Vaccine
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Racial disparities in adult flu vaccination rates persist with African Americans falling below Whites in vaccine acceptance. Although the literature has examined traditional variables including barriers, access, attitudes, among others, there has been virtually no examination of the extent to which racial factors including racial consciousness, fairness, and discrimination may affect vaccine attitudes and behaviors. ⋯ Racial factors can be a useful new tool for understanding and addressing attitudes toward the flu vaccine and actual vaccine behavior. These new concepts can facilitate more effective tailored and targeted vaccine communications.
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The development of next generation sequencing technologies has revolutionized our understanding of how specific genetic events contribute to cancer initiation and progression. Dramatic improvements in instrument design and efficiency, combined with significant cost reductions has permitted a systematic analysis of the mutational landscape in a variety of cancer types. ⋯ Recent studies in both preclinical models and human cancer patients demonstrate that neoantigens (1) are important targets following checkpoint inhibition therapy, (2) have been identified as the target of adoptive T cell therapies, and (3) can be successfully targeted with personalized vaccines. Taken together, these observations provide strong rationale for the clinical translation of personalized cancer vaccines.
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(1) To conduct a systematic analysis of inequalities in childhood vaccination coverage in Gavi-supported countries; (2) to comparatively assess alternative measurement approaches and how they may affect cross-country comparisons of the level of inequalities. ⋯ Inequalities in vaccination coverage persist in a large majority of Gavi-supported countries. Inequalities should be monitored across multiple dimensions of vulnerability. Using whole spectrum measures to quantify inequality across multiple ordered social groups has important advantages. We illustrate these findings using an equity dashboard designed to support decision-making in the Sustainable Development Goals period.
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Review
Could the RTS,S/AS01 meningitis safety signal really be a protective effect of rabies vaccine?
The RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine has been associated with meningitis and cerebral malaria safety signals. Key characteristics of the meningitis signal include presence, in the 5-17month but not the 6-12week age group, of delayed and variable meningitis onset after vaccination, and multiple etiologies. For both meningitis and cerebral malaria, the 5-17month old age group control arm had abnormally low incidences while other arms in both age groups had meningitis and cerebral malaria incidences similar to background rates. ⋯ Unlike the 6-12week group, the control population in the 5-17month old age group received rabies vaccine. This raises the possibility that non-specific rabies vaccine effects had a protective effect against central nervous system infection, a hypothesis consistent with the epidemiologic data. The lack of a confirmed biologic mechanism for such an effect emphasizes the need for additional studies.
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Human respiratory syncytial virus (hRSV) is a major health burden worldwide, causing the majority of hospitalizations in children under two years old due to bronchiolitis and pneumonia. HRSV causes year-to-year outbreaks of disease, which also affects the elderly and immunocompromised adults. Furthermore, both hRSV morbidity and epidemics are explained by a consistently high rate of re-infections that take place throughout the patient life. ⋯ Compared to unimmunized infected controls, vaccinated mice displayed reduced weight loss and less infiltration of neutrophils within the airways, as well as reduced viral loads in bronchoalveolar lavages, parameters that are characteristic of hRSV infection in mice. Also, ex vivo re-stimulation of splenic T cells at 28days post-immunization activated a repertoire of T cells secreting IFN-γ and IL-17, which further suggest that the rBCG-N-hRSV vaccine induced a mixed, CD8+ and CD4+ T cell response capable of both restraining viral spread and preventing damage of the lungs. All these features support the notion that rBCG-N-hRSV is a promising candidate vaccine to be used in humans to prevent the disease caused by hRSV in the susceptible population.