►January 20, 2004 - To Support Its Synthetic Vaccine Program For Alzheimer's Disease Neurochem Forms Strategic Alliance With The National Research Council Of Canada And Announces Licensing Agreement With Praecis Pharmaceuticals Incorporated - Neurochem Inc. via Life Science News

►January 23, 2004 - Shot clinic aims to keep kids in school - AP via www.katu.com

►January 23, 2004 - Grant allows free chicken pox shots - The effort is aimed at reducing absences caused by the illness. - Statesman Journal

►January 23, 2004 - Colombia receives 1.5 million doses of vaccine to face yellow fever outbreak - PAHO (Pan American Health Organization)

►October 1, 2003 - Global Vaccine Coalition Backs Un Immunization Strategy For Measles - An international coalition for immunization has endorsed a plan by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to reduce child deaths from measles by increasing the opportunities for vaccination early in childhood. - www.europaworld.org

►January 16, 2004 - Hospital survey: Flu shots in Colo. ineffective so far - The Denver Post

►January 21, 2004 - Colo. last in giving kids shots - Data: Whooping-cough rate triple U.S. average - The Denver Post

Comment:  Colorado is not in last place according to NVIC's Colorado State Contact, Cindy Loveland.  To read her letter to the governor on this issue, click here.

►Winter 2003 - An Interview with Dr. Reginald Finger, ACIP member -   The ITAT Sharpshooter - "Q ...Do you intend to stay involved here in Colorado? A Dr. Finger: Yes, I especially enjoy being part of the Colorado Children’s Immunization Coalition. If Colorado is going to climb out the cellar with its immunization rates, some insights from the national level may be helpful along the way. There are at least three other national leaders in immunization here in Colorado too, not counting Tom Vernon from Merck who has strong ties here. If we all work as a team, maybe some really good things will happen!"

Comment:  Isn't this a teeny, tiny conflict of interest? 

►January 24, 2004 - Thailand, Cambodia confirm bird flu - www.theage.com.au - "Once birds or humans develop antibodies against a particular incarnation of H5N1, 'the virus has to change to escape that immunity ... that's what it does,' he said...'It's constantly changing,' Webster said in Hong Kong, where he is conducting research at a local university.

Comment:  What does this say about the viability of vaccination?  Doesn't this suggest that vaccines solve nothing, and instead may inherently create the need for more vaccines?  This may not be a problem for the vaccine manufacturers.  But is it good for the rest of us?

►January 22, 2004 - Astronauts Can Be Grounded by Shingles - Reuters Health - "Even astronauts with the right stuff and at the peak of health may be laid low by shingles, brought on by stress, it seems...Shingles is a sometimes painful rash caused by the reactivation of the virus that causes chickenpox. The virus remains dormant in nerve cells after the chickenpox clears up, but it may be reactivated decades later by physical trauma, although it is relatively rare in healthy young adults...However, a study has found that the mental stress of space travel reactivates the culprit virus, varicella zoster, in a substantial proportion of astronauts."

►January 23, 2004 - NIH defends consulting deals - At Senate hearing, top officials deny wrongdoing; Zerhouni appoints review panel cochairs (requires registration) - The Scientist - "Senior officials at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) yesterday denied committing any improprieties when they accepted lucrative consulting contracts from pharmaceutical and biotech companies that had dealings with the agency. Testifying before a Senate subcommittee, one institute director called the allegations, reported by the Los Angeles Times, “'misleading, grossly inaccurate, and filled with false innuendo.'”

►January 23, 2004 - Emory ranks 10th in research thanks to licenses and patents - www.emorywheel.com

►January 24, 2004 - Researchers accuse WHO and Global Fund of malpractice - journal article (BMJ) - "An international group of 13 malaria researchers has accused WHO and the Global Fund of medical malpractice for supporting the use of ineffective malaria treatments. This practice, says the group, at the very least 'wastes international aid money, and at most, kills patients who have malaria.'"

►January 20, 2004 - Nerves, Heal Thyselves - Weizmann Institute via Life Science News

►January 22, 2004 - U.S. Urges WHO to Go Softly on Travel Alerts - Reuters Health

►July/August 2003 - Three reasons to return to traditional diets - In the 1930s US dentist Weston Price travelled the world to study the diets of 'primitive' peoples. He found a startling lack of disease and proof that a system of environmentally-friendly local food production is the best way to ensure human health - www.infochangeindia.org

►January 22, 2004 - Pseudoscience and Globesity - www.techcentralstation.com - "When the Bush administration announced last week it will demand significant changes to the World Health Organization's initiative against global obesity, it sparked a flurry of international protest from special interest groups accusing him and the food industry of putting corporate interests ahead of the obesity crisis. The WHO report, Obesity - Preventing and Managing the Global Epidemic, was produced with the International Obesity Task Force, whose stated mission is 'to convince world leaders that something can be done to address the problem [of globesity].' The Administration stated the plan was based on faulty scientific evidence and succeeded in blocking its approval. Tuesday, WHO decided to table it until the end of February to allow for changes to the text."

►January 22, 2004 - Local study pinpoints how viruses invade cells - The Boston Globe

►January 22, 2004 - Dr. Jill Miehe: Laughter and Wellness - www.garnernews.net - "In the ‘80s a man by the name Norman Cousins was diagnosed with a life threatening illness. He refused to give up hope, although his doctor told him there was little if any. He researched on his condition and devised a plan. He was going to fight this with knowledge and a positive attitude. His plan included nutrition, humor, and visualization. He watched funny movies for many hours of the day, using humor as therapy to help him beat this. He detailed his experience in the books Anatomy of an Illness and Head First written in 1989 and 1990."

►January 23, 2004 - Rethinking Regulation of Engineered Crops (requires registration or subscription) - The New York Times - "The proposed changes, announced on Thursday, would toughen regulation in some cases and relax it in others."

►January 23, 2004 - The Sweet and Lowdown on Sugar (requires registration or subscription) - op-ed - The New York Times - "The United States Department of Health and Human Services should have applauded, but instead it produced a 28-page, line-by-line critique centered on, of all things, what it called the report's lack of transparency in the scientific and peer-review process. Although the department framed the critique as a principled defense of scientific integrity, much evidence argues for another interpretation — blatant pandering to American food companies that produce much of the world's high-calorie, high-profit sodas and snacks, especially the makers of sugars, the main ingredients in many of these products."

►January 22, 2004 - US allows health agency to boost global campaign on healthy eating - AFP via Yahoo!

►January 22, 2004 - Specialty Disease Management Services Inc. to Provide Nurses for Montana Medicaid Program - PRNewswire via boerse.de

►January 2004 - Reviewing drug hypersensitivity and cross-reactivity in ID treatment (requires registration) - Penicillin allergies often require more investigation. - www.infectiousdiseasenews.com

►January 22, 2004 - Agency to honor disabled founder of recycling business - The Capital

►January 2004 - Reducing medical errors requires computerized information systems (requires registration) - Data standards are crucial to improving patient safety, according to a new report. -  www.infectiousdiseasenews.com

►January 23, 2004 - New emergency health team unveiled - Canadian Press via Toronto Star

►January 23, 2004 - Fogarty International Center Announces First Awards for Collaborative Research Program for Brain Disorders in the Developing World - NIH

►January 23, 2004 - NHS to get 'dirty bomb' detectors - NHS hospitals and ambulance crews are to get radiation equipment to enable them to detect dirty bombs. - BBC

►January 23, 2004 - Antibiotics in food production investigated - A new article raises concern that the banning of antibiotics in food animals may harm both human and animal health. The report, published this month in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, argues there is little to no scientific evidence to suggest that the use of antibiotics in food animals negatively impacts human health. - NOVIS  via  www.foodproductiondaily.com

►January 23, 2004 - Hair dye may raise cancer risk, U.S. study shows - Reuters

►January 22, 2004 - Angel of mercy - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

►January 22, 2004 - Award-winning research affirms use of hypnosis in eliminating pain - Virginia Tech via www.eurekalert.org

►January 22, 2004 - New Members Appointed To NAGMS Council - www.nih.gov