A flurry of imported measles cases has kindled outbreaks in 15 states and two cities that together have given the USA its largest case toll in a decade, health officials said Monday. Since January, doctors have reported 132 measles cases, just shy of the 138 reached in 1997, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. So far, no child has died. Most cases have occurred in children whose parents decided against having them vaccinated. Twenty children less than a year old were too young to be vaccinated.

V NarayanaMurthi | ENS Vellore THE experimental trials conducted in Vellore district on the new vaccine evolved by the Tamilnadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (TANUVAS), to combat the deadly anthrax, have proved to be successful, according to its vice-chancellor Dr P Thangaraju. He was here on Wednesday to visit the Veterinary University and Training Center, functioning since 1981 for the benefit of livestock and poultry.

Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have identified a potential new weapon against avian flu. Researchers have immunized experimental animals against various strains of the virus by delivering vaccine via DNA constructed to build antigens against flu, along with a minute electric pulse. Such an approach could allow for the build up of vaccine reserves that could be easily and effectively dispensed in case of an epidemic.

Regulatory Complexity, Laxity And Incompetence Are Posing Serious Threat To Nature, Limiting R&D

GlaxoSmithKline, the UK-based pharmaceutical company, is unlikely to receive US approval for its key cervical cancer vaccine until 2010 at the earliest, under a new timetable it released on Monday. After requests for fresh information on Cervarix from the Food & Drug Administration in December, GSK said it had decided to await completion of a pivotal clinical trial to be filed with the US regulator during the first half of next year.

The Centre for People's Empowerment and Equality (CPEE) at a meeting of its executive committee here on Sunday expressed concern over rising number of polio cases in the country, particularly in Sindh, as 11 confirmed cases were reported in the first half of the year. The meeting of the CPEE held with its chairperson Nasreen Shakeel Pathan in the chair discussed detection of fresh polio cases and observed that the country was most likely to miss the target of being polio free status.

Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Ltd (GBL), a biotech company in Pune and a subsidiary of Emcure Pharmaceuticals Ltd has tied up with PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) for a dedicated malaria vaccine manufacturing facility at Hinjewadi. Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar will inaugurate the malaria vaccine manufacturing facility and oncology plant on Saturday.

The Sindh health department is expected to place the issue of vulnerability of children beyond five years to polio in a meeting of international experts on polio eradication scheduled to be held in the city on June 24 and 25. Sources in the health department said that prior to the emergence of cases of polio among children above five years of age, the authorities had no clue to the pattern of the disease in this age group, and now they were considering raising the age-limit for polio vaccination from five to 10 years, to provide protection to children in this age bracket as well.

M. Dinesh Varma Findings may help to include it in immunisation drive across the world Rotavirus common cause of severe diarrhoea Nearly 6 lakh die worldwide every year CHENNAI: The soon-to-be-released findings of a final-phase efficacy study on a vaccine against rotavirus, one of the commonest causes of enteric infection in children, could pave the way for its inclusion in immunisation programmes worldwide, paediatric infectious disease expert Miguel Luis O'Ryan said on Thursday.