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Typhoid Vaccine Effectively Prevents Disease In Children, Study Finds
"A typhoid vaccine proved effective in the slums of India, where it not only helped prevent infection in children who received it, but also those in close contact who were unvaccinated," according to a New England Journal of Medicine study published on Thursday, the AP/Washington Post reports (Chang, 7/22).

First Swine Flu Deaths Announced In Israel And Saudi Arabia
On Monday, the Health Ministries of Israel and Saudi Arabia reported their countries" first deaths from H1N1 swine influenza.
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Mouse Model Improves Understanding Of Tumor Growth
Cancerous tumors sometimes form at the site of chronic wounds or injury, but the reason why is not entirely clear. Now researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have engineered mice with a persistent wound-like skin condition, and the mice are helping them understand the tumor-promoting effects of long-standing wounds and injuries.
Diagnostics

Antivirals Might Be Wasted On The Elderly, Researchers Warn

A model of influenza transmission and treatment suggests that, if the current swine flu pandemic behaves like the 1918 flu, antiviral treatment should be reserved for the young. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Infectious Diseases found that, in this situation, providing the elderly with antiviral drugs would not significantly reduce mortality, and may lead to an increase in resistance. Stefano Merler, from the Bruno Kessler Foundation, an Italian research organization, worked with researchers from the Istituto Superiore di Sanitç  to model the effect of antiviral treatment on the spread of influenza. He said, "Although it is too early to confidently predict some important features of the ongoing influenza pandemic, the use of antivirals is confirmed to be the most effective single intervention, in the absence of vaccines. It requires, however, a very large stockpile of antiviral drugs. Our work demonstrates that even in countries where the antiviral stockpile is not sufficient to treat 25% of the population, the minimum level suggested by the WHO, it is possible to reduce morbidity and excess mortality by prioritizing the use of antivirals by age". Merler and his colleagues modeled the effects of flu outbreaks of varying virulence, finding that, depending on the behavior of the virus, treatment of over 65s may not lead to any significant reduction in the cumulative number of cases. He said, "Although a policy of age-specific prioritization of antiviral use will be controversial ethically, it may be the most efficient use of stockpiled therapies. This is of particular importance for countries where the amount of drug stockpiled is well below the WHO"s suggested level". Obtaining early estimates of the overall impact of the epidemic and of age-specific case fatality rates can thus be crucial for optimizing the use of antivirals during the ongoing influenza pandemic. Notes: Age-prioritized use of antivirals during an influenza pandemic Stefano Merler, Marco Ajelli and Caterina Rizzo BMC Infectious Diseases (in press) http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcinfectdis/ Graeme Baldwin BioMed Central


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