* ►April/May 2008 - RFK Jr. His crusade continues. - Spectrum Magazine

* ►April/May 2008 - HHS Concedes - Family to be compensated by the government in former Autism Omnibus test case.  - Spectrum Magazine

* ►April/May 2008 - Autism Speaks 1 NT Speaks 0 14-year-old hears from AS lawyers. - Spectrum Magazine

* ►April 19, 2008 - F.D.A. Plan on Medical Articles Takes More Heat (requires registration) - The New York Times - "The pharmaceutical industry glimpsed its own ghost this week, and the apparition could not have arrived at a worse time for drug makers. A report indicating that Merck used ghostwriters to produce medical journal articles in support of its subsequently discredited drug Vioxx has galvanized opponents to a federal proposal that would relax some restrictions on drug promotion."

* ►April 19, 2008 - Flu shot behind Zupaone form loss - Trainer John Symons says seemingly inexplicable form lapses from horses could have a common cause: flu shots. - Melbourne Herald Sun - "Symons said Zupaone, who has bounced back to form and has an interstate trip on the line at Caulfield today, reacted badly to his equine influenza booster shot in the spring. 'I really think the EI needle knocked him around a fair bit and that explains why he lost form,' Symons said."

* ►April 18, 2008 - NVAC Invites V4V: What Were They Thinking? by Kelli Ann Davis - Age of Autism - "Again, please help get Mark Blaxill appointed to the Vaccine Safety Working Group by calling the National Vaccine Program Office (NVPO) at 202.690.5566 and by e-mailing: Bruce Gellin, Director of National Vaccine Program Office   [email protected] Dan Salmon, National Vaccine Program Office  [email protected] Thanks and we’ll keep you updated regarding any progress!"

* ►April 18, 2008 - 65% Of Autistic Children Have Mitochondrial Dysfunction - Schafer Autism Report via The One Click Group - "At an American Academy of Neurology meeting last Sunday it was revealed in a recent research paper, see below, that 65% of children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders assessed were found to have mitochondrial disorder (MtD) and so were always at risk of autism caused by one or more vaccines."

* ►April 18, 2008 - Autism Coverage at the NYT: Sins of Omission by Anne Dachel - Age of Autism

* ►April 18, 2008 - Far from Over - Analyzing Hannah Poling vs. HHS by John Gilmore - Spectrum Magazine

* ►April 18, 2008 - Savants: Despite their amazing abilities, science has ignored these individuals. - Eye on Autism By Dan Olmsted - Spectrum Magazine

* ►April 18, 2008 - Listen In on the IACC Meeting on April 21st Via Conference Call - NAA via Adventures in Autism

►April 18, 2008 - Mother calls for more to be done for adults with autism - Comet 24

►April 18, 2008 - We must stop the epidemic of autism - Clarksville Leaf Chronicle

►April 18, 2008 - Dr. Jon Poling Talks Autism in NYT Podcast - Age of Autism

►April 18, 2008 - 'Autism: a Spectrum Disorder' discussion set - Press-Register via via www.al.com

►April 18, 2008 - Autism awareness rises as diagnoses increase - New Richmond News - "Ten-year-old Matt Deppe began life as a happy, healthy baby. He was cruising toward toddlerhood when his development came to an unexpected standstill."

►April 18, 2008 - Lansing rally seeks better autism insurance - Hometown Life

►April 18, 2008 - Gallery features artwork by Illinois Center for Autism students - Belleville News Democrat

►April 18, 2008 - A family’s struggle turns to success - Carlisle Independent

►April 18, 2008 - Autism approach draws families, friends into the loop - Asbury Park Press

►April 18, 2008 - Commentary: Misconceptions abound when it comes to autism - The Fond du Lac Reporter

* ►April 18, 2008 - Bottle Maker to Stop Using Plastic Linked to Health Concerns (requires registration) - The New York Times - "Nalgene, the brand that popularized water bottles made from hard, clear and nearly unbreakable polycarbonate, will stop using the plastic because of growing concern over one of its ingredients."

Comment:  See what happens when there is a free market?

* ►April 18, 2008 - Canada Bans Plastic Bottles Tied to Health Concerns (requires registration) - The New York Times - "The health minister, Tony Clement, told reporters that after reviewing 150 research papers on B.P.A. and conducting its own studies, his department concluded that the chemical posed the most risk for newborns and children up to the age of 18 months. The minister said that animal studies suggest 'there will be behavioral and neural symptoms later in life.'"

* ►April 18, 2008 - Bisphenol A can alter genes, study finds (requires registration or subscription) - The Globe and Mail - "The study, conducted by researchers in California and published this month in the journal Cancer Research, found that many genes in non-cancerous breast cells exposed to trace amounts of bisphenol A began acting in a way that closely resembled the gene activity in highly aggressive breast tumours that led to an increased likelihood that women would die of the disease."

* ►April 18, 2008 - Drug Makers Push Easing Off-Label Rules (free preview) - The Wall Street Journal - "Drug-industry representatives are descending on the capital to protect their freedom to advertise their wares directly to consumers and to push for looser government restrictions on their ability to promote off-label uses of their medicines."

* ►April 18, 2008 - Champix may have led to TV editor's suicide - The Telegraph, UK - "A coroner has linked an anti-smoking drug to the death of a television editor who killed himself. Omer Jama, 39, who worked for Sky Sports, was found dead at his home two months after being prescribed Champix to help him quit smoking. Mr Jama had slashed his wrists and stabbed himself in the thigh and stomach, an inquest in Bolton was told."

* ►April 18, 2008 - Capitol Hill Watch | Sen. Grassley Sends Letter To Merck Requesting Explanation of Recent JAMA Reports - www.kaisernetwork.org

* ►April 18, 2008 - Merck Caught in Massive Scientific Fraud as In-House Authors were Disguised as Independent Scientists (opinion) - NaturalNews.com

* ►April 18, 2008 - Merck Not the Only Drug Company to Use “Ghostwriters” - Newsinferno.com

* ►April 18, 2008 - Research ghostwriting common, insiders say - Drug companies seek recognized authors (requires registration) - Baltimore Sun

* ►April 18, 2008 - AAP Encourages Parents to Immunize Their Children - American Academy of Pediatrics via PRNewswire-USNewswire via EarthTimes.org - "'Immunizing their child is the single best thing parents can do to ensure their child's health," said Renee R. Jenkins, MD, FAAP, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics. 'The benefits of vaccines far outweigh the risks. I firmly believe in the importance and safety of vaccines, as a doctor, as a parent and as a new grandparent.'"

* ►April 18, 2008 - Governor Blagojevich encourages parents to make sure their children have all recommended vaccines during National Infant Immunization Week - Diseases eliminated in the U.S. are only a plane ride away - press release - Illinois.gov - "To date there is no definite, scientific proof that any vaccine or combination of vaccines can cause autism according to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.  Vaccines actually help the immune system to defend the body."

* ►April 18, 2008 - What you have to do to visit India - Fort Wayne Journal Gazette - "For starters, there's the travel vaccinations. I had six total, including three shots for hepatitis A and B. I've also been vaccinated for meningitis and typhoid. The worst was the tetanus booster. I couldn't fully extend my arm without shooting pains for two days."

* ►April 18, 2008 - New state law will allow pharmacists to give vaccines - Times-West Virginian - "Vincent already received training in school, although others will need to learn not only how to give the inoculations but also learn cardiac pulmonary resuscitation in case someone has an adverse reaction."

* ►April 18, 2008 - Drugstore clinics not good news for health care - Cincinnati Enquirer - "Patient demand to be treated and the clinic's supply of overtreatment make the perfect storm that will only continue the deterioration of our health care system, further increasing cost, worsening antibiotic resistance and standardizing defensive medicine."

►April 18, 2008 - CDC Reminder: National Infant Immunization Week Starts Tomorrow - Occupational Health Safety

►April 18, 2008 - Leon County Health Department to offer childhood immunization clinics - Tallahassee Democrat

►April 18, 2008 - Navajo County immunization records made easier to get - White Mountain Independent

►April 18, 2008 - State department urges vaccinations - Greeley Tribune

►April 18, 2008 - Consider getting a tetanus shot - Pembroke Daily Observer

►April 18, 2008 - Road show to promote injections in Flintshire - Daily Post, UK

►April 18, 2008 - Virtual Visits Moving Into Medical Mainstream - iHealthBeat

►April 18, 2008 - Anti-psychotics, elderly pneumonia linked - United Press International

►April 18, 2008 - Dealing Cervical Cancer a Knockout Blow - Doctors step up efforts to vaccinate young women against virus that causes the disease - U.S. News & World Report

►April 18, 2008 - HPV Vaccine May Guard Daughters from Cancer - TriCities.com

* ►April 18, 2008 - Cervical cancer vaccine being tested on men - PHARMACEUTICAL company Merck Inc is currently testing its cervical cancer vaccine, Gardasil, on young men to determine if the drug is efficacious in protecting men from the human papillomavirus (HPV) and preventing HPV transmission from men to women. - Jamaica Observer

* ►April 18, 2008 - Governor signs bill requiring coverage of HPV vaccine - Radio Iowa - "Governor Chet Culver signed a bill into law this morning that requires insurance companies to cover the cost of vaccines to treat human papilloma virus, or H-P-V."

►April 18, 2008 - The worst of all the shots - The University of Idaho Argonaut - "So, it all boils down to the fact that I do not agree with, or support, the HPV vaccine."

►April 18, 2008 - Dr. Dennis E. Hruby, Chief Science Officer of SIGA Technologies, to Present CDC Distinguished Lecture on Smallpox Antiviral Drug ST-246 - press release - SIGA Technologies, Inc. via Business Wire

►April 18, 2008 - HHS names chief for biodefense research agency - CIDRAP News

►April 18, 2008 - Flu hits PEI late and hard - CBC

* ►April 18, 2008 - Preparation for Epidemic Requires a Speedy Vaccination Process - Government Technology

►April 18, 2008 - New bird flu vaccine could last longer, protect more - AFP via Google

►April 18, 2008 - S.Korea probes three new suspected bird flu cases - Reuters

►April 18, 2008 - Thorntree girl, 1, dies of meningitis - Evening Gazette, UK

►April 18, 2008 - NMA Recommends Meningitis Vaccination for Summer - 13WHAM-TV

►April 18, 2008 - North Dakota Girl In Serious Condition, May Have Meningitis - Health officials say a girl is listed in serious condition at a Fargo hospital for a presumed case of meningococcal meningitis. - AP via FOX News

►April 18, 2008 - Angola: Luanda to Vaccinate 1.7 Million Children Against Polio - Angola Press Agency (Luanda) via AllAfrica.com

* ►April 18, 2008 - Orissa homeopath refuses polio drops for grand-children - IANS via Thaindian News - "District Collector Kashinath Sahoo said, 'Several doctors have visited his home and requested him to allow the children to be administered the drops, but he refused.' 'I also personally went his house Thursday and warned him that it could spell trouble for his grand-children but he was not ready to accept that,' he said. 'We have already immunized all children in the district except the doctor’s grand-children,' he added."

►April 18, 2008 - Stop The Spread Of Measles - Fourth Case Has Been Confirmed In Guelph - GuelphNow

* ►April 18, 2008 - Austrian Measles Cases Tied to Swiss School Visitor - Bloomberg - "A Swiss pupil who attends a school that doesn't promote vaccinating children may have sparked the measles outbreak that sickened more than 250 people during a visit to Austria, a study showed."

►April 18, 2008 - Measles case a reminder of the importance of vaccinations - Kawartha Media Group - "There should be no question about whether to vaccinate or not. It is simply common sense."

►April 18, 2008 - Watch for symptoms of measles, health unit warns; School boards react to possible exposure - The Barrie Examiner

►April 18, 2008 - Health experts issue measles warning for Euro 2008 - Netdoctor.co.uk

►April 18, 2008 - Mumps alert on UL Campus - Nenagh Guardian, Ireland

►April 18, 2008 - Reid seeks $26 million for hepatitis scare - Emergency request, a boost in war spending bill, likely to face stiff GOP opposition - Las Vegas Sun

►April 18, 2008 - Conference to focus on hepatitis C patients - Windsor Star via Canada.com

►April 18, 2008 - '1 in 6 with HIV lives in SA' - News24

►April 18, 2008 - HIV test faces patent battle - OraSure of Bethlehem is sued by Inverness in U.S. District Court. - Allentown Morning Call

* ►April 18, 2008 - New kind of killer virus discovered in Bolivia - New Scientist - "A team of disease hunters has announced the discovery of a deadly new virus, found in a remote village in South America. Experts say the virus – named Chapare – is probably limited to a small swathe of Bolivia, but urbanisation and climate change could expand its range."

►April 18, 2008 - CDC States West Nile Virus Transmission Has Already Begun for 2008 - Informative Post

►April 18, 2008 - CBT/GET Fails ME/CFS Labelled Patients - The One Click Group

►April 18, 2008 - Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2008 Draft Creates Unnecessary Regulatory Burdens, Over-broad Enforcement Power, and Increased Food Prices - press release - Grocery Manufacturers Association via PRNewswire-USNewswire via EarthTimes.org

* ►April 18, 2008 - Park Company Developing Treatment Package for Obesity Virus - Obetech, LLC via Business Wire - "Obetech has developed a diagnostic test for those who have been infected with a particular common cold virus, human Adenovirus 36 (Ad-36). Quickly gaining recognition as “the obesity virus,” Ad-36 has been shown to trigger proliferation of fat cells, which ultimately leads to obesity in the infected person."

* ►April 18, 2008 - Obetech and Scandinavian Clinical Nutrition Form Joint Venture to Combat Virus-Induced Obesity - Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News - "Obetech and Scandinavian Clinical Nutrition (SCN) are forming a joint venture to commercialize diagnostics and therapeutics related to adenovirus 36 (Ad-36), a common cold virus that has been associated with obesity."

►April 18, 2008 - Human Genome Sciences reacquires GSK rights to cancer antibodies - Datamonitor via COMTEX via Trading Markets

►April 18, 2008 - Cancer's effect on immunity is studied - Johns Hopkins News-Letter

►April 18, 2008 - Caged PETA Members to Greet Eli Lilly Shareholders At Annual Meeting - Group Will Grill Company Execs Who Fund Animal Experiments in China, Where Animal Protection Laws Are Virtually Non-Existent - press release - PETA

►April 18, 2008 - Canada may brand bisphenol A 'toxic' - Chemistry World

* ►April 17, 2008 - Probes wanted on sludge research in poor neighborhoods - AP via International Herald Tribune - "The Associated Press reported Sunday that the mix of human and industrial wastes from sewage treatment plants was spread on the lawns of nine low-income families in Baltimore and a vacant lot next to an elementary school in East St. Louis, Ill. Researchers were trying to show whether lead in the soil from chipped paint and car exhausts would bind to the sludge. 'This article raises serious allegations that federal grants may have been used for unethical research as well as questions about the wisdom of using taxpayer dollars for these grants,' Issa wrote in a letter Tuesday to Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who chairs the committee."

* ►April 17, 2008 - Mikulski, Cummings Call for Investigation into Study that Spread Human, Industrial Waste in Baltimore Neighborhoods - press release - News from Senator Barbara Mikulski, Democrat from Maryland

* ►April 17, 2008 - Mikulski Requests Further Review of Public Safety at Fort Detrick - press release - News from Senator Barbara Mikulski, Democrat from Maryland

►April 17, 2008 - Autism affects many in state - Andalusia Star-News

►April 17, 2008 - Inspiring journey of a child with autism - Braintree Forum

►April 17, 2008 - Early intervention vital with autism - Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

►April 17, 2008 - CDC: Flu season worst in 4 years; vaccine didn't work well - AP via Forbes

►April 17, 2008 - Seven measles cases suspected in western Racine County - Journal Times

►April 17, 2008 - Mercury In River Moves Into Terrestrial Food Chain Through Spiders Fed To Baby Birds - The College of William & Mary via ScienceDaily

►April 17, 2008 - World's first therapeutic cancer vaccine approved - Chemistry World - "In move that will be a fillip to cancer vaccine developers, US biotech Antigenics has won Russian approval to market Oncophage to treat kidney cancer."

►April 17, 2008 - Information offered about HPV vaccination - The Daily Advertiser

►April 17, 2008 - Arbroath Vaccination Charges Differ - Arbroath Herald, UK

►April 17, 2008 - Baxter Does Not Expect 'Material' Heparin Litigation - Dow Jones via CNNMoney

►April 17, 2008 - Anthrax spore storage standards published - United Press International

►April 17, 2008 - FDA's about-face threatens consumer protections - The Oregonian via OregonLive.com

►April 17, 2008 - Select Vaccines Achieves Key Milestone in Manufacturing - ARTES Biotechnology GmbH via PharmaLive.com

►April 17, 2008 - Vaccine lab head slams Ramadoss for shut-down - Times of India

* ►April 17, 2008 - Affiris Develops Alzheimer's Vaccine - LifePR

* ►April 17, 2008 - High levels of household chemicals found in pets - Study results serve as warning for small children, researchers say - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

* ►April 17, 2008 - Hard to swallow - A report saying that certain dietary supplements may do more harm than good has prompted howls of outrage from the vitamin and health-food lobby. So who exactly should we believe? - The Guardian, UK

* ►April 16, 2008 - Merck Wrote Drug Studies for Doctors (requires registration) - The New York Times

* ►April 16, 2008 - Editorial: Immunization gaps - Parents who ignore or question the need to have their children vaccinated against once-prevalent diseases such as measles may be playing a dangerous lottery. - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

►April 16, 2008 - CDC Must Do More To Prevent Hospital-Acquired Infections - www.kaisernetwork.org

►April 15, 2008 - Medarex: Prostate cancer study shows progress - Medarex: Ipilimumab study on prostate cancer shows progress - AP via CNNCompany

* ►April 14, 2008 - The Plan for the Food Supply (comic) - NaturalNews.com

* ►April 14, 2008 - AAN: Autism Linked to Mitochondrial Disease - HealthDay News via MentalHelp.net

* ►April 13, 2008 - Oxidative Phosphorylation (OXPHOS) Defects in Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders - Platform Session: Integrated Neuroscience: Autism - American Academy of Neurology Meeting 2008

►April 13, 2008 - Two new shots required for school this fall - Goldsboro News-Argus

* ►April 13, 2008 - Families Crowd Clinics For Measles Shot - WISN Milwaukee - "'We must create a system of immunity in the community and we are concerned that that system of immunity has been broken,' said Milwaukee Commissioner of Health Bevan Baker. In a press conference, health officials said the number of cases remains at four. Three children and one adult have been infected."

* ►April 1, 2008 - Bisphenol A Induces a Profile of Tumor Aggressiveness in High-Risk Cells from Breast Cancer Patients - journal article (Cancer Research)

►March 27, 2008 - 2 Newton Co. Teachers Charged with Abuse of Special Ed Student - MyFox Atlanta

►September 2007 - Mechanisms of mitochondrial dysfunction and energy deficiency in Alzheimer's disease. - journal article (Mitochondrion)

►July 2007 - Hepatic mitochondrial function and brain tumours. - journal article (Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care)

►April 15, 2007 - Metabolic syndrome and mitochondrial function: molecular replacement and antioxidant supplements to prevent membrane peroxidation and restore mitochondrial function. - journal article (Journal of Cellular Biochemistry)

►January 2007 - Mitochondrial dysfunction, free radical generation and cellular stress response in neurodegenerative disorders. - journal article (Frontiers in Bioscience)

►2007 - Targeting antioxidants to mitochondria by conjugation to lipophilic cations. - journal article (Annual Review of Pharmacolgy and Toxicology)

►2007 - Lifestyle and nutrition, caloric restriction, mitochondrial health and hormones: scientific interventions for anti-aging. - journal article (Clinical Interventions in Aging)

►December 2006 - Role of mitochondrial oxidative stress to explain the different longevity between genders: protective effect of estrogens. - journal article (Free Radical Research)

►October 27, 2006 - Mitochondrial function and toxicity: role of B vitamins on the one-carbon transfer pathways - journal article (Chemico-Biological Interactions)

►October 27, 2006 - Mitochondrial function and toxicity: role of the B vitamin family on mitochondrial energy metabolism. - journal article (Chemico-Biological Interactions)

►June 2006 - Minireview: implication of mitochondria in insulin secretion and action. (full text) - journal article (Endocrinology)

►April 2005 - Reducing mitochondrial decay with mitochondrial nutrients to delay and treat cognitive dysfunction, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease. - journal article (Nurtitional Neuroscience)

►July-August 2005 - Glutathionylation of mitochondrial proteins. - journal article (Antioxidants and Redox Signaling)

►July 2005 - Hormonal regulation of mitochondrial energy production. - journal article (Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care)

* ►June 9, 2005 - Exposure to bisphenol A is associated with recurrent miscarriage (full text) - journal article (Human Reproduction)

►November 2004 - Delaying the mitochondrial decay of aging with acetylcarnitine. - journal article (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences)

►July 2004 - Mitochondrial signaling pathways: a receiver/integrator organelle. - journal article (Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry)

►April 2004 - Activation of methionine synthase by insulin-like growth factor-1 and dopamine: a target for neurodevelopmental toxins and thimerosal. - journal article (Molecular Psychiatry)

►March 2004 - Antioxidant and prooxidant properties of mitochondrial Coenzyme Q. - journal article (Archives of Chemistry and Biophysics)

►February 2004 - Prevention of Mitochondrial Oxidative Damage as a Therapeutic Strategy in Diabetes (full text) - journal article (Diabetes)

►September 2003 - Gastrointestinal manifestations of mitochondrial disease. - journal article (Gastroenterology Clinics of North America)

►August 2003 - Nutritional cofactor treatment in mitochondrial disorders. - journal article (Journal of the American Dietetic Association)

►November 30, 2002 - Mercury concentrations and metabolism in infants receiving vaccines containing thiomersal: a descriptive study. - journal article (Lancet)

►November 1, 2002 - The Victim Friendly National Childhood Vaccine Injury Compensation Act: You've Got to Be Kidding! - Harris Martin Publishing via www.whale.to

►November 2002 - Nutritional and exercise-based therapies in the treatment of mitochondrial disease. - journal article (Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care)

►December 2001 - Role of vitamin A in mitochondrial gene expression. - journal article (Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice)

►March 2001 - Mitochondrial gene expression in diabetes mellitus: effect of nutrition. - journal article (Nutrition Reviews)

►1989 - Nutrient supply and mitochondrial function. - journal article (Annual Review of Nutrition)

►Threads in Forum - Merck - CafePharma

►CafePharma Message Boards

* ►Welcome to 60th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology Abstracts2View™ site. This site contains abstracts/talks presented at 60th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, April 12 – 19, 2008. - Abstracts2view.com - "Information viewed beyond this point is embargoed until the date and time of presentation at the 60th Annual Meeting, April 12-19, 2008."

Posted April 17, 2008

* ►May 2008 - Psychosocial factors are associated with the antibody response to both thymus-dependent and thymus-independent vaccines - journal article (Brain, Behavior, and Immunity)

►May 2008 - Dendritic cell vaccines in melanoma: From promise to proof? - journal article (Critical Reviews in Oncology/Hematology)

►May 2008 - Antibacterial activity of honey against community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) - journal article (Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice)

►May 2008 - Rapid subcutaneous immunoglobulin administration every second week results in high and stable serum immunoglobulin G levels in patients with primary antibody deficiencies - journal article (Clinical & Experimental Immunology)

►May 2008 - Selective blockade of NF-κB by novel mutated IκBα suppresses CD3/CD28-induced activation of memory CD4+ T cells in asthma - journal article (Allergy)

►May 2008 - Emotional health in adolescents with and without a history of specific language impairment (SLI) - journal article (Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines)

►May 2008 - Uncovering the mechanisms of estrogen effects on hippocampal function - journal article (Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology)

►May 2008 - Childhood Trauma and Psychotic Disorders: a Systematic, Critical Review of the Evidence - journal article (Schizophrenia Bulletin)

►May 2008 - Contrasting deficits on executive functions between ADHD and reading disabled children - journal article (Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines)

►May 2008 - Tailored cognitive-behavioral therapy for fibromyalgia: Two case studies - journal article (Patient Education and Counseling)

►April 22, 2008 - Vascular Effects of Diet Supplementation With Plant Sterols - journal article (Journal of the American College of Cardiology)

* ►April 18, 2008 - Experimental US bird flu vaccine uses cold virus - Reuters India - "An experimental bird flu vaccine that uses a common cold virus and bits of DNA from the H5N1 virus appears to stimulate an immune response in mice, U.S. researchers said on Thursday....They used a common cold virus, known as an adenovirus, to carry H5N1's hemagglutinin gene, which give flu strains the 'H' of their names."

►April 18, 2008 - Recipe for a Pandemic - Wall Street Journal

►April 18, 2008 - Antibodies could offer option to treat bird flu - Bangkok Post

►April 18, 2008 - Here comes the flu - but weaker than before - Sydney Morning Herald

►April 18, 2008 - 'Tree man' regains use of hands: New pictures (includes video) - The Telegraph, UK

►April 18, 2008 - Euro 2008 supporters measles risk - Football supporters travelling to Euro 2008 may be at risk of catching measles, health officials have warned. - BBC

* ►April 18, 2008 - Quiet sexual revolution forces Beijing to admit dangers of Aids - Meetings and more funds - but patients seeking talks with premier are detained - The Guardian, UK

* ►April 18, 2008 - Notice to Readers: National Infant Immunization Week --- April 19--26, 2008 - MMWR/CDC

* ►April 18, 2008 - Rotavirus Vaccination Coverage and Adherence to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)-Recommended Vaccination Schedule --- United States, February 2006--May 2007 - MMWR/CDC

* ►April 18, 2008 - Laboratory-Acquired Vaccinia Exposures and Infections --- United States, 2005--2007 - MMWR/CDC

►April 18, 2008 - Compendium of Animal Rabies Prevention and Control, 2008* - National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians, Inc. (NASPHV) - MMWR/CDC

►April 18, 2008 - Notice to Readers: Web Series: HIV/AIDS Crisis Among African Americans - MMWR/CDC

►April 18, 2008 - QuickStats: Percentage of Asian Adults* Who Reported Moderate or Heavier Drinking,† by Asian Subpopulation --- National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2004--2006 - MMWR/CDC

►April 18, 2008 - Notice to Readers: International Course in Applied Epidemiology - MMWR/CDC

* ►April 18, 2008 - Update: Influenza Activity --- United States, September 30, 2007--April 5, 2008, and Composition of the 2008--09 Influenza Vaccine - MMWR/CDC

* ►April 18, 2008 - Interim Within-Season Estimate of the Effectiveness of Trivalent Inactivated Influenza Vaccine --- Marshfield, Wisconsin, 2007--08 Influenza Season - MMWR/CDC

* ►April 17, 2008 - Vaccine blamed for worst flu season in years - AP via USA Today - "Jernigan acknowledged that some people may lose faith in the flu vaccine and skip it next year. But he noted even this year, when the vaccine was not a good match, the vaccine still offered 44% protection overall."

* ►April 17, 2008 - Flu vaccine effectiveness lower than usual - Reuters - "Dr. Jeanne Santoli of the CDC's Immunization Services Division said a record 140 million doses were provided by six manufacturers this flu season."

* ►April 17, 2008 - Costs, Benefits and This Year’s Flu Shot (requires registration) - The New York Times Blog - "Still, those who were poked in the arm last fall and wound up with a flu diagnosis anyway can be forgiven for feeling at least a little bit frustrated. If you were among the vaccinated-to-no-avail, tell us about it."

* ►April 17, 2008 - CDC: Imperfect flu vaccine was of help in tough season - CIDRAP News

►April 17, 2008 - South Korea culls 3 mln birds as bird flu spreads fast - Reuters India

►April 17, 2008 - CDC: Flu season worst in 4 years; vaccine didn't work well - The Associated Press via Google

►April 17, 2008 - Flu Season- Worst In A Decade - InjuryBoard.com

►April 17, 2008 - World Health Organization: Egypt reports 50th case of H5N1 bird flu - AP via International Herald Tribune

►April 17, 2008 - New bird flu outbreaks reported despite tightened quarantine efforts - Yonhap News

►April 17, 2008 - The Influenza Epidemic of 1918 - http://genealogy.about.com

►April 17, 2008 - Roche sales drop 4% on currency, Tamiflu hit - Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding reported on Thursday a 4% sales drop for the first quarter on a big drop in sales of Tamiflu and weakness in the U.S. dollar. - MarketWatch

* ►April 17, 2008 - Public Tells Government Panel: Vaccine Safety Must Come First by Barbara Loe Fisher - Vaccine Awakening

* ►April 17, 2008 - The Well Podcast: Talking About Autism (includes audio mp3) - New York Times Blogs - "Lately, the busiest post on the Well blog is about Hannah Poling, a 9-year-old girl at the center of a new controversy about autism and vaccines. To learn more about the issue, I invited Hannah’s father, neurologist Dr. John S. Poling of Athens, Ga., to join me for a podcast. The podcast is a new feature of the Well blog, where you can join me each week to learn more about the blog’s most talked-about entries."

* ►April 17, 2008 - "Autism Yesterday" - A Tribute to Tireless Parenting by David Kirby - Age of
Autism

►April 17, 2008 - Reviews of Autism Yesterday Screenings - Age of Autism

►April 17, 2008 - Watch the "Autism Yesterday" Trailer - Age of Autism

* ►April 17, 2008 - Life with Noah - Carrollton family learns much from autistic son - The Madison Courier - "Some parents believe childhood vaccines might be a cause of autism. The measles/mumps/rubella vaccine is suspected of causing autism because some vaccinations contain toxic mercury. The amount of mercury in the blood causes the brain alteration, theorists say. Lewis ascribes to the vaccination theory. However, she has not had Noah's blood tested for mercury levels."

►April 17, 2008 - Going the distance to fight autism - Mansfield News

►April 17, 2008 - Autism no longer considered rare - Pratt Tribune

►April 17, 2008 - Rock Can Roll for Autism - RTIR Online

►April 17, 2008 - State gives a boost to autism care - Business First of Buffalo

►April 17, 2008 - California's First Non-profit Center for Autism Research, Education and Family Services - National Center for Autism Research and Education via PRNewswire via EarthTimes.org

►April 17, 2008 - Autism Awareness Month: Causes and treatments - Celebrity Baby Blog

►April 17, 2008 - Mercury contamination in rivers is making its way into terrestrial food chain - William and Mary News

►April 17, 2008 - OSU Program Works To Rid Classrooms Of Mercury - NBC4i.com

►April 17, 2008 - Haggen to test fish for mercury - Bellingham Herald

* ►April 17, 2008 - Why was my son given two MMR jabs together? - Essex Echo, UK - "Miss Lewis took her son to the surgery after getting a call informing her the nurse had forgotten to give him his pneumococcal conjugate vaccine at 12-months-old when he had his MMR jab.  Dr A M Deshpande administered the PCV jab. Miss Lewis was comforting her crying baby when he said her son was due another injection. As she was focused on Samuel she did not ask the doctor what it was for."

* ►April 17, 2008 - Merck's shenanigans - editorial - Seattle Times

►April 17, 2008 - AMA Journal Blasts Merck For Manipulating Research and Planting Favorable Articles About Vioxx - InjuryBoard.com

* ►April 17, 2008 - New Childhood Vaccine: It may cause convulsions – and even kill – but it still gets approved - FDA Website via WDDTY  What Doctors Don't Tell You

* ►April 17, 2008 - 98 Percent of NaturalNews Readers Say Big Pharma Should be Denied Blanket Immunity: Survey - NaturalNews.com

►April 17, 2008 - Immunization registry logs 30 million vaccination histories - Wilmington News Journal

►April 17, 2008 - Free Child Immunizations - WCTV.tv

►April 17, 2008 - Mikulski calls for study of USAMRIID expansion - Frederick News-Post

►April 17, 2008 - FDA fees eyed to boost food, drug safety - USA Today

* ►April 17, 2008 - Democrats propose country of origin rule for food, drugs - AP via Google - "Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., and chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, said consumers deserve to know where their purchases come from. 'How are you going to know what is in there or whether it's safe if you don't know where it comes from?' Dingell asked. 'For example, if it comes from Great Britain, you're going to assume it's pretty safe. If it comes from Canada, it's probably pretty safe. If it comes from China, you're going to say, 'Holy cats, we better watch out.'"

* ►April 17, 2008 - Women for Hillary Clinton includes two men - News & Observer - "Bill Graham, a candidate for the GOP nomination for governor, filed a 2002 lawsuit against a vaccine manufacturer that drew the ire of advocates for tort reform. He was the lead attorney for the plaintiffs in John and Jane Doe v. Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics. The 27-page summary of allegations charges that the company distributed a vaccine containing mercury that led to "severe neurodevelopmental disorders" in the couple's 2-year-old son. In 2006, it was dismissed by U.S. District Court Judge Judge James A. Beaty Jr. for lack of a proper expert witness."

* ►April 17, 2008 - Cangene Voluntarily Withdraws One Lot of its Vaccinia Immune Globulin - Cangene Corporation via CNW via PharmaLive - "VIGIV is a hyperimmune product to be used in treating and preventing certain types of severe complications that may be associated with smallpox vaccination, and is considered to be an important component of smallpox vaccination programs."

* ►April 17, 2008 - FDA requests safety data from Dynavax and Merck on vaccine - AP via CNNMoney - "Dynavax Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:DVAX) and Merck (NYSE:MRK) & Co. said Thursday that the Food and Drug Administration has formally requested a review of clinical and preclinical safety data for the companies' Hepatitis B vaccine, Heplisav. Last month, the FDA halted trials of the vaccine after one patient in a late-state clinical trial was diagnosed with Wegener's granulomatosis, a form of blood vessel inflammation."

►April 17, 2008 - Accentia shares jump on positive view of cancer vaccine - Reuters

* ►April 17, 2008 - Half eligible Ont. Grade 8 girls not getting free vaccines against cervical cancer - Canadian Press via Google - "Conservative Elizabeth Witmer said getting vaccinated is a personal choice which is best left up to individuals and not the government. 'Some of the provinces are not even making this available,' she said. 'People have made decisions and we need to respect the decisions that they've made.' But New Democrat France Gelinas said the Liberals botched the vaccination program from the beginning by bowing to pressure from the pharmaceutical industry rather than working with public health departments.'"

►April 17, 2008 - Why it makes sense to get the HPV vaccine - Contra Costa Times

►April 17, 2008 - Meetings on HPV Set (requires registration) - Washington Post

►April 17, 2008 - Researchers on trail of cheaper, easier HPV vaccine - HealthDay via FierceVaccines

* ►April 17, 2008 - GAVI Response To Tracking Progress In Maternal, Newborn & Child Survival, The 2008 Report - Medical News Today

* ►April 17, 2008 - GAVI works to reduce the number of preventable child deaths in Tanzania - UNICEF - "Since 2000, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) has been helping Tanzania reach more children with vaccines. As a result, immunization coverage has climbed from approximately 79 per cent in 2000 to around 90 per cent today."

* ►April 17, 2008 - The Measles Initiative: Successes and Challenges in Reaching the 2010 Goal - Red Cross

* ►April 17, 2008 - Wisconsin takes a step back in time - As old diseases resurface in Wisconsin, health officials fear public may no longer trust vaccines - The Daily Cardinal

* ►April 17, 2008 - Two Kids With Possible Measles Were Vaccinated - Newsradio 620 - "Health departments still want people to get vaccinated anyway and have been holding vaccination clinics."

►April 17, 2008 - Hoopsters exposed to measles - A confirmed case of the measles in Orillia has led public health officials to issue an advisory this week. - Alliston Herald

►April 17, 2008 - Another confirmed case of measles - Kawartha Media Group

►April 17, 2008 - ‘Elite schools’ agree to measles vaccination - The News - International - Pakistan

►April 17, 2008 - More Measles Cases in Racine County - Newsradio 620

►April 17, 2008 - Measles education important - Watertown Daily Times

►April 17, 2008 - County jail trying to contain chicken pox outbreak - Houston Chronicle - "Jail personnel are told to exercise precautions, but duties are not divided up based on which employees might have already had chicken pox or been immunized against it."

►April 17, 2008 - Hepatitis A case reported at East County preschool - San Diego Union-Tribune

►April 17, 2008 - Vomiting virus shuts hospital ward - Southern Daily Echo

►April 17, 2008 - AAN: Monoclonal Antibodies Shine in Relapsing-Remitting MS but Not All to Same Degree - American Academy of Neurology meeting via MedPage Today

►April 17, 2008 - More fallout from Hepatitis C scare - KRNV.com

►April 17, 2008 - ViroPharma, Wyeth end development of hepatitis C drug - Philadelphia Business Journal

►April 17, 2008 - Meridian Bioscience's 1Q profit jumps 24 percent - AP via Houston Chronicle

►April 17, 2008 - Cameroon: HIV is a Natural Virus, Not Fabricated - Prof Anomah Ngu - The Post (Buea) via AllAfrica.com - "Distinguished medic and renown researcher on the HIV/AIDS virus, Prof. Victor Anomah Ngu, has revealed that the HIV is a natural virus and not fabricated by Americans as some people assert. Prof. Anomah Ngu, who was in Buea on the invitation of the Catholic Men Association, CMA Buea Diocese, made the assertion while talking on HIV/AIDS and the potentials of the VANHIVAX vaccine, which he invented."

►April 17, 2008 - Decline In International Funding For Reproductive Health Threatening Efforts To Meet MDGs, U.N. Report Says - Medical News Today

►April 17, 2008 - New Calculator Factors Chances for Very Premature Infants (requires registration) - The New York Times - "Girls also fared better than boys of the same age, a factor doctors have known a long time without being able to explain."

►April 17, 2008 - Asthma symptoms worse among nation's poor, urban children - American children with asthma living in poor, urban areas are particularly vulnerable to respiratory health problems, a consequence of poor air quality in inner-city neighborhoods. - News-Medical.net

* ►April 17, 2008 - Yeast testing gave rise to health concerns - Accidental discovery in the early 1990s led to efforts to test the chemical's safety (requires registration or subscription) - The Globe and Mail - "Although BPA is now in hundreds of products, from the plastic lenses of glasses to the coverings of compact discs and DVDs, the uses that have caused controversy are those, such as plastic baby bottles or the lacquer linings inside tin cans, that allow it to come into contact with food and beverages."

►April 17, 2008 - Oklahoma town suing over contamination - Newscow

►April 17, 2008 - Vaccination, Early Recognition Key with Potomac Horse Fever - The Horse

►April 17, 2008 - Ebola Virus Threatens Gorilla With Extinction - If the usual threats of poaching and habitat loss weren't enough, gorillas face the added danger of a deadly disease that has been surging through their ranks. - LiveScience via FOX News - "Scientists hope to use a vaccine that's been developed for humans on the animals, which share many of our genes. Even if researchers find the vaccine effective in preliminary trials, it will be tough to vaccinate enough gorillas to make a difference."

►April 17, 2008 - Death, Taxes and Anthrax - Dakota Farmer

* ►April 17, 2008 - An alternative to inoculations? - The Leader-Post - "Until a definitive cause of ASD is discovered, how can we continue to inoculate children, knowing this unfortunate outcome could be a possibility? How can public health workers promote the benefits of immunizations without informing the public of possible negative outcomes beyond "24 hours where [the children are] not feeling themselves"? Why doesn't public health teach the public how to strengthen immunity naturally, allowing everyone to fight more illnesses without the need for doctors or prescriptions? In the 21st century, it is time for the public health office to consider a safer method for building immunity."

* ►April 17, 2008 - Purdue and CDC Researchers Working on Bird Flu Vaccine - Researchers at Purdue and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have discovered a new drug to battle bird flu. They are developing a vaccine that could protect against highly pathogenic bird flu. Researchers say this vaccine could be produced quickly and stored for long periods in preparation for an avian influenza outbreak. - Purdue University via Inside INdiana Business

* ►April 17, 2008 - Novavax Reports Positive Results From Preclinical Studies Of Its VLP-based Trivalent Seasonal Influenza Vaccine - Novavax via Medical News Today - "Historically, it is not common for CDC to recommend changing all three strains of the seasonal influenza vaccine, however, even with this recommendation, Novavax has been able to construct the corresponding VLPs within six weeks of the announcement. We believe that the ability of Novavax to respond quickly to emerging flu strains using its proprietary recombinant VLP technology could significantly differentiate Novavax from other flu vaccine companies."

* ►April 17, 2008 - Elan, Wyeth suspend Alzheimer's vaccine study - Reuters - "Dosing in the study of the experimental vaccine, ACC-001, was halted after the patient was hospitalized with skin lesions from what the physician serving as lead researcher suspected was a case of vasculitis, an inflammation of blood vessels."

* ►April 17, 2008 - Pfizer and Avant Join for Brain Cancer Vaccine - International Business Times

* ►April 17, 2008 - Els' special child - Never far from golfer's thoughts is son who has autism - The Charlotte Observer - "Els wonders why autism has become so prevalent in recent years. He wonders if something has changed in the environment or if childhood inoculations have had an effect. He's done his research, talked to experts and has become an advocate for Autism Speaks."

* ►April 17, 2008 - FDA soon may support biomarker tests - San Francisco Chronicle - "The Food and Drug Administration is poised to throw its support behind a powerful new method of predicting the safety of experimental drugs, a step that could help pharmaceutical companies bring treatments to market more quickly - and reduce patients' risk."

* ►April 17, 2008 - Hospital Docs Beg Drugmakers To Pay For Staff - Pharmalot

►April 17, 2008 - Health care must be scaled up to reduce maternal and child deaths – UN - Old SudanJem.Com

►April 17, 2008 - Pre-Earnings, Whither Big Pharma? - Zacks.com - "We’ve been bombarded with television ads over the past several years that “lower is better” with respect to your LDL cholesterol levels, but what physicians and patients really want to know is, “Does that reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke?” We are still waiting to see more results from another ongoing program at Merck with respect to answering this question, but data from the ENHANCE trial hints that Vytorin is really no better than the much-cheaper, now-generic Zocor."

►April 17, 2008 - Roche Sales Fall 4% on Lower Demand for Tamiflu - Bloomberg

►April 17, 2008 - Asthma mystery deepens as cases rise - Experts divided over causes of disorder and whether it is becoming more prevalent or is simply being diagnosed more often - The Globe and Mail

►April 17, 2008 - Pfizer May Face Neurontin Marketing Class Action, Judge Says - Bloomberg

►April 17, 2008 - Journal Ads & Accurate Claims: Spielmans Explains - Pharmalot

►April 17, 2008 - What Will They Think Of Next? - Pharmalot

►April 17, 2008 - Roche and the Institute for OneWorld Health Announce Research Collaboration to Fight Neglected Diarrheal Diseases in Developing Countries - Roche via Business Wire

►April 17, 2008 - We Need a Science White House (free content) - The Wall Street Journal

* ►April 16, 2008 - We are not Immune to our Environment! (blog) - By Dr. Ted Edwards - DNA Reprogramming - "There is not doubt that their is a skyrocketing increase in childhood allergies and asthma. I believe this is a direct consequence being exposed to mercury, formaldehyde and aluminum hydroxide in vaccines and to subsequent Anti-Biotic therapies. To me we begin the process of "programmed death" at birth. Exposing an immune system that has not even formed to biotoxins that are known to interfere with its development is down-right criminal."

* ►April 16, 2008 - How does alum adjuvant work? (blog) - www.iayork.com - "The problem was that so much of vaccine research seemed purely empirical, with no solid theory underlying it. The way to design a new vaccine was just to try a whole bunch of different things (sometimes applying rules of thumb) and see what worked. To some extent that’s still true — there’s a great deal we still don’t understand about the immune system, and predicting how to drive a safe, protective response still has a lot of guesswork to it. 2 At the time, though, the most frustrating aspect of the field for me was adjuvants."

* ►April 16, 2008 - BP Enters the Academic Arena - City on a Hill Press - "Eleven years ago, in 1997, the Swiss biotechnology company Novartis offered University of California, Berkeley $50 million in a deal to create the the Novartis Agricultural Discovery Institute, Inc. Half of the money—$25 million—would be for a new research center; the other half to fund research endeavors in areas like chemistry and microbiology. The collaboration would bring together one of the world’s premier research universities and a leading pharmaceutical and agricultural company. But during the collision of the two scientific superpowers, many questioned whether the alignment would be a conflict of interest that would compromise the public university’s notion of independent research and scientific integrity."

* ►April 16, 2008 - Many Ads For Psych Meds Are Unsubstantiated - Pharmalot - "The study examined the accuracy of 69 ads that appeared in four widely read medical journals - Archives of General Psychiatry, the American Journal of Psychiatry, the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association - in 2005.  Half of the claims made in ads provided no attainable source that could be used to check the veracity of the claim, according to the study, which was published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. When sources were verified, they supported the cited claims only 65 percent of the time. And claims regarding efficacy were only supported by obtained cited sources 53 percent of the time."

* ►April 16, 2008 - Mayo identifies Austin pork-plant disease - Star Tribune - "It is the first time a detailed medical picture of the disease, called progressive inflammatory neuropathy (PIN), was provided at a national medical forum. The discovery of a new disease or condition always generates excitement among medical researchers, especially when it can be clearly diagnosed. This one is also important because it could help shed light on the body's immune system and a family of similar autoimmune disorders that aren't well understood."

* ►April 16, 2008 - Who Am I? Growing Up On Antidepressants - Pharmalot

* ►April 16, 2008 - Merck Announces Planned Investment of $50 Million in Research Center in the US - Merck Serono and its US affiliate EMD Serono via The Healthcare Sales & Marketing Network

* ►April 16, 2008 - ViroPharma, Wyeth Stop HCV-796 Development - DowJones Newswires via CNN Money - "ViroPharma Inc. (VPHM) and Wyeth's (WYE) pharmacuetical unit jointly discontinued development of HCV-796 due to safety issues that emerged in an ongoing Phase II trial in patients with hepatitis C."

* ►April 16, 2008 - Pediatricians Asked to Screen for Spousal Abuse - Journal of Pediatrics via Newswise via Interest!Alert

* ►April 16, 2008 - Breaking personal health records - Inderscience Publishers via EurekAlert!

►April 16, 2008 - FDA's 1st Chief Scientist speaks (requires registration) - The Scientist - "One major step, Torti said, will be to recruit young talent into the agency's ranks with the help of a new FDA fellowship program that aims to attract 2,000 young scientists and clinicians. "I am particularly very interested in increasing the training efforts in regulatory science at the FDA," he said. "We want to go out and recruit the very best young scientists."

►April 16, 2008 - Biological? Trying To Clip Pharma’s Wings - Pharmalot

►April 16, 2008 - Paediatric Committee waves through another six PIPs - The European Medicines Agency via Pharma Times

►April 16, 2008 - Lilly Is Laying Off 500 Manufacturing, R&D Workers - Pharmalot

►April 16, 2008 - HIV Might Hitch a Ride Into the Brain on Immune Cells, Researchers Find - University of California, San Francisco

►April 16, 2008 - The Merck Theme Song: Ghostwriters In The Sky (includes video) - Pharmalot

►April 16, 2008 - Critical Thinking about Adverse Drug Effects: Lessons from the Psychology of Risk and Medical Decision-Making for Clinical Psychopharmacology - journal article (Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics)

►April 16, 2008 - Behavioral Conditioning of Antihistamine Effects in Patients with Allergic Rhinitis - journal article (Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics)

►April 16, 2008 - Lexicon reports positive results of Phase I cognitive disorder trial - Lexicon Pharmaceuticals has presented encouraging Phase I clinical results of LX6171, an internally-developed compound under evaluation by the company as a potential treatment for cognitive disorders. - Pharmaceutical business Review

►April 16, 2008 - Educators attend St. Croix autism conference - The Virgin Islands Daily News

►April 16, 2008 - Candida: Causes, DANGERS and Remedies - Los Angeles Chronicle

* ►April 16, 2008 - Manipulation And a Drugged America - Planet Chiropractic

* ►April 16, 2008 - Formaldehyde Linked to Lou Gehrig's Disease (requires registration or subscription) - HealthDay via Atlanta Journal-Constitution - "The pungent chemical has already been linked to higher rates of lung cancer and leukemia. It was not declared a probable human carcinogen at high exposure levels by the Environmental Protection Agency until 1987. Those who reported more than 10 years of exposure to formaldehyde were almost four times more likely to develop ALS."

* ►April 16, 2008 - Data Mining Prescribed To Ensure Drug Safety - WellPoint's "Safety Sentinel System" may help the FDA and drug makers identify medication safety problems much earlier by analyzing patient clinical and claims data. - InformationWeek

►April 16, 2008 - Medicine for an ailing market - Sydney Morning Herald

►April 16, 2008 - PetSmart sued over infected hamster blamed in 3 deaths - AP via BusinessWeek

* ►April 16, 2008 - New plan may help expand coverage for autism - Chicago Daily Herald - "The Illinois Senate approved a plan Tuesday to require insurers to provide extended autism coverage for children up to age 21, with a maximum of $36,000 per year. There is no current requirement. 'We've ignored this long enough,' said state Sen. James DeLeo, a Chicago Democrat sponsoring the plan. 'It costs people, working moms and dads, up to $50,000 a year. They need help.'"

* ►April 16, 2008 - Local boy lobbies for proposed bill in Washington D.C. - Brendan Gillespie, 14, of Ambler spoke to lawmakers on Capitol Hill last month about autism awareness. - Montgomery Newspapers - "Brendan and his father Jim Gillespie traveled to Washington D.C. in March to lobby in support of a proposed bill entitled the Disabilities Savings Act. The act would help individuals and parents of children with disabilities to put away funding for future medical costs. Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut introduced the bill with the founders of the Autism Speaks organization on March 11."

►April 16, 2008 - Autism event is Saturday - Quad City Times

►April 16, 2008 - Els speaks out for autism awareness - SavannahNow.com

►April 16, 2008 - Understanding autism - Lompoc Record

►April 16, 2008 - One Central Coast family needs your help in the fight against autism (includes video) - KSBY.com

►April 16, 2008 - Why living with autism is a daily challenge - Western Mail via  icWales

►April 16, 2008 - Parents flock for vaccines - Measles outbreak has some in Waukesha overcoming wariness - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

* ►April 16, 2008 - Adults Fear They Don't Have Measles Vaccine - MyFox Milwaukee - "But, if you can't find any records, the medical director for the Milwaukee Health department says, get immunized again. Better safe than sorry."

►April 16, 2008 - Speaker urges efforts toward AIDS vaccine - Red and Black

►April 16, 2008 - Short-term effects of outdoor pollution levels on asthma symptoms and lung function in children - A new study reports that inner-city children with asthma may be particularly vulnerable to air pollution at levels below current air quality standards. - News-Medical.net

►April 15, 2008 - NIAID MEDIA AVAILABILITY - Air Pollution Affects Respiratory Health in Children with Asthma - press release - National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

►April 15, 2008 - April is Autism Awareness Month (includes video) - KFYR-TV

* ►April 15, 2008 - Boo! Grassley Targets Ghostwriting Firm - Pharmalot

* ►April 15, 2008 - Vioxx Studies: Ghostwriters And Merck Sponsorship - Pharmalot

* ►April 15, 2008 - Dementia Researcher Can’t Recall Vioxx Role? - Pharmalot

►April 15, 2008 - Drugs in the Pipeline: New Therapies That Could Change Treatment Strategies - American Association for Cancer Research via Biocompare

►April 15, 2008 - Mother's mission is to get word out about meningitis - The Kingston Whig-Standard - "Most outbreaks are in high schools, universities and colleges. Children under two are also at risk. Meningitis vaccination is included in routine immunizations. The foundation lobbied the Ontario government for the meningitis vaccination program that's currently in place. All Grade 7 students are immunized for the C strain of meningitis. Now the group is lobbying Ontario and other provinces to switch to a new vaccine that covers four out of five meningitis strains rather than just one. Both the vaccine currently being used and the newer one offer long-term protection, possibly lifelong."

►April 15, 2008 - Brain may prepare decisions in advance - World Science

►April 15, 2008 - Immunotherapy: Enlisting the Immune System to Fight Cancer - American Association for Cancer Research via Biocompare

►April 15, 2008 - Mumps and measles alert - Limerick Post

►April 14, 2008 - Egelman: Students should be aware of mumps outbreak at the University - Bowling Green News - "On Friday the University was informed about a student who had a suspected case of the mumps."

* ►April 14, 2008 - 'Toddler made ill by hospital filth' - Hartlepool Today, UK - "Emma who lives with her family in Shakespeare Avenue, in Blackhall, said: 'While in hospital he was diagnosed as having an iron deficiency but after he had been in a few days he started suffering from really bad diarrhoea and tests were carried out. 'When the results came back we were told he had contracted rotavirus.' It was when Craig, carried out research on the internet the family were shocked to discover that the virus can be spread by poor hygiene conditions."

►April 14, 2008 - Acute respiratory health effects of air pollution on children with asthma in US inner cities - journal article (Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology)

►April 11, 2008 - ECH pans mumps plan - Lloydminster Meridian Booster - "ECH plans to focus the next round of vaccinations on health care workers born in 1970 or later."

►April 10, 2008 - Rutgers Research: Impairments in Language Development - Speech Problems Could Be Corrected Before Child Learns to Talk - Rutgers University via Biocompare

►April 10, 2008 - Clearing the Air Over Asbestos - ScienceNOW Daily News

►April 4, 2008 - Vaccines: The real risk is in forgoing them - Healthy Kids by Dr. Edward Bailey via The Daily News of Newburyport

►April 3, 2008 - Jenny McCarthy writes op-ed in honor of World Autism Day - CNN via Celebrity Baby Blog

►April 2008 - The Accuracy of Psychiatric Medication Advertisements in Medical Journals (pdf) - journal article (The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease)

►April 2008 - Behavioral Health Screening in Urban Primary Care Settings: Construct Validity of the PSC-17. - journal article (Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics)

* ►April 2008 - Timing of Neonatal Seizures and Intrapartum Obstetrical Factors - journal article (Journal of Child Neurology) - "Factors other than intrapartum events more likely contribute to the encephalopathic repertoire of the newborn, including seizures."

►April 2008 - Black and White Female Adolescents Lose Vitamin D Metabolites into Urine. - journal article (American Journal of the Medical Sciences)

* ►April 2008 - ACIP approves MMRV vaccine revision (requires registration) - Possible increased risk for febrile seizures found among children aged 12 to 23 months after receipt of MMRV vaccine. - Infectious Diseases in Children - "The ACIP voted 10-2 in favor of approving the proposed change to the current MMRV recommendation, with some revision. The recommendation language will now read: “Combination MMRV vaccine is approved for use among healthy children aged 12 months to 12 years. MMRV vaccine is indicated for simultaneous vaccination against measles, mumps, rubella and varicella. ACIP does not express a preference for use of combination MMRV vaccine over separate injections of equivalent component vaccines MMR and varicella vaccine.”

* ►April 2008 - ACIP expands influenza vaccine recommendations (requires registration) - Previous recommendation was for children aged between 6 and 59 months. - Infectious Diseases in Children - "This recommendation is expected to increase the number of children recommended for vaccination by about 30 million, according to a press release."

* ►April 2008 - Implementation of new influenza recommendations a challenge (requires registration) - Infectious Diseases in Children - "The task of vaccinating 58 million school-aged children for influenza each year will be a challenge, and preparatory steps will need to be taken, according to Fiore. “We’ll need to develop ways to evaluate the impact of doing this, which is going to require large population-based surveillance platforms,” he said. Ehresmann, immunizations manager for the Minnesota Department of Health, said the new recommendation will challenge state and local providers, who previously focused much of their attention on childhood immunization and well-child care."

* ►April 2008 - Use of 25-mm needle needed for fifth diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis vaccine (requires registration) - Infectious Diseases in Children - "Researchers from various sites in Seattle and in Swiftwater, Pa. suggested the use of a 25-mm needle for the fifth diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis vaccination, regardless of injection site, to decrease the risk for local reactions, such as redness and swelling that occurs following vaccination."

* ►April 2008 - Be mindful of influenza, even in the spring (requires registration) - Since influenza reaches different places at different times, one may want to continue to immunize in some locales into early spring. - Infectious Diseases in Children

►April 2008 - STDs more common in adolescents than previously thought - (requires registration) - Infectious Diseases in Children

►April 2008 - Debate emerges over management of vesicoureteral reflux in children (requires registration) - Infectious Diseases in Children

►April 2008 - Revised pediatric HIV treatment guidelines released (requires registration) - New criteria for excluding infection in HIV-exposed infants and children may ease parents’ concerns earlier and make management easier. - Infectious Diseases in Children

►April 2008 - Resident Rounds (requires registration) - A case to test your diagnostic skills. - Infectious Diseases in Children

►April 2008 - Spot the Rash (requires registration) - A monthly case study featured in Infectious Diseases in Children designed to test your skills in pediatric dermatology issues. - Infectious Diseases in Children

►April 2008 - What's Your Diagnosis (requires registration) - A monthly case study featured in Infectious Diseases in Children, with treatment information and discussion to follow. - Infectious Diseases in Children

►April 2008 - One you may have missed - (requires registration) - Infectious Diseases in Children

►March 31, 2008 - Why eating just one sausage a day raises your cancer risk by 20 per cent - Daily Mail, UK

►March 30, 2008 - Are Cell Phones 'More Dangerous Than Smoking'? - Independent via AlterNet

►March 27, 2008 - Mandatory HPV Vaccine Moves Forward in Iowa - RHRealityCheck.org

►March 24, 2008 - The Whole Story About Whole Foods Market - NaturalNews.com

►March 6, 2008 - The inflammasome recognizes cytosolic microbial and host DNA and triggers an innate immune response - journal article (Nature)

* ►Volume 40 Issue 5 2008 - Breakthrough VZV infection after immunization, presenting as herpes zoster - journal article (Scandinavian Journal of Infectious Diseases)

►Volume 40 Issue 5 2008 - Comparison of the interferon- release assay and the tuberculin skin test for contact investigation of tuberculosis in BCG-vaccinated health care workers - journal article (Scandinavian Journal of Infectious Diseases)

►Volume 40 Issue 5 2008 - BCG scar and tuberculin reactivity in children and adults - journal article (Scandinavian Journal of Infectious Diseases)

►Volume 40 Issue 5 2008 - IgM and avidity of IgG antibodies in primary HHV-6 infections - journal article (Scandinavian Journal of Infectious Diseases)

►2008 - Mobile Phones and Brain Tumours – A Public Health Concern - Vini Gautam Khurana PhD, FRACS (pdf) - www.brain-surgery.us

* ►June 1993 - Surprising places of estrogenic activity (pdf) - journal article (Endocrinology)

* ►June 1993 - Bisphenol-A: an estrogenic substance is released from polycarbonate flasks during autoclaving - journal article (Endocrinology)

* ►Autism Yesterday - Autism is Reversible

* ►Autism Yesterday - trailer

* ►Vaccinated vs. Unvaccinated Populations To Be Researched Under Newly Introduced Bill, H.R. 2832 - Send a Message Asking Your Rep To Support HR HR 2832, Co-sponsored by Reps. Maloney, Hinchey & Paul - A-CHAMP.org

* ►2007-2008 (110th Congress) - H.R. 2832: Comprehensive Comparative Study of Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Populations Act of 2007 - www.govtrack.us - "To direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to conduct or support a comprehensive study comparing total health outcomes, including risk of autism, in vaccinated populations in the United States with such outcomes in unvaccinated populations in the United States, and for other purposes."

* ►May 5, 2008 - Rewiring Children - Amy O'Dell's school may or may not transform the brains of autistic kids. At the moment, its techniques are more art than science. - Forbes

►May 2008 - Role of IL-2 secreted by PADRE-specific CD4+ T cells in enhancing E7-specific CD8+ T-cell immune responses - journal article (Gene Therapy)

►May 2008 - Efficient tuberculosis treatment in mice using chemotherapy and immunotherapy with the combined DNA vaccine encoding Ag85B, MPT-64 and MPT-83 - journal article (Gene Therapy)

►May 2008 - A survey of patients with self-reported severe food allergies in Japan - journal article (Pediatric Allergy and Immunology)

►May 2008 - Involvement of innate immunity in the pathogenesis of intestinal Behçet's disease - journal article (Clinical & Experimental Immunology)

* ►April 17, 2008 - Physician Workforce Crisis? Wrong Diagnosis, Wrong Prescription (free full text) - journal article (NEJM)

* ►April 17, 2008 - Pharmaceutical Promotion to Physicians and First Amendment Rights - journal article (NEJM)

* ►April 17, 2008 - Case 12-2008 — A Newborn Infant with Intermittent Apnea and Seizures - journal article (NEJM)

►April 17, 2008 - Personally Controlled Online Health Data — The Next Big Thing in Medical Care? - journal article (NEJM)

►April 17, 2008 - Off the Record — Avoiding the Pitfalls of Going Electronic (free full text) - journal article (NEJM

►April 17, 2008 - Tectonic Shifts in the Health Information Economy - journal article (NEJM)

►April 17, 2008 - Electronic Health Records, Medical Research, and the Tower of Babel - journal article (NEJM)

►April 17, 2008 - Grassroots Activism and the Pursuit of an Expanded Physician Supply (free full test) - journal article (NEJM)

►April 17, 2008 - Outcomes of Care by Hospitalists (free full text) - journal article (NEJM)

►April 17, 2008 - A Pivotal Medical-Device Case (free full text) - journal article (NEJM)

►April 17, 2008 - Air Pollution Affects Respiratory Health In Children With Asthma, Study Shows - A new study reports that inner-city children with asthma may be particularly vulnerable to air pollution at levels below current air quality standards. The study, available online today, analyzes the short-term effects of outdoor pollution levels on asthma symptoms and lung function in children. - NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases via ScienceDaily

►April 17, 2008 - Irritable Bowel Syndrome - journal article (NEJM)

►April 17, 2008 - Effect of Variation in CHI3L1 on Serum YKL-40 Level, Risk of Asthma, and Lung Function - journal article (NEJM)

►April 17, 2008 - Hepatitis C: Identification Of A Protein That Inhibits The Virus - ANRS via ScienceDaily

* ►April 17, 2008 - UK rise in pneumococcal strain after jab - Healthcare Republic - "GPs should be alert to potential cases of pneumonia in children even if they have received the pneumococcal jab. The call comes after UK researchers identified a rise in serotype one pneumococcal bacteria, which is not covered by the current vaccine....Introduction of the pneumococcal vaccine has probably led to the increase in serotype one, a pattern that has already been seen in the US, said Dr Spencer."

* ►April 17, 2008 - Vaccinated college students may not be immune to mumps - EKU The Eastern Progress Online - "Also, Bose said, the mumps virus is not some random sickness that strikes out of nowhere. 'The mumps virus is not dead; It's there,' he said. Even though you may not see many cases of it, people still get the virus. The mumps outbreak in 2006 started on an Iowa campus, according to the Associated Press article, and was a new viral strain that wasn't targeted by the original vaccine....Right now Dr. Bose doesn't know when - or if - there will be a requirement for students to get the vaccine for mumps before college. He is working with other faculty to get the proposal approved by the 'higher up.'"

* ►April 17, 2008 - Vaccinations for new flu strains eyed for public - The Yomiuri Shimbun - "Under the ministry's current plan, the vaccinations for 10 million people engaged in occupations maintaining social functions, such as police officers and those working for water and electric utilities, will start in fiscal 2009....However, expanding the vaccination to the public at large could cause social confusion over possible side-effects."

* ►April 16,  2008 - NVIC Vaccine E-Newsletter
Public Tells Government Panel: Vaccine Safety Must Come First by Barbara Loe Fisher

It has been 22 years since the U.S. Congress acknowledged vaccine injuries and deaths by passing the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act and 17 years since the Institute of Medicine first confirmed that vaccines can cause brain and immune system dysfunction while admitting there were significant "gaps" in scientific knowledge about vaccine risks. After nearly three decades of resisting public calls from parents of vaccine injured children for a formal investigation into vaccine safety, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has established the National Vaccine Advisory Committee Working Group on Vaccine Safety to review a scientific research agenda proposed by DHHS.

On April 11, government health officials invited a few parents to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. to participate on a public engagement panel followed by a one hour public comment period. It was both business as usual and a departure of business as usual that left this participant wondering if it was really a new day and hoping is was not just an old day dressed up in new clothes.

There were physicians, scientists and policymakers on the Committee and in the audience who have been in charge of operating the mass vaccination system since the early 1980s: Dixie Snider, MD, Louis Cooper, MD and Neal Halsey, MD; and the 1990's: Bruce Gellin, Robert Ball, MD, Geoff Evans, MD; and since 2000: Marie McCormick, MD, Dan Salmon, PhD, Ben Schwartz, MD, John Iskander, MD, Karen Midthun, MD, Larry Pickering, MD and others. They admitted they had come together not only to create a scientific agenda to investigate vaccine risks but to also address the growing public "crisis of trust" in the mass vaccination system

The draft recommendations of the Scientific Agenda created by the Immunization Safety Office (ISO) was not released to the public until 9 a.m. on April 11 so parents attending the meeting did not have time to critique and tailor remarks made during the afternoon public engagement panel and public comment session. However, the informed public critical of vaccine safety did make a number of important suggestions.

As the first panel participant from the public to speak, I gave a presentation on vaccine safety research priorities summarizing past and current public calls to investigate vaccine risks and proposed a "20-year study that prospectively enrolls and compares the health outcomes of two groups of children, one group who will be vaccinated with the CDC recommended 48 doses of 14 vaccines by age six and 60 doses of 16 vaccines by age 12 versus another group, who will remain unvaccinated."

Another panel participant, Peter Bell, of Autism Speaks, described his son's regression into autism. While making it clear he is strongly pro-vaccine, Peter gave an eloquent plea for credible scientific research into vaccine safety issues and asked Committee members and government officials to "not demonize parents who are asking questions and searching for answers" to outstanding questions about vaccine risks.

Another presentation from panel members who were supposed to be representing the public was given by attorney Lisa Randall of Voices for Vaccines. She criticized the inclusion of "activists" critical of vaccine safety who "do not represent the mainstream" public opinion and said that she does not want her children to be in the same room with unvaccinated children whose parents have not "stepped up to the plate" and vaccinated them. At public comment time vaccine safety advocate Kelli Ann Davis, who had worked to press government officials to increase public participation in the meeting, questioned where the funding for Vaccines for Children came from and called for SafeMinds board member Mark Blaxill, who was co-author with me of the 2004 White Paper "From Safety Last to Children First" (www.ageofautism.com and www.nvic.org) to be appointed to the NVAC Working Group.

Former pediatric ICU nurse and attorney Terry Poling, whose daughter Hannah was recently awarded uncontested federal compensation under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 after receiving nine vaccines on one day and regressing into autism, asked the Committee to conduct research to identify biological high risk markers for vaccine-related regression. Terry said that Hannah's development of mitochondrial dysfunction following vaccination could be a clue as to why some children are more vulnerable to vaccination than other children.

NVIC Director of Patient Safety, Vicky Debold, PhD, RN, who recently founded Children's Health & Safety Research, LLC, described her son's regression into autism after receiving seven vaccines on one day. Among the patient safety areas she defined were the "failure to rescue" which, in the case of vaccines policy "would be the pervasive failure on the part of nurses and physicians to recognize the importance of challenge-rechallenge phenomena and to modify the vaccination schedule accordingly. This is how my son was injured and is crucial to minimizing future risk."

SafeMinds board member Jim Moody, JD, commented that a lack of credible scientific studies demonstrating vaccine safety makes the application of one-size-fits-all vaccine policies on the entire child population an uncontrolled "scientific experiment." Journalist David Kirby, author of "Evidence of Harm" warned the Committee members that "history will judge each and every one of you. A year from now, five years from now, ten years from now people like me will look back on the history of vaccine safety in this country and look at you folks and say: "What did they do?"

Attorney Patty Healy, who was a former biotech scientist and is NVIC's Director of Counseling, told the Committee that when she became a new Mom eight years ago, she looked at the science for vaccine proof of safety and found it so lacking in substance that she made the difficult decision not to vaccinate her daughter. Patty challenged the Committee to be dedicated to investigating and embracing the truth about vaccine safety no matter what it may be. "Show me the science" she said and "let the chips fall where they may."

Committee Chair Andy Pavia, MD, and the Committee members listened attentively to the public panel members presentations and to the parents who spoke during the public comment time. Several Committee members, including consumer member Tawny Buck, who has a DPT vaccine injured daughter, asked questions of government health officials and made comments indicating that there is a heightened interest in conducting well designed scientific studies examining vaccine injuries and deaths.

Only time will tell if the meeting on Capitol Hill last Friday was for real or for show. Three decades is long enough to wait for government to listen to the people and take action to find out the truth about vaccine risks so every child in America has the opportunity to grow up healthy.

***********************************************************
"A government-appointed working group is charged with picking the most important safety questions for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to research over the next five years. What's unique is that the group also is supposed to get significant public input in setting those priorities, an effort to ease skepticism that authorities hide or discount important information about vaccines. "A crisis of trust is going to be a crisis of public health," said Dr. Bruce Gellin, head of the National Vaccine Program Office. "There's been a lot of anger and a lot of distrust over issues of vaccine safety," Dr. Andrew Pavia, a University of Utah pediatric infectious disease specialist who is chairing the group, told the meeting Friday. "There's a need to engage as many voices as possible," he added. "It's a chance to make sure the right questions are going to be asked." - Lauren Neergard, Associated Press (April 12, 2008)
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gQkR4fS0l1M7ouxFGOr6WtrJpkPQD8VVVRTO0

"What doctors in positions of power in the Department of Health and Human Services need to know at this critical point in time is this: Young parents today, who trusted doctors to give them good advice about how to keep their children well, do not understand why their children are never well when they have been given twice as many vaccines as children in previous generations received. They want a full-scale, transparent scientific investigation into all potential environmental causes of autism and other chronic immune and brain disorders conducted by extra-mural researchers who are not connected to vaccine makers and policymakers with a bias toward existing policy......Just as we did a quarter century ago, they are asking you to listen to what happened to their children after vaccination and take immediate steps to modify current vaccine policies to demonstrate a respect for preventing vaccine reactions, biodiversity and the right to informed consent." - Barbara Loe Fisher, Co-founder & President, NVIC (April 11, 2008) http://www.nvic.org/Issues/vaccine_safety_priorities_2008.htm

" History will judge each and every one of you. A year from now, five years from now, ten years from now, people like me will look back on the history of vaccine safety in this country, and look at you folks, and say, "What did they do?" Now, I am going to guess from your body language that you know that there is an issue here. We have a problem with the vaccine schedule. We don't know what it is. You have the power to listen to these community people, and make some decisions. And you are maybe going to make the decision that you are going to look into this situation, and change things. Or, are you going to decide to protect the status quo?" - David Kirby, Journalist (April 11, 2008)

"As a nurse who used to work in the pediatric ICU unit, studied public health and became a lawyer, I am caring for a daughter who suffered regressive autism after receiving nine vaccines on one day. I now find myself in the middle of a contentious debate about vaccines and autism. What happened to Hannah, who has mitochondrial dysfunction associated with her autism and was awarded uncontested compensation in the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, should stimulate immediate research into identifying biological markers for screening for vulnerable children." - Terry Poling, JD, RN (April 11, 2008)

"I have a 10-year old boy named Sam. At his 15-month well-baby visit, he experienced a number of serious adverse reactions after receiving seven vaccines. He hasn't fully recovered and it is unlikely that he will. Unfortunately, despite my having doctorates in nursing and public health, neither I, not our pediatrician, knew that the earlier and milder vaccine reactions were warning signs that he was potentially at risk for future and more serious vaccine reactions....The damage is done and, for Sam, it's too late to go back. But it's not too late for other children.... At its' core, the tendency to rigidly stress the need for compliance with a single clinical practice guideline - the national vaccination schedule - for all infants and a reluctance to instruct physicians to meaningfully engage parents in shared decision making or to personalize vaccination health care create conditions that precipitate medical errors and result in unnecessary harm." - Vicky Debold, PhD, RN, Director, Children's Health & Safety Research, LLC and NVIC Director of Patient Safety (April 11, 2008)

"I am a lawyer and I used to work in the biotech industry as a scientist. Eight years ago when I became a new Mom I looked to medicine and science for answers about vaccination. What I found was an absence of scientific studies on the long-term effects of vaccination and the health of vaccinated vs. unvaccinated children. I asked my pediatrician to show me the science. Because of the lack of valid scientific studies in these areas, I chose not to vaccinate my child..... Public health officials are supposed to investigate vaccine risks and only care about finding the truth, regardless of the outcome. They should look for the truth and let the chips fall where they may." - Patty Healy, JD, Director of Counseling, NVIC (April 11, 2008)

==========================================

Vaccine Safety Research Priorities: Engaging the Public

Barbara Loe Fisher
Co-founder & President
National Vaccine Information Center
National Vaccine Advisory Committee Vaccine Safety Working Group
Washington, D.C.
April 11, 2008

The National Vaccine Information Center is a non- profit educational organization founded in 1982 to prevent vaccine injuries and deaths through public education (www.nvic.org). We represent the vaccine injured as well as families with healthy children and health care professionals united in support of the ethical principle of voluntary, informed consent to vaccination.

I am the mother of three children, including a son who suffered a brain inflammation within hours of his fourth DPT shot in 1980 and was left with multiple learning disabilities. I worked with parents and Congress on the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, which created the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and vaccine safety provisions, including mandatory adverse event reporting and recording, as well as the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System and also mandated the Institute of Medicine's 1991 and 1994 reviews of the scientific literature for evidence that vaccines can cause injury and death. [1] [2] [3] [4]

During the past three decades that I have served on committees or forums at the FDA, Institute of Medicine, and CDC, including acting as chair of the subcommittee on vaccine adverse events for the National Vaccine Advisory Committee between 1988 and 1991, the greatest challenge has been to convince public health officials and pediatricians to take seriously the concerns parents have about the quality and quantity of scientific information available to them when making informed vaccination decisions for their children. From the parent's perspective, as Mark Blaxill, of Safe Minds, and I pointed out in the White Paper [5] we co-authored after the Blue Ribbon Panel on Vaccine Safety in 2004, a comprehensive and transparent scientific examination of vaccine risks is long overdue [6] [7] because, today, the Number One question for many parents raising young children is:

Why are so many of our highly vaccinated children so sick?

Vaccination rates with multiple vaccines in America are at an all-time high [8] and, with 1 in 6 vaccinated child in America now learning disabled [9]; 1 in 9 suffering with asthma [10] [11] [12]; 1 in 150 developing autism [13] [14], and 1 in 450 becoming diabetic [15] , this is a legitimate question. America spends more than 75 percent of the $2 trillion price tag for health care to treat the chronically ill and disabled [16] and it is estimated that, by 2025, 1 in 2 Americans will be chronically ill or disabled. [17]

The scientific, economic, political and moral imperative for addressing the new epidemic of chronic disease and disability, which has developed in the last quarter century and is compromising more children than were ever harmed by any infectious disease epidemic, including polio, makes the vaccine safety research agenda you are developing the most important federal health research funding priority today. It is a funding priority that must not take money from the vaccine injury trust fund created in 1986 to compensate vaccine injured children, [18] but urgently requires independent appropriations by Congress to support a national research program created in collaboration with those most concerned about vaccine safety to generate evidence-based information the people will trust. With more than 2,000 clinical trials worldwide [19] that will bring dozens of new vaccines to market soon, the first step in securing public trust is to add at least two more well informed consumer representatives critical of vaccine safety to this NVAC Working Group and the general National Vaccine Advisory Committee.

In 1995, the Institute of Medicine convened a Vaccine Safety Forum of stakeholders to examine and publish reports on vaccine safety issues. [20] [21] [22] During that four year public engagement initiative, a time when autism was affecting 1 in 1,000 children, [23] I provided statements on behalf of concerned parents outlining vaccine research priorities and methods for detecting and responding to vaccine adverse event reports [24] [25] - which I will make available to the Committee for your consideration - and yet again to the 2001 IOM Immunization Review Committee [26] which generated the following statement in their 2002 report on Multiple Immunizations and Immune Dysfunction:

"The Committee was unable to address the concern that repeated exposure of a susceptible child to multiple immunizations over the developmental period may also produce atypical or non-specific immune or nervous system injury that could lead to severe disability or death (Fisher, 2001). There are no epidemiological studies that address this. Thus, the committee recognizes with some discomfort that this report addresses only part of the overall set of concerns of some of those most wary about the safety of childhood immunizations." [27]

Whether you believe vaccines rarely, if ever, cause injury or death and that government should force everyone to take vaccines without exception, or you believe that vaccines are pharmaceutical products that carry risks which are greater for some than others and that government should allow voluntary, informed consent to taking a vaccine risk that is not equal for all, most reasonable people do agree that individuals genetically or otherwise biologically at high risk should be identified so their lives can be spared.

Parents today are using mass communication and new technology to educate themselves about vaccines. When they evaluate the components of vaccines - from mercury, aluminum and formaldehyde [28] - to animal and human cell substrates that can be contaminated with adventitious agents [29] - they are finding no credible scientific studies proving safety; when they question pediatricians about the safety of giving their babies 8 vaccines on one day, they are being denied medical care instead of being given proof of safety; when they tell their doctor their child regressed after vaccination into autism, they are often told it is all a "coincidence" and so no report is ever made to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System; when their children suffer vaccine reactions and are re-vaccinated again and again, despite deterioration into chronic poor health, they are losing faith in a mass vaccination system that dismisses individual health as unimportant compared to public health when implementing a one-size-fits-all, no exceptions policy.

We have the technology today to investigate and define the pathology involved in vaccine induced brain and immune system dysfunction at the cellular and molecular level. A 20-year study that prospectively enrolls and compares the health outcomes of two groups of children, one group who will be vaccinated with the CDC recommended 48 doses of 14 vaccines by age six and 60 doses of 16 vaccines by age 12 versus another group, who will remain unvaccinated, will give us preliminary answers in six years about measured pathological changes in immune and brain function in both groups, including information about genetic variability and the development of learning disabilities, ADHD, autism, severe allergies, asthma, juvenile diabetes and other chronic disease and disability.

In considering the question posed to this panel "How Do We Effectively Engage the Public," I am reminded of a statement drafted a half century ago by a young group of dissidents who founded a participatory democracy movement in America, [30] a progressive concept that I learned about first-hand during a participatory democracy experiment initiated by the CDC between 2002 and 2005 called the Vaccine Policy Analysis Collaborative. [31]

In calling for a reform of government institutions to be more inclusive and transparent in their operation, the students referred to the great chasm that has developed between those who govern and those who are governed in America. They described the "felt powerlessness of ordinary people, the resignation before the enormity of events" saying,

"The subjective apathy is encouraged by the objective American situation - the actual structural separation of people from power, from relevant knowledge, from pinnacles of decision-making.....the very isolation of the individual - from power and community and the ability to aspire - means the rise of democracy without publics." [32]

It is the duty of a government of, by and for the people to listen to the people and act when they are suffering, whether they are in a minority or the majority. Respect for the people and a willingness to share decision-making power with them is an approach that will foster trust in government officials and public policy. Threats and coercion will destroy it. [33]

What doctors in positions of power in the Department of Health and Human Services need to know at this critical point in time is this:

Young parents today, who trusted doctors to give them good advice about how to keep their children well, do not understand why their children are never well when they have been given twice as many vaccines as children in previous generations received. They want a full-scale, transparent scientific investigation into all potential environmental causes of autism and other chronic immune and brain disorders conducted by extra-mural researchers who are not connected to vaccine makers and policymakers with a bias toward existing policy. They want a greater separation of the vaccine risk assessment and safety oversight responsibilities from the vaccine policymaking and promotion activities more in the model of the National Transportation Safety Board. Just as we did a quarter century ago, they are asking you to listen to what happened to their children after vaccination and take immediate steps to modify current vaccine policies to demonstrate a respect for preventing vaccine reactions, biodiversity and the right to informed consent.

If we can agree that individual health and life is to be valued and that the most vulnerable among us should be protected; if we can agree that when one of us is sick or suffering, we are all diminished if we do nothing; if we can agree that the individual biological differences among us must be acknowledged when making vaccine policies because biodiversity is what strengthens the human race and distinguishes our humanity, then there is no reason we cannot find answers to outstanding questions about vaccine risks and develop public health policies that truly protect the biological integrity, the health and well being, of our individual children, our communities, our nation and the world.

To access the 33 references with live links for the above statement by Barbara Loe Fisher, go to
http://www.nvic.org/Issues/vaccine_safety_priorities_2008.htm

* ►April 16, 2008 - Japan may test bird flu vaccine on govt staff - Japan may vaccinate thousands of government workers against bird flu in a large-scale test of the effectiveness of the vaccine. - Australian Broadcasting Corporation

* ►April 16, 2008 - Peemption Watch: Two Wins for Pharma - Pharmaceutical Executive - "In the two cases, plaintiffs accused the pharmaceutical manufacturers of improperly labeling the side effects of their selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Family members of suicide victims claimed that the pharma companies didn't do enough to warn patients of suicidality associated with Pfizer's Zoloft and Apotex's generic Paxil."

* ►April 16, 2008 - Problems linger at NIEHS (requires registration) - The Scientist - "The report also stated that the ethics program at NIEHS lacked sufficient personnel, documentation of ethics actions, and attention to conflicts of interest within the agency. According to the report, most of the financial disclosure reports filed by NIEHS employees between 2004 and 2007 were either "not reviewed by NIEHS ethics staff or were reviewed and certified, but with obvious errors." The NIH's Ethics office reviewed a sample of 48 confidential financial disclosure reports filed by NIEHS employees in 2004 and 2005, and found that the NIEHS's ethics staff had reviewed only 24 of the reports."

* ►April 16, 2008 - Impugning the Integrity of Medical Science (full text) - The Adverse Effects of Industry Influence - journal article (JAMA) - "It is important to note that for some of the referenced publications listed in the Table of the article by Ross et al,1 some of the authors either did not actually receive financial support from the company; were not required by the journal in which the study was published to disclose their financial support or relationship with the sponsor; did report their financial support or relationship with the sponsor, but the journal chose not to publish those author disclosures; or did disclose their financial support, and those disclosures were published. However, it is clear that at least some of the authors played little direct roles in the study or review, yet still allowed themselves to be named as authors. Individuals, particularly physicians, who allow themselves to be used in this way, especially for financial gain, manifest a behavior that is unprofessional and demeaning to the medical profession and to scientific research."

* ►April 16, 2008 - Guest Authorship and Ghostwriting in Publications Related to Rofecoxib (full text) - A Case Study of Industry Documents From Rofecoxib Litigation - journal article (JAMA) - "Approximately 250 documents were relevant to our review. For the publication of clinical trials, documents were found describing Merck employees working either independently or in collaboration with medical publishing companies to prepare manuscripts and subsequently recruiting external, academically affiliated investigators to be authors. Recruited authors were frequently placed in the first and second positions of the authorship list. For the publication of scientific review papers, documents were found describing Merck marketing employees developing plans for manuscripts, contracting with medical publishing companies to ghostwrite manuscripts, and recruiting external, academically affiliated investigators to be authors. Recruited authors were commonly the sole author on the manuscript and offered honoraria for their participation. Among 96 relevant published articles, we found that 92% (22 of 24) of clinical trial articles published a disclosure of Merck's financial support, but only 50% (36 of 72) of review articles published either a disclosure of Merck sponsorship or a disclosure of whether the author had received any financial compensation from the company."

* ►April 16, 2008 - Reporting Mortality Findings in Trials of Rofecoxib for Alzheimer Disease or Cognitive Impairment (full text) - A Case Study of Industry Documents From Rofecoxib Litigation - journal article (JAMA) - "The data submitted by the sponsor to the FDA in a Safety Update Report in July 2001 used on-treatment analysis methods and reported 29 deaths (2.7%) among 1067 rofecoxib patients and 17 deaths (1.6%) among 1075 placebo patients. This on-treatment approach to reporting minimized the appearance of any mortality risk. In December 2001, when the FDA raised safety questions about the submitted safety data, the sponsor did not bring these issues to an institutional review board for review and revealed that there was no data and safety monitoring board for the protocol 078 study. The findings from this case study suggest that additional protections for human research participants, including new approaches for the conduct, oversight, and reporting of industry-sponsored trials, are necessary."

* ►April 16, 2008 - Panel’s Bipartisan View: F.D.A. Is Underfinanced (requires registration) - The New York Times

* ►April 16, 2008 - Adverse Drug Reactions - journal article (JAMA) - "The researchers identified every seventh randomly selected death in 3 counties in southeast Sweden in 2001 and reviewed medical records to identify suspected drug-related fatalities. They found that 49 of 1574 deceased persons (3.1%) in the study were suspected to have died of an adverse drug reaction."

* ►April 16, 2008 - Critics Say FDA’s Off-Label Guidance Allows Marketing Disguised as Science -  journal article (JAMA)

* ►April 16, 2008 - Economic Fraud Suspected In Heparin Contamination (free content) - The Wall Street Journal

* ►April 16, 2008 - Canada Likely to Label Plastic Ingredient ‘Toxic’ (requires registration) - The New York Times

* ►April 16, 2008 - Olmsted on Autism: Made by Merck, Starts with V… by Dan Olmsted - Age of Autism

* ►April 16, 2008 - Florida Autism Insurance Bill Stalled.  You Can Help. by Tracy Stewart - Age of Autism

* ►April 16, 2008 - Lisa Randall and the Vaccine Safety Working Group - So this is dedicated to Lisa Randall, who fights against mothers and fathers whose children have a serious disease, without any understanding of the basic science behind their appeal for more research, while she takes cash from vaccine manufacturers. by Tracy Stewart - Age of Autism

* ►April 16, 2008 - Autism myth lives on - Why people continue to blame vaccines, despite evidence to the contrary. - USA Today Blog - "As I watch my beautiful 10-month-old daughter grow, I wish that preventing autism were as simple as withholding a few injections. But along with my wife, a physician, I understand the vital importance of vaccination, not only for maintaining our baby's health but also protecting our community from infectious diseases. Our daughter's next shots are in two months."

* ►April 16, 2008 - Andrew Wakefield Gains a Well Known Supporter - Adventures in Autism

* ►April 16, 2008 - Wakefield MMR Vaccine Trial Costs - GMC Will Not Survive - The One Click Group

* ►April 16, 2008 - Misleading medical research common: journal editor - Reuters Health - "Doctors, regulators, publishers and others are all taking money, information and small presents from pharmaceutical companies and being influenced in the process, said Dr. Catherine DeAngelis....'We have given away our profession and we have got to take it back,' she said."

* ►April 16, 2008 - MMR/Autism & The Taming Of The British Media - Clifford Miller via The One Click Group

* ►April 16, 2008 - Autism legislation takes center stage (includes video) - Missourinet - "'Out of the twelve major neurological disorders; dramatic brain injury, cerebral palsy, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease,' said Rep. Page, 'Autism Spectrum Disorder is the only one that's not covered by insurance, and it stands out, and it has a huge impact on families in Missouri.'"

* ►April 16, 2008 - Autism video explores vaccination link as cause - Southtown Star - "According to autismyesterday.com, the 30-minute documentary 'explores an emerging truth many parents are discovering: Autism is a reversible condition through a process known as biomedical intervention.'"

►April 16, 2008 - Measles or autism? Not a choice (requires registration or subscription) - Los Angeles Times Blog

►April 16, 2008 - Jenny McCarthy Visits Metro Detroit With Autism Message - WDIV Detroit

►April 16, 2008 - Raising Six Kids With Autism - One Mom tells us how she copes. - MomLogic

►April 16, 2008 - Autism rise 'linked to diagnosis changes' - The rise in autism since the 1980s could be partly explained by changes in how children are diagnosed, according to a new study. - Care and Health

►April 16, 2008 - New book reveals “The Soul of Autism” - Hudson Valley Press

* ►April 16, 2008 - EPA fines LIRR for failing to recycle light bulbs - Newsday - "The Long Island Rail Road has agreed to pay a $43,875 fine for not recycling about 260,000 fluorescent bulbs between 2003 and 2005, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday....Fluorescent bulbs contain mercury and can be harmful to people and the environment if they are thrown away and not recycled, according to the EPA."

* ►April 16, 2008 - Merck 'misrepresented' risks and ghost-authored papers: studies (requires registration or subscription) - The Globe and Mail - "In an interview, Dr. DeAngelis called this 'a sad day.' 'I don't blame the pharmaceutical companies. I blame us because none of this would have happened if physicians and clinical scientists would just say no.' She noted that the court case has focused attention on Merck and Vioxx. 'But don't think for one minute that only Merck is guilty of this because they are not.'"

* ►April 16, 2008 - Merck Masked Vioxx Risk, Hired Study Ghostwriters (Update1) - Bloomberg - "Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said the reports on ghostwritten articles about Vioxx 'reveal just how far a drugmaker might go to market its product and try to bury information that might hurt sales even when that information directly affected the health and safety of the people taking their medicine.' `Revealing this kind of activity is very important in building pressure on the Food and Drug Administration to regulate, not accommodate drugmakers,' Grassley said in an e- mailed statement."

* ►April 16, 2008 - FDA Set to Approve Ghost-Writing - Merrill Goozner via Agoravox The Citizen Media

* ►April 16, 2008 - Did Merck Ghostwrite Vioxx Studies For Doctors? And Why Is That Important To Personal Injury Lawyers? - InjuryBoard.com

►April 16, 2008 - Merck KGaA to invest $50 mln in new drug research centre in Boston - Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex via CNNMoney.com

►April 16, 2008 - India's Merck to launch a dozen products in 2008 - Reuters India

►April 16, 2008 - Lilly to cut up to 500 jobs in streamlining - Reuters via The Guardian, UK

* ►April 16, 2008 - Find Your Child's Immunization Record Through Your State's IIS - CDC

►April 16, 2008 - Lack of insurance blamed for low immunization rate in St. Joseph County - WSBT South Bend

►April 16, 2008 - St. Joseph County children under immunized (includes video) - WNDU-TV - "'A lot of it is going to come down educating people talking with them telling them about the safety of vaccines... because vaccines are safe,' says Barbara Baker from the St. Joseph County Health Department. Another reason parents may not vaccination their children is because of poverty. On average it costs a 12-hundred dollars for a lifetime of immunizations. Most of the vaccinations are paid within the first two years of a child's life."

* ►April 16, 2008 - Vaccination Week in the Americas Set to Immunize 62 Million in the Western Hemisphere - press release - Pan American Health Organization - "A record 62 million children, adults and elderly people are expected to receive free vaccines against leading infectious diseases as part of the sixth annual Vaccination Week in the Americas, which will take place April 19 to 26. Tens of thousands of health workers and volunteers are slated to participate in this year’s initiative, which covers 44 countries and territories throughout the Western Hemisphere. The effort is expected to prevent thousands of deaths and illnesses from diseases including measles, rubella, polio, tetanus, diphtheria, yellow fever, influenza, rotavirus, hepatitis B, and whooping cough."

►April 16, 2008 - Expert's surprise at axing of immunisation campaign - Whangarei Northern Advocate, New Zealand - "A Northland public health specialist is surprised at the sudden axing of the national meningococcal B immunisation campaign. Jonathan Jarman, the region's medical officer of health, said Northland District Health Board's public health team had not expected this week's announcement that the immunisation programme was no longer needed."

►April 16, 2008 - HSE continue to promote MMR Vaccination - Waterford Today

* ►April 16, 2008 - Local insurance companies asked to subsidise cervical cancer vaccine - Representatives of pharmaceutical giant Merck Inc have approached local health insurance companies to subsidise its cervical cancer vaccine, Gardasil. - Jamaica Observer

►April 16, 2008 - Killer cure too pricey for poor - Mail & Guardian Online - "The vaccine -- called Gardisil -- is available in South Africa at R770 a shot. Patients require three shots over a six-month period."

►April 16, 2008 - Exclusive: HPV jab could roll out to over-18s - England and Scotland push to extend vaccination beyond school years. - Healthcare Republic

* ►April 16, 2008 - Pfizer licenses midstage cancer vaccine from Avant  - Pfizer paying Avant Immunotherapeutics $40 million, plus milestones for cancer vaccine rights - AP via CNNMoney

►April 16, 2008 - Phase I/II Results Promising for Live Listeria Cancer Vaccine - Advaxis via Newswise

►April 16, 2008 - Vaccine Alliance Reaches Enrollment Milestone - IPS Vaccine Purchasing Alliance via Business Wire via EarthTimes.org

►April 16, 2008 - FDA Approves New Vaccine to Prevent Rotavirus Infection - Product Shows No Increased Intussusception Risk - AAFP News Now

►April 16, 2008 - Protect a baby by protecting yourself - Las Cruces Sun-News

►April 16, 2008 - Effectiveness of DPT Vaccine - Press Information Bureau, Government of India

►April 16, 2008 - Pipeline Insight: Nosocomial Vaccines - Minefield or Goldmine? - Datamonitor via Pharmaceutical Business Review

* ►April 16, 2008 - Flu viruses take one-way ticket out of Asia, then travel the world - Study in Science may lead to improvements in flu vaccine design - American Association for the Advancement of Science via www.eurekalert.org

* ►April 16, 2008 - Scientists discover the travel patterns of seasonal flu - Findings may lead to improved flu vaccines - University of Cambridge via www.eurekalert.org

* ►April 16, 2008 - Flu Tracked To Viral Reservoir In Tropics - Penn State via ScienceDaily

►April 16, 2008 - Scientists create libraries of effective antibodies for bird flu - Scientists have created the first extensive collection of antibodies known to target bird flu successfully. The "libraries" of antibodies found in bird flu survivors could be used to suggest desirable features in future antiviral drugs designed to combat the disease. - LabTechnologist.com

►April 16, 2008 - Egyptian 2-year-old boy infected with bird flu - Reuters Africa

►April 16, 2008 - Asia is world's cradle for flu, where new strains emerge - The Associated Press via Google

►April 16, 2008 - Pakistan – bird flu vaccines and consumer awareness campaigns - WorldPoultry.net

►April 16, 2008 - S.Korea reports new bird flu, sees worst in years - Reuters India

►April 16, 2008 - No measles cases reported in Washington County, but interest in vaccination climbs - Greater Milwaukee Today

►April 16, 2008 - Amid measles scare, rubella case found Waukesha County - Initial measles case found at Mukwonago clinic - Greater Milwaukee Today

►April 16, 2008 - Probable measles in Racine, clinic to be held Wednesday - The Journal Times

* ►April 16, 2008 - New Information About Measles, Rubella Victims - Today's TMJ4 - "There are four confirmed cases, and three probable cases of the measles in southeastern Wisconsin. A student in Walworth County, who was vaccinated, is one of the probable cases. A 5th grader in Racine is another probable case. His mother tells TODAY’S TMJ4, he, too was vaccinated."

►April 16, 2008 - Hundreds of Peel residents being observed for measles - The Brampton Guardian

►April 16, 2008 - Measles and chickenpox outbreaks in the UK, news from The Travel Clinic Ltd - Cambridge Network, UK

* ►April 16, 2008 - Schools put on alert in new measles outbreak - An outbreak of measles among children has sparked fears that it could spread across the capital. - Evening Standard via This is London - "The number of confirmed and suspected cases in the borough now stands at 74 children - 24 of them aged under five - and eight adults."

►April 16, 2008 - Case of measles linked to Chemong Public School - Kawartha Media Group

►April 16, 2008 - Our vaccine bid to beat meningitis - Meningitis UK via Halifax Evening Courier - "Our charity has a single focus – to find a vaccine to eradicate meningitis. In the absence of a vaccine we also distribute a wide range of material to raise awareness of the common symptoms and the need to act quickly."

►April 16, 2008 - Meningitis vaccine bill advances - The Shreveport Times - "House Bill 178, which is pending introduction in the state Senate, calls for 11-year-olds to be vaccinated to enter public, private or parochial schools and for those who are home-schooled to get the shot. Parents can opt out but must sign a form stating they know the risks but don't want their children vaccinated for personal, medical or religious reasons."

►April 16, 2008 - Officials: Sunnyvale woman with TB may have infected airplane passenger (requires registration or subscription) - San Jose Mercury News

►April 16, 2008 - Hepatitis B tied to bile duct cancer outside liver - Reuters

►April 16, 2008 - ViroPharma ends development of hepatitis C drug - Reuters

►April 16, 2008 - Killer virus timebomb warning - Bradford Telegraph Argus - "Nearly 2,000 people could already be infected with hepatitis B and unaware they are carrying the virus, he believes."

►April 16, 2008 - Reid seeks federal funding for costs in hepatitis testing - Las Vegas Review

►April 16, 2008 - Clinic placed on hold - Reno Gazette Journal

►April 16, 2008 - The Economic impact of ME/CFS: individual and societal level costs - Dynamic Medicine via The One Click Group

►April 16, 2008 - Africa: Daily HIV/Aids Report - IAVI, CHAVI Join To Collaborate on HIV Vaccine Research - Kaisernetwork.org (Washington, DC) via AllAfrica.com

►April 16, 2008 - Weighing Which Babies Get a Costly Drug - Small Numbers Who Benefit May Not Justify $6,000 Price Of Preventive RSV Therapy - The Informed Patient, Wall Street Journal

►April 16, 2008 - Weighing Costs of Health Care at the Beginning of Life - Wall Street Journal Health Blog - "Consider Synagis, a treatment that reduces the risk of respiratory syncytial virus (pictured) — a nasty bug that causes 125,000 infant hospitalizations and about 500 infant deaths a year. The treatment, which AstraZeneca acquired when it bought MedImmune last year, is given as a series of injections whose cost can add up to $6,000 dollars. It’s been shown to cut the risk of hospitalization for RSV in half."

►April 16, 2008 - Disease Detectives Help Communities, Nations with Outbreaks - U.S. Department of State via News Blaze - "Epidemiologists - sometimes called disease detectives - do this work, and about 80 a year train in a two-year program called the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) that is part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta."

►April 16, 2008 - Watchdog: Organic baby formula uses banned ingredients (requires registration or subscription) - Los Angeles Times

►April 16, 2008 - Cut down on antibiotics for sinusitis and pneumonia, GPs advised - OnMedica

►April 16, 2008 - FDA stiffs $100,000 worth of 'natural' erectile drugs - Dietary supplements worth more than $100,000 have been seized by the FDA for making inappropriate pharmaceutical claims and containing unauthorized ingredients. - NutraIngredients-usa.com

* ►April 16, 2008 - GM Failures Continue - Institute of Science in Society

* ►April 16, 2008 - Gov't raises safety questions about chemical in plastics - AP via Google

►April 16, 2008 - Regulators Keep Track of Dangerous Chemicals in California - 89.3 KPCC

►April 16, 2008 - Flu Viruses Take One-way Ticket Out Of Asia, Then Travel The World - Seasonal influenza strains constantly evolve in overlapping epidemics in Asia and sweep the rest of the world each year, an international research team has found. - American Association for the Advancement of Science via ScienceDaily

►April 16, 2008 - Unreported Financial Disclosures (full text) - journal article (JAMA)

►April 16, 2008 - Unreported Financial Disclosures in: Computed Tomography Screening for Lung Cancer (full text) - journal article (JAMA)

►April 16, 2008 - Guideline: Dementia Drugs’ Benefits Uncertain - journal article (JAMA)

►April 16, 2008 - Bird Flu Epidemic Still Shrouded in Mystery - The Chosun Ilbo

►April 16, 2008 - The genomic and epidemiological dynamics of human influenza A virus - journal article (Nature)

►April 16, 2008 - Top US health official: Indonesia endangering world by not sharing bird flu samples - AP via PR-inside

►April 16, 2008 - Venezuela to Vaccinate 1.5 Million - Presna Latina - "Hector Sarmiento, head of the Amplified Immunizations Program indicated that 123,000 children under one year of age will be immunized against polio, diarrheas, diphtheria, whooping cough, meningitis, Hepatitis B and Hib pneumonia. After that one year period about 114,000 children will receive booster shots for measles, German measles, mumps and yellow fever."

►April 16, 2008 - Tasmanians urged to get 'flu shots - Tasmanian doctors are urging people to get vaccinated ahead of what is expected to be a busy influenza season. - Australian Broadcasting Corporation

►April 16, 2008 - Weighing Which Babies Get a Costly Drug - Small Numbers Who Benefit May Not Justify $6,000 Price of Preventive RSV Therapy (free content) - The Wall Street Journal

►April 16, 2008 - Group Seeks to Improve Nonmedical Aspects of Health in the United States - journal article (JAMA)

►April 16, 2008 - TB Progress Slowing - journal article (JAMA)

►April 16, 2008 - Better Drugs Needed to Battle New Forms of TB - Voice of America

►April 16, 2008 - The International Migration and Recruitment of Nurses - journal article (JAMA)

►April 16, 2008 - Your vitamins explained - Wide-ranging studies have concluded that food supplements may actually do more harm than good. But what is the perceived wisdom on the benefits and sources of each vitamin? - The Guardian, UK

* ►April 15, 2008 - Study of the DTacP-IPV-HepB-PRP-T Combined Vaccine Following a Primary Series of DTacP IPV-HepB-PRP-T or Infanrix Hexa™  - Sponsored by: GlaxoSmithKline www.clinicaltrials.gov

* ►April 15, 2008 - Immunogenicity, Safety and Lot to Lot Consistency of Novartis Meningococcal B Recombinant Vaccine When Administered With Routine Infant Vaccinations to Healthy Infants - Sponsors and Collaborators: Novartis Vaccines www.clinicaltrials.gov

* ►April 15, 2008 - Safety and Immunogenicity of a Booster Dose of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Biologicals' Hepatitis B Vaccine. - Sponsored by: GlaxoSmithKline www.clinicaltrials.gov

* ►April 15, 2008 - Effectiveness of Human Rotavirus Vaccine, Rotarix™ Against Rotavirus Severe Gastroenteritis (RV SGE) in Infants. - Sponsored by: GlaxoSmithKline www.clinicaltrials.gov

* ►April 15, 2008 - A Phase I Study to Assess the Safety and Immunogenicity of Tuberculosis (TB) Vaccine Candidates FP85A and MVA85A - Sponsored by: University of Oxford www.clinicaltrials.gov

* ►April 15, 2008 - Conjugate Pneumococcal Vaccine in Ataxia Telangiectasia (AT) - Sponsors and Collaborators:  Institute of Child Health Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children www.clinicaltrials.gov

►April 15, 2008 - A Phase I Study to Assess the Safety and Immunogenicity of Tuberculosis (TB) Vaccine Candidates FP85A and MVA85A - Sponsors and Collaborators:  Institute of Child Health Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children www.clinicaltrials.gov

►April 15, 2008 - Effect of an Allergen Vaccine in Patients With Allergic Rhino-Conjunctivitis and Asthma Due to House Dust Mite Allergy - Sponsored by:  Cytos Biotechnology AG www.clinicaltrials.gov

* ►April 15, 2008 - Japan to vaccinate medical workers for bird flu - Reuters

* ►April 15, 2008 - Small company gets US go-ahead on bird flu patch - Reuters - "Right beneath the skin are a group of cells called Langerhans cells," Fauci said in a telephone interview. "When you put the patch on the skin, they take up the adjuvant and go directly to the lymph nodes. The thought is that ... you will get a more robust response." Current approved vaccines against the H5N1 avian influenza virus require two doses to be fully effective. The patch, applied after gently scraping the skin with a light, sandpaper-like device, is being used to boost an H5N1 vaccine made by the Belgian drug company Solvay."

* ►April 15, 2008 - Sanofi Pasteur to expand vaccine research facility - The Canadian Press via The Globe and Mail - "Sanofi Pasteur currently employs about 1,100 in Toronto, making vaccines to prevent polio, tetanus, diphtheria, meningitis, influenza and other ailments."

* ►April 15, 2008 - Immunization week a shot in the arm to halt measles (opinion) - The Arizona Star - "Gov. Janet Napolitano has declared April 19-26 as Infant Immunization Awareness Week, which comes just in time as Pima County experiences an outbreak of measles."

* ►April 15, 2008 - Why Some Docs No Longer Take Drug Money - Pharmalot

* ►April 15, 2008 - Oral Bacteria Breaks Blood/Brain Barrier - Bacteria in the mouth have been linked to heart disease, premature birth, uterine infection, diabetes, and now dementia. - The Center for Ideal Dentistry via 24-7 press release

►April 15, 2008 - Dendritic Cells are preferentially targeted among hematolymphocytes by Modified Vaccinia Virus Ankara and play a key role in the induction of virus-specific T cell responses in vivo (pdf) - journal article (BMC Immunology)
     
►April 15, 2008 - Funding Boost for Fish Vaccine Research - A Norwegian-Indian research project on the development of new fish vaccines has been awarded NOK 44 million. The project will run for four years and the consortium will collaborate with seven extremely competent Indian research institutions. - The Fish Site

►April 15, 2008 - Major Bird Flu Disaster in the Works - The Chosun Ilbo

►April 15, 2008 - Cumulative Number of Confirmed Human Cases of Avian Influenza A/(H5N1) Reported to WHO - WHO

►April 15, 2008 - Avian influenza - situation in Egypt - update 9 - WHO

►April 15, 2008 - Wellpoint Develops A Safety Monitoring System - Pharmalot

►April 15, 2008 - The International Pharmaceutical Market as a Source of Low-Cost Prescription Drugs for U.S. Patients - journal article (Annals of Internal Medicine)

►April 15, 2008 - Emerging Antimicrobial Resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae: Urgent Need to Strengthen Prevention Strategies - journal article (Annals of Internal Medicine)

►April 15, 2008 - United States: Marked Rise in Hepatitis C-Related Deaths Seen in United States - Reuters via www.aegis.org

►April 15, 2008 - Boom in camps that bring summer fun to chronically ill kids - AP via Gloucester Times

►April 15, 2008 - Most Online Rx Drug Searches Are For Depression Meds - MediaPost Publications

►April 15, 2008 - Global Rx Sales Grew 6.4 Percent In 2007 - Pharmalot

►April 15, 2008 - Drugs in the Pipeline: New Therapies That Could Change Treatment Strategies - American Association for Cancer Research via Biocompare

►April 15, 2008 - Unconscious Decisions in the Brain - A team of scientists has unravelled how the brain unconsciously prepares our decisions - Max-Planck-Gesellschaft via Biocompare

►April 15, 2008 - Antibiotics in Acute Rhinosinusitis: Often Prescribed, but Rarely Indicated - No clinical signs or symptoms identified a subgroup of patients who derived benefit from antibiotics. - journal article (Journal Watch)

►April 15, 2008 - Gluten-free options are increasing - WSLS 10 NBC

►April 15, 2008 - Study Suggests GAMMAGARD LIQUID May Target the Primary Pathway Involved in Alzheimer's Disease - Laboratory study shows naturally occurring antibodies contained in GAMMAGARD LIQUID may bind to the primary culprit for Alzheimer's disease" - The University of Tennessee Health Science Center and Baxter International via PRNewswire-FirstCall

►April 15, 2008 - Antioxidants may not mean longer life - We've all heard how anti-oxidants are good for fighting cancer, heart disease and diabetes, but what about helping us live longer? - ABC7.com

►April 15, 2008 - Novartis's FTY720 cuts multiple sclerosis attacks - Reuters

►April 15, 2008 - Novartis, Orion drug helps in early Parkinson's -  Reuters

* ►April 15, 2008 - Graham's 2002 vaccine lawsuit - News & Observer

* ►April 15, 2008 - NIEHS Management Troubles - Report from NIH finds problems in ethics, grants programs - Chemical & Engineering News

* ►April 15, 2008 - CDC Under Attack for “Losing” Negative Vaccine Data | The Politics Of Health - Pre Market Trading - "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is coming under a microscope for its inept handling of vaccine data that likely showed a link between mercury in vaccines and autism. The CDC insists publicly that there is no link between mercury in vaccines and autism, based on several studies with numerous flaws in design. It appears the CDC has tampered with data to slant results to its favor – a common trick of Big Pharma when trying to hide poor results and cover its rear end."

* ►April 15, 2008 - Merck Responds to Journal of the American Medical Association Articles - Merck via Business Wire via FOX Business - "Merck & Co., Inc. today said it is committed to high standards of scientific integrity and ethics, and believes that many of the comments in a Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) news release and in the April 16 issue of JAMA(1) related to VIOXX are false, misleading or lack context."

* ►April 15, 2008 - Ethics analyses criticize Merck - It underreported drug deaths, used ghostwriters, articles say - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

►April 15, 2008 - Merck Faces New Questions Over Vioxx Risks, Research - Pharmaceutical company Merck knew in 2001 that its arthritis drug Vioxx could harm patients and used staffers to "ghostwrite" favorable research on the drug, articles in the Journal of the American Medical Association report. Susan Dentzer examines the charges. - transcript - Online NewsHour via PBS

►April 15, 2008 - Health crisis declared over public withdrawal from vaccines - Knowledge of Health

►April 15, 2008 - Autism Awareness - Don't be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams. - Alien Adventures

►April 15, 2008 - Measles outbreak spreads - Three new cases reported, plus rubella in Waukesha County - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

►April 15, 2008 - Arizona Measles Outbreak Highlights Importance of Vaccines - Governor Napolitano Proclaims April 19-26 Infant Immunization Awareness Week in Arizona - Arizona Governor via All American Patriots

►April 15, 2008 - Two pokes too little for students - UW Badger Herald - "While Roberts said he is still very much in favor of the MMR vaccination, he added simply having a third shot of the vaccine is not the answer because another dose of the same vaccine would have little effect."

* ►April 15, 2008 - Non-Aluminum Adjuvant Boosts Immunogenicity of H5N1 Flu Vaccine (requires registration) - Journal of Infectious Diseases via Reuters Health via Medscape - "'MF59 provided a marked benefit, so that responses to doses as low as 15 g with MF59 were higher than with 45 g without adjuvant,' Dr. Bernstein noted in comments to Reuters Health. 'As far as I am aware, this is the best published response we have seen with an adjuvant to the H5 avian influenza viruses.'"

►April 15, 2008 - From Push to Nudge: A Q&A With the Authors of the Latter - Freakonomics via New York Times Blogs - "Q: Is there a situation where it would be imperative to shove instead of nudge. How would you, as a libertarian paternalist, justify such a situation? A: When children and third parties are at risk, mandates and shoves may be OK. We are not opposed to mandatory vaccination laws, in part because those who don’t get vaccinated endanger others."

►April 15, 2008 - ALDA's T36 ® Kills "Swine Flu" Virus - press release - ALDA Pharmaceuticals Corp. via Marketwire

►April 15, 2008 - Flu vaccines can reduce respiratory problems by up to 3/4 - Wiley-Blackwell via www.eurekalert.org - "A study of 87 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) - a major cause of ill health and death - found that having the annual flu vaccine reduced overall problems by more than two-thirds."

►April 15, 2008 - CDC's deadly mistakes - commentary - The Washington Times - "The June 2007 survey found MRSA is 'endemic in virtually all U. S. health-care facilities.' Screening is necessary because patients who unknowingly carry MRSA bacteria on their body shed it in particles on wheel chairs, blood pressure cuffs, and virtually every surface."

►April 15, 2008 - BC court upholds insurance award for man paralyzed by herpes virus - The Canadian Press via Google

►April 15, 2008 - National Experts Retreat from Estimate of 40,000 New US HIV Infections Annually - Still No Date Given for Release of Crucial Data Expected to Show Far Higher Incidence; AHF to Press White House for CDC’s Release of New HIV Numbers - press release - AIDS Healthcare Foundation via Business Wire

►April 15, 2008 - FDA’s Warning Letter Appeals Process Questioned by Congress, Company - FDAnews

►April 15, 2008 - CDC Study Reveals Toxic Chemical in Sunscreens Contaminate 97% of Americans - press release - Thomas Von Ohlen MS, NC via Expertclick.com

►April 15, 2008 - Cedars-Sinai Medical Center opens patient trial of virus that attacks brain cancer cells - Cedars-Sinai Medical Center via www.eurekalert.org

►April 15, 2008 - Intercell says JE vaccine phase II trial a success - Reuters

►April 15, 2008 - WND at the White House - Spokeswoman: 'Don't ask about AIDS' - Says she won't dignify question with answer - WorldNetDaily

►April 15, 2008 - HHS Names First Director of the Biomedical Advanced Research Development Authority - The Department of Health and Human Services today announced the selection of Robin Robinson, Ph.D., as the first director of the Biomedical Advanced Research Development Authority (BARDA), which was established in 2007 in the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. - press release - Media-Newswire.com

►April 15, 2008 - Japan to vaccinate medical workers for bird flu - Reuters Health

* ►April 15, 2008 - Yellow Fever Vaccination Campaign In Mali - Medical News Today - "Mali's mass vaccination campaign is part of the Yellow Fever Initiative's efforts, with $58 million worth of support from GAVI, to drastically reduce the numbers at risk from Yellow Fever in West Africa. Mali is the third country, after Togo and Senegal, to undertake a national preventive vaccination campaign as part of the Initiative, with other countries due to follow suit as soon as sufficient vaccine is available."

►April 14, 2008 - Dendreon set to focus on No. 2 drug - Neuvenge targets breast cancer - Seattle Post Intelligencer - "The Food and Drug Administration has indicated that it will again review Provenge for approval if Dendreon presents positive interim results of a clinical study of the treatment later this year."

►April 14, 2008 - Big claims from foot pad makers draw questions from doctors, FDA - AP via San Francisco Chronicle

►April 14, 2008 - Measles case reported in LA County, first since 2002 (requires registration or subscription) - AP via San Jose Mercury News

►April 14, 2008 - About 100 people vaccinated in Pima County amid measles outbreak - AP via Tuscon Citizen via KVOA.com

►April 14, 2008 - CDC Urges Travelers to Israel to Protect Themselves from Measles - Concern Raised over Americans Traveling to Israel for Passover - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via PRNewswire-USNewswire via EarthTimes.org

►April 14, 2008 - Measles detected at 2 Vaughan locations - Georgina Advocate

►April 14, 2008 - Immunization – protection for the whole community - Measles, polio, diphtheria and the mumps are diseases that were once common in Canada, but are seldom seen today. - Innisfil Journal

►April 14, 2008 - Two Men to Walk Across America for Autism Aid, Awareness, and Loving Memory of Young Boy - press release - National Autism Association via PRNewswire-USNewswire via EarthTimes.org

* ►April 14, 2008 - From poison to pill - Homeopathic medicine dilutes some of nature's nastiest ingredients to treat illness and pain - Daily Herald - "We believe as many as 54 million Americans use homeopathy in some form each year. That has dramatically increased in the past 10 years," says Peter Gold, communications director for the National Center for Homeopathy and a biologist. "As usage increases, conventional doctors are becoming more aware of it and more accepting."

* ►April 14, 2008 - Dr. Sally Rogers Featured in the Saban Distinguished Lecturer Series At Childrens Hospital Los Angeles - Her Pioneering Research Has Pinpointed the Causes and Potential Treatments for Autism - Prime Newswire via Interest!Alert

►April 14, 2008 - Invasive Pneumococcal Disease Among White Mountain Apache Adults, 1991-2005 - journal article (Archives of Internal Medicine)

►April 14, 2008 - Nigeria: Fresh Wave of Measles and CSM Attack - The Day (Lagos) via www.allafrica.com

►April 14, 2008 - US Supreme Court Won’t Hear Zoloft Defense Case - Pharmalot

►April 14, 2008 - Scientists Create First Successful Libraries of Avian Flu Virus Antibodies; Novel Project Could Help Thwart Worldwide Influenza Threat - Sea Lane Biotechnologies via AScribe Newswire

►April 14, 2008 - Atomoxetine vs. Methylphenidate for ADHD - Both are more effective than placebo, but the stimulant remains the first-line choice. - journal article (Journal Watch Psychiatry)

►April 14, 2008 - Currency Threats: Bioterrorism Defense - The In Vivo Blog - "The U.S. biopharmaceutical industry may be trying to seal the borders again: this time the prime threat is not re-imports from low-price or price-controlled markets but corporate acquirers armed with high value currencies."

►April 14, 2008 - ASA404, A Novel Cancer Agent, Begins Pivotal Trial To Explore New Approach In Treating Lung Cancer, The Leading Cause Of Cancer Death - Novartis via Medical News Today

►April 12, 2008 - MMR vaccine row doctor was 'inexperienced' - The Guardian, UK

►April 11, 2008 - FDA mulls embryonic stem cell therapy (requires registration) - The Scientist

* ►April 11, 2008 - Vytorin minutes disputed - Firms wrote experts' meeting notes later - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

* ►April 11, 2008 - Vaccine Safety Research Priorities: Engaging the Public - Barbara Loe Fisher Co-founder & President National Vaccine Information Center April 11, 2008 National Vaccine Advisory Committee Washington, D.C. - www.nvic.org

* ►April 9, 2008 - The American Academy of Pediatrics Has Refused To Endorse the Autism Collaboration Letter to Secretary Gates! - Autism Salutes

►April 8, 2008 - Food-Specific IgE Levels Help Identify Some Food Hypersensitivities in Children (requires registration) - Allergy via Reuters Health via Medscape

►April 8, 2008 - Examining asthma quality of care using a population-based approach (full text) - journal article (Canadian Medical Association Journal)

* ►April 7, 2008 - Use of Risperidone in Children With Autism, Bipolar Disease, or Schizophrenia (requires registration) (full text) - Pediatric Pharmacotherapy via Medscape

►April 7, 2008 - Metabolic Disorders, Newborn Screening Programs Reviewed CME (requires registration) - American Family Physician via Medscape Medical News

►April 4, 2008 - CDC looking at effects of formaldehyde on Hancock Co. children - Jackson Clarion-Ledger

►April 4, 2008 - Texas Women Contract Tuberculosis Following Kidney Transplants - Health officials say two Texas women who received the kidneys of a man contracted tuberculosis as a result, and one of them died. - AP via FOX News

►April 1, 2008 - Merck is Finished - Cafepharma Message Boards

* ►April 2008 - Novel chemotactic-antigen DNA vaccine against cancer - journal article (Future Oncology)

►April 2008 - Autologous Large Multivalent Immunogen Vaccine in Patients With Metastatic Melanoma and Renal Cell Carcinoma. - journal article (Future Oncology)

►April 2008 - Childhood immune thrombocytopenic purpura: diagnosis and management. - journal article (Pediatric Clinics of North America)

►April 2008 - Cow's milk allergy in adults is rare but severe: both casein and whey proteins are involved. - journal article (Clinical and Experimental Allergy)

►April 2008 - Gene Therapy: Medicine of the 21st Century - As scientists are unravelling the mystery of genes and pitching it as a 'cure all' medicine of the future, Nancy Singh traces the baby steps taken in the world of gene therapy - Express Healthcare

* ►April 2008 - Wait and watch - Though scientists and pharma companies are aware of the potential that DNA vaccines hold, they have still not arrived at any conclusion. Sachin Jagdale reviews the developments - Express Healthcare Management

►April 2008 - Vaccine Against 'strep throat' Possible: Study - Reuters via Express Healthcare Management
 

►March 31, 2008 - Merck, Schering-Plough Tumble - A look at the Vytorin aftermath, with Deepak Khanna, Merck/Schering-Plough Pharmaceuticals general manager and CNBC's Mike Huckman - video - CNBC.com

►Dr. Klinghardt - Klinghardt Workshops - www.klinghardt.org

* ►The Cross-examination Begins, Begins, Begins, Begins - CryShame - "Before we look more closely at the beginning of the prosecution cross-examination of Dr Wakefield, by Miss Smith, I have to recount what happened on the morning of Friday 11 April.   Simply put, someone organised an ambush of Dr Wakefield to coincide with the first day of the prosecution cross-examination."