Vaccine

A new study showing an estimated 7% of American teens and adults carry the human papillomavirus in their mouths may help health experts finally understand why rates of mouth and throat cancer have been climbing for nearly 25 years. The evidence makes it clear that oral sex practices play a key role in transmission. The new data, published online Thursday by the Journal of the American Medical Assn., are the first to assess the prevalence of oral HPV infection in the U.S. population.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A Pakistani doctor who led a phony vaccination campaign aimed at helping the CIA pinpoint Osama bin Laden's whereabouts was convicted of treason Wednesday and sentenced to 33 years in prison, a decision that is likely to further fray Washington's fragile relations with Islamabad. U.S. officials have been seeking the release of Shakeel Afridi since his arrest by Pakistani authorities after the secret American commando raid that killed the Al Qaeda leader in his sprawling compound in the garrison city of Abbottabad a year ago. In January, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta told CBS' "60 Minutes" that Afridi had provided intelligence that assisted the raid and criticized Pakistan's arrest of someone involved in helping track down the world's most wanted man. From the start, however, Pakistani authorities have regarded Afridi as a traitor and have ignored Washington's calls for his release.

Shingles is typically thought of as a once-in-a-lifetime (miserable) experience. But wait! Shingles can recur, even among healthy adults. The illness is caused by the herpes zoster virus. While researchers have known that people with weak immune systems due to other illnesses can develop shingles a second time, healthy people were thought to be one-time-only victims. The illness causes a burning or tingling sensation in the skin in one area of the body followed by blisters that last a few weeks.

States that require vaccination for pertussis, meningitis and tetanus for admission to middle school have a higher vaccination rate than states that do not, but the rate is not nearly as high as one might expect from such a requirement, researchers reported Monday. States that required only that educational materials be sent home for those vaccines and the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine showed no improvement in vaccination rates. Vaccines for tetanus and pertussis are typically given during childhood, but the effects can diminish over time and a booster shot is recommended in early adolescence.

'Frontline: The Vaccine War' Where: KCET When: 9 p.m. Tuesday Rating: TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children)

My aunt Marion is in the hospital dying of liver and kidney failure, the result of her 20-year struggle with heroin use. I was told of her imminent death the same day news broke about a vaccine against the drug. "Breakthrough heroin vaccine could render drug 'useless' in addicts," one headline read. "Scientists create vaccine against heroin high," proclaimed another. Meanwhile, my aunt finds temporary relief in the ever more frequent administration of opiate pain medication - the very kind of drugs she used illegally.

As concern spreads about H1N1 flu, a new survey of California voters found that while most consider the vaccine safe, a majority had no plans to get vaccinated. The poll also found that blacks and Latinos are far more likely than other groups to say they believe the vaccine could be unsafe. Only 5% of those surveyed said they already had been inoculated, a figure that remained consistent across income groups. Of the rest, 52% said they did not plan to get vaccinated. Among the 40% who said they wanted the vaccine, 12% said they already had attempted to find it but failed.

A vaccine that protects against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus should be routinely given to boys ages 11 and 12 to prevent anal cancer, a government advisory committee has decided. Though many parents may not wish to contemplate the future sex lives of their pre-adolescent children, vaccinating them young is the best way to avoid the risk of the cancer-causing virus, experts said Tuesday. The recommendation is sure to ignite further debate among the Republican presidential candidates who have focused intently on whether the controversial vaccine, called Gardasil, is appropriate for girls — who receive it for prevention of cervical cancer — let alone for boys.

As the United States gears up for one of the largest vaccination programs ever conducted, the broad outlines of the campaign to vaccinate nearly 100 million Americans against pandemic H1N1 influenza virus by Christmas are beginning to fall into place. Many key questions remain, however, including precisely when the vaccines will become available and exactly where the public will be able to get shots. The situation is further complicated by the need to vaccinate about the same number of people against seasonal flu during roughly the same period.

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved a new pneumococcal vaccine that protects against more strains of bacteria than the existing one and is expected to produce a sharp reduction in the number of cases of bacterial pneumonia and ear infections in children and adolescents. The existing vaccine, called Prevnar, protects against the seven main strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae , which not only produce pneumonia but also can invade the blood, middle ear and the covering of the brain and spinal cord.

My aunt Marion is in the hospital dying of liver and kidney failure, the result of her 20-year struggle with heroin use. I was told of her imminent death the same day news broke about a vaccine against the drug. "Breakthrough heroin vaccine could render drug 'useless' in addicts," one headline read. "Scientists create vaccine against heroin high," proclaimed another. Meanwhile, my aunt finds temporary relief in the ever more frequent administration of opiate pain medication - the very kind of drugs she used illegally.

Dr. Leila Daughtry Denmark, a Georgia pediatrician who was the country's oldest known practicing physician when she retired at 103, died Sunday at her daughter's home in Athens, Ga., her family announced. She was 114. Denmark was the world's fourth-oldest person when she died, according to the Gerontology Research Group, which verifies claims of extreme old age. The third of 12 children, she was born Feb. 1, 1898, in eastern Georgia and grew up on a farm learning to tend to plants and wanting to heal animals, she later said.

It's the latest start for a flu season in 29 years, and thus far, severe cases have been few. But that doesn't necessarily mean Americans have dodged any seasonal illness bullets. Influenza is just beginning to gain a foothold around the country.  "The flu season has officially begun," Dr. Joseph Bresee told reporters Friday morning during a briefing at the agency's headquarters in Atlanta. Infections have reached all 50 states, said Bresee, who is chief of the epidemiology prevention branch at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control's influenza division.

Exposure to perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs, a class of chemical used in food packaging and textiles, was associated with a lowered immune response to the tetanus and diphtheria vaccines in 5- to 7-year-olds in the Faroe Islands, researchers reported Tuesday in the journal JAMA. The scientists followed close to 600 children from the islands, which are in the Norwegian Sea north of Scotland and are a self-governing part of the Kingdom of Denmark, because people there eat a lot of seafood.  A marine-based diet is associated with increased exposures to PFCs, according to background information in the JAMA report.

International aid groups say they're under siege in Pakistan, demonized by hard-line Islamists, viewed as spies by suspicious Pakistanis and, now, increasingly sidelined by the government. The groups report that in the last year, they began to feel unwanted in the country, and in some cases persecuted. Nongovernmental organization visa requests languished or were outright rejected. New travel restrictions hampered aid workers' movement. Some workers were arrested and harassed. Western aid officials believe that the Pakistani government's suspicions about the groups rose dramatically last year after the U.S. commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May in the military city of Abbottabad.

Some girls may be more likely to overestimate the protection they receive from the HPV vaccine, new research shows. Human papillomaviris, the most common sexually transmitted infection, can infect the genital areas of men and women, cause genital warts and raise the risk of cervical cancer. The new study, published this week by the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, looked at the perception of HPV risk among a population of 339 girls between age 13 and 21. At an average age of 16.8 years, 57.5% of these girls were sexually experienced, and most of them reported "continued need" to practice safe sex. However, a good 23.6% appeared to believe mistakenly that their risk of other sexually transmitted diseases was also lower -- even though the HPV vaccine does not protect against the rest of the pantheon of such diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, gonorrhea and syphilis.

Virtually all communities in California now have an abundance of H1N1 vaccine, the state health officer said Thursday. Dr. Mark Horton said in a conference call that California has received about 15 million doses of the vaccine, approximately two-thirds of the supply the state is expected to get of the H1N1 vaccine this season. Almost all jurisdictions are reporting that they have enough vaccine to inoculate the general public, instead of just the priority groups most at risk for H1N1, also known as the swine flu. Numerous production delays last year affected communities nationwide, leading to long lines and complaints of poorly run vaccination clinics until supply caught up with demand.

Vaccinating children who are more than a year old against varicella, or chicken pox, also provides "tremendous indirect benefits" to young babies, researchers reported Monday in the journal Pediatrics. The U.S. implemented a variella vaccine program in 1995, offering the vaccine to children 12 months and older.  But younger babies who aren't old enough to get the vaccine are protected through so-called "herd immunity" -- because fewer older kids develop chicken pox, the younger children are less likely to be exposed to the virus.

Finding a vaccine to stop herpes has been frustrating for researchers. The family of herpes viruses inflict suffering on millions of people. Herpes simplex virus type 1 is generally linked to fever blisters and genital herpes and type 2 causes genital sores. A study published Wednesday shows progress toward a vaccine but hardly perfection. Researchers evaluated 8,323 women ages 18 to 30 who were not infected with either virus. Almost 3,800 of the study participants received an experimental vaccine known as glycoprotein D. Previous studies suggested the vaccine could be effective against herpes type 2. But after 20 months of follow-up, the new study found the vaccine was partially effective in preventing herpes type 1 (after two or three doses)

Vaccination against human papilloma virus was recommended for U.S. girls almost five years ago. In October, a government advisory committee also recommended routine vaccination for boys ages 11 and 12.   But vaccinating girls only makes the most sense, researchers said Tuesday. Using mathematical models, researchers in the Netherlands found vaccinating girls is the best way to reduce heterosexual transmission because girls have the highest prevalence of the virus. Immunizing the group with the highest prevalence achieves the largest population-wide reduction of the virus.