Estimating Severity Of A Flu Epidemic
In this week's PLoS Medicine, Joseph Wu of the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong and colleagues report that using serological data coupled with clinical surveillance data can provide real-time estimates of the infection attack rates and severity in an emerging influenza pandemic. The authors say, "[Serological surveillance] strategies would be useful not only for situational awareness of influenza pandemics but also for pandemics caused by other pathogens, for example a future SARS-like event.
MVA-B Spanish HIV Vaccine Shows 90 Percent Immune Response In Humans
Phase I clinical trials developed by Spanish Superior Scientific Research Council (CSIC) together with Gregorio Maranon Hospital in Madrid and Clinic Hospital in Barcelona, reveals MVA-B preventive vaccine's immune efficiency against Human's immunodeficiency virus ( HIV ). 90% of the volunteers who went through the tests developed an immunological response against the virus and 85% has kept this response for at least one year. Safety and efficiency of this treatment have been described in articles for Vaccine and Journal of Virology science magazines.
Looking At The Economics Of HIV
The Copenhagen Consensus Center and the Rush Foundation sponsored a panel of experts, who presented their findings Yesterday (Wednesday) in Washington to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Top world experts put their heads together to take a new look at the HIV / AIDS problem to see if there are better ways to allocate funds. The "RethinkHIV" project includes three Nobel Laureates. Dr. Bjorn Lomborg, director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center clarified : "It's essentially a project to try to say, let's spend money on HIV in the smartest possible way.