The search for a vaccination against HIV has been in progress since 1984, with very little success. Traditional methods used for identifying potential cellular targets can be very costly and time-consuming. The key to creating a vaccination lies in knowing which parts of the pathogen to target with which antibodies.

Among patients hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia, those who had previously received the pneumococcal vaccine had a lower risk of death and admission to the intensive care unit than patients who were not vaccinated, according to a report in the Oct. 8 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Flu vaccine delivered through painless microneedles in patches applied to the skin could soon be an alternative to delivery through hypodermic needles, according to researchers at Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

The routine vaccination of children against Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) - the first adolescent vaccine against a sexually transmitted infection - will be discussed at the National Cancer Research Institute conference in Birmingham today (1515hrs, Tuesday 2 October).

The Ohio departments of Health (ODH) and Natural Resources, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Wildlife Services program, will begin their fall oral rabies vaccination operation Aug. 31 in 14 northeast and eastern Ohio counties.

Though the overall incidence of head and neck cancers has fallen in the United States, the rate of oropharyngeal cancers(chiefly, tonsil and base of tongue) is stagnant and appears to be rising is certain populations and these trends are likely due to oncogenic human papillomavirus (HPV) infection.

On 10th of August, the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) announced the first human death from West Nile virus (WNV) of the 2007 season. The deceased was an Ottawa County man over age 65. He had experienced symptoms of neurologic disease, the most severe form of West Nile virus infection.

Due to limited federal and state funding for vaccines, underinsured children in the United States are increasingly at risk for not getting needed vaccines, according to a new study published August 8 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

HIV-infected children may require repeat measles vaccination for protection, according to new research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and other institutions. The researchers found that only half of the HIV-infected children who survived without antiretroviral therapy maintained protective antibody levels 27 months after receiving measles vaccine.

In this week's BMJ, a senior doctor advises caution over the use of the antiviral drug oseltamivir (Tamiflu).

Vical Incorporated today announced that a measles DNA vaccine formulated with the company's Vaxfectinâ„¢ adjuvant elicited protective levels of neutralizing antibodies in juvenile (1 - 2 year old) nonhuman primates confirmed by complete protection following challenge more than one year after vaccination, and sterilizing immunity as evidenced by no clinical signs of disease and no detectable virus after challenge.

Pigs carry hepatitis E virus (HEV), which they can pass on to humans. But now research from Japan published in Online Open Access journal BMC Veterinary Research says that pigs get HEV early enough to minimise the risk of human infection. The scenario humans need to worry about would occur if the infection rate in pigs drops. At low infection rates, there is actually a higher chance pigs will pass on HEV to humans at slaughter.