawal is perhaps one of the most taken-for-granted components of the addiction framework. Heroin users as well as researchers, policy makers, and practitioners have become dependent on it for thinking about and acting upon the process of heroin leaving the body. It is thought to be among the most challenging aspects of the recovery journey and has been linked to a range of public health, legal, and social problems. The taken-for-granted nature of heroin withdrawal has arguably limited its scrutiny in sociological and historical analyses. This article offers an alternative and critical perspective that draws attention to the heterogeneity of historical events and strategies that have left their mark on the withdrawing body of the heroin user. It maps changes in the discourse from the 18th century to the present and closes with developments in the neuroscience of addiction, which have relocated withdrawal from the body to the neurocircuitry of the brain and reframed it as a negative emotional state. This new language suggests the future of the discourse of withdrawal might be relatively short. The analysis moves beyond existing understandings of withdrawal as the simple absence of drugs from the body.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-26
Author(s):  
Putri Andanawarih ◽  
Miftachul Jannah

Supporting and maintaining surveillance of immunization programs and provision of Vitamin A in Indonesia is one of the efforts in reducing MMR and IMR. Immunization is one of the most effective public health interventions in preventing morbidity and mortality. Vitamin A is one of the important nutrients that is fat soluble and stored in the liver, cannot be produced by the body, so it must be fulfilled from the outside (essential), functioning to vision, growth and increase the body's resistance to disease. Vitamin A is useful for reducing mortality and morbidity, because of that vitamin A can increase the body's resistance to infectious diseases such as measles, diarrhea, and Acute Respiration Infection (ISPA). Other consequences that have a very serious impact from Vitamin A Deficiency (KVA) are night blindness and other manifestations of xeropthalmia including corneal damage and blindness. The team conducted community service under the title "Counseling about Basic Immunization, Vitamin A and Growth in Infants and Toddlers in the Jenggot Public Health Center-Pekalongan ". The methods of counseling basic immunization programs for infants and toddlers, providing vitamin A and monitoring the growth and development of children. The results of the evaluation of activities on the post test results were 35% on knowledge about immunization and 48% on knowledge of vitamin A.


Author(s):  
Tim Newburn

‘Introducing criminology’ explains that according to American criminologist, Edwin Sutherland, criminology is the body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon including within its scope the process of making and breaking laws, and reacting to the breaking of laws. Criminology dates back to the late 18th century when small groups of people developed an interest in explaining crime alongside their main occupations such as running asylums or collecting statistics on prisons or court proceedings. There was no form of collective enterprise until the end of the 19th century. During the 20th century, ‘criminology’ gradually formed and solidified. Its constitutive disciplines include sociology, history, psychology, law, and statistics.


2001 ◽  
Vol 75 (23) ◽  
pp. 11474-11482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhongkai Shi ◽  
Mingtao Zeng ◽  
Guang Yang ◽  
Felix Siegel ◽  
Laura J. Cain ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The effectiveness of vaccination programs would be enhanced greatly through the availability of vaccines that can be administered simply and, preferably, painlessly without the need for timed booster injections. Tetanus is a prime example of a disease that is readily preventable by vaccination but remains a major threat to public health due to the problems associated with administration of the present vaccine. Here we show that a protective immune response against liveClostridium tetani infection in mice can be elicited by an adenovirus vector encoding the tetanus toxin C fragment when administered as a nasal or epicutaneous vaccine. The results suggest that these vaccination modalities would be effective needle-free alternatives. This is the first demonstration that absorption of a small number of vectored vaccines into the skin following topical application of a patch can provide protection against live bacteria in a disease setting.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
G. Terry Sharrer

Millennia separate smallpox, the oldest pandemic, and COVID-19, the newest. Both calamities arose from an opportunistic virus amid human crowding. A vaccine for smallpox existed since the late 18th century, but it took worldwide public health strategy to eradicate it. COVID-19 proceeds against a hive of scientific collaboration, but succeeds, so far, from weak containment policies. COVID-19 was first identified in China, but it rose to become the American pandemic.


2014 ◽  
Vol 84 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. 52-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherry A. Tanumihardjo ◽  
Anura V. Kurpad ◽  
Janet R. Hunt

The current use of serum retinol concentrations as a measurement of subclinical vitamin A deficiency is unsatisfactory for many reasons. The best technique available for vitamin A status assessment in humans is the measurement of total body pool size. Pool size is measured by the administration of retinol labelled with stable isotopes of carbon or hydrogen that are safe for human subjects, with subsequent measurement of the dilution of the labelled retinol within the body pool. However, the isotope techniques are time-consuming, technically challenging, and relatively expensive. There is also a need to assess different types of tracers and doses, and to establish clear guidelines for the use and interpretation of this method in different populations. Field-friendly improvements are desirable to encourage the application of this technique in developing countries where the need is greatest for monitoring the risk of vitamin A deficiency, the effectiveness of public health interventions, and the potential of hypervitaminosis due to combined supplement and fortification programs. These techniques should be applied to validate other less technical methods of assessing vitamin A deficiency. Another area of public health relevance for this technique is to understand the bioconversion of β-carotene to vitamin A, and its relation to existing vitamin A status, for future dietary diversification programs.


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