China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Study Design
Published in Marcello Pagano, Kimberlee Gauvreau, Heather Mattie, Principles of Biostatistics, 2022
Marcello Pagano, Kimberlee Gauvreau, Heather Mattie
Another example of a randomized clinical trial demonstrates that these studies are not restricted to two treatment arms. To support an effort to stockpile doses of smallpox vaccine in the United States in case their use becomes necessary, a study was conducted to examine the success of a vaccine manufactured in the 1950s and frozen for several decades [328]. The undiluted preparation of the vaccine was compared to a 1:5 dilution (1 part vaccine to 5 parts sterile water diluent), and also a 1:10 dilution. Eligible volunteers were randomly assigned to one of the three dilution strengths. The outcome of the study was vaccine success, defined as presence of a vesicle or pustule at the inoculation site 6 to 11 days post vaccination, and local and systemic reactions to vaccination.
Immunomodulatory Therapies
Published in David E. Thurston, Ilona Pysz, Chemistry and Pharmacology of Anticancer Drugs, 2021
The smallpox vaccine was the first of its type to be widely deployed in humans, and smallpox became the first infectious disease to be globally eradicated by vaccination in the early 1980s. Since this milestone, vaccines have become one of the most effective ways in which infectious diseases can be prevented and have helped to protect populations against many life-threatening diseases including measles, tetanus, polio, diphtheria, and influenza through routine vaccinations.
Adaptive immune response: Antigens, lymphocytes, and accessory cells
Published in Gabriel Virella, Medical Immunology, 2019
Gabriel Virella, John W. Sleasman
The continuing proliferation and differentiation of B cells into plasma cells is assisted by several soluble factors, including IL-4, released by Th2 cells, and IL-6 and IL-14, released by T lymphocytes and accessory cells, as well as by cell-cell interactions, particularly those mediated by CD40, expressed by B cells, and the respective ligand (CD40L), expressed by activated T cells. At the end of an immune response, the total number of antigen-specific T and B lymphocyte clones will remain the same, but the number of cells in those clones will be increased several-fold. The increased residual population of antigen-specific T cells is long-lived and is believed to be responsible for the phenomenon known as immunological memory. Immunological memory secures protection gains the eliciting antigen for an extended period of time. In most cases, the protection can last for 10 years or more, but the only vaccine that has been proven to induce life-long immunity is the smallpox vaccine using live vaccinia virus.
Mpox: epidemiology, clinical manifestations and recent developments in treatment and prevention
Published in Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy, 2023
Nikil Selvaraj, Shreya Shyam, Puvin Dhurairaj, Kaviarasan Thiruselvan, Akil Thiruselvan, Yochana Kancherla, Pritika Kandamaran
In order to adequately sample virus-containing secretions, lesions should be opened up and more than one specimen should be obtained from two distinct lesions on two different parts of the body [15]. However, it is important to note that Mpox infections without visible skin lesions have been recorded. While some labs can do general OPXV testing that necessitates confirming MPXV testing at a reference lab, other labs can perform direct PCR testing for MPXV specifically. However, given the circumstances of the current epidemic, a positive OPXV test can’t always be correctly interpreted to indicate the presence of Mpox infection even before confirmation test results are available. Prior to the collection of the sample, the testing plans should ideally be coordinated with public health authorities. Only authorized biosafety level 3 reference laboratories are permitted to use cell cultures to produce viral strains for further characterization [5]. The detection of late clinical symptoms, such as encephalitis, and retrospective diagnosis of previous infections are all possible uses for serological testing. Although MPXV serology can cross-react with the smallpox vaccine, unvaccinated people are not at risk from this [16].
An exploration of vaccination in the 19th century through the eyes of Dr. Albert Mackey
Published in Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings, 2022
To provide a glimpse into the attitudes and public health practices of 19th century medical professionals, this article examines the letters of a well-known physician, Dr. Albert G. Mackey (Figure 1). Mackey was born on March 12, 1807, in South Carolina. He worked as a teacher before enrolling in the South Carolina Medical College in Charleston, where he graduated in 1832. In Charleston, he built a profitable practice, taught anatomy at the local medical college, and served as the city physician. When the Florida-Seminole War erupted, he volunteered and served in the Army. When he returned to Charleston in 1839, he was appointed physician of the Alms House. Around this time, anti-vaccination resentment was growing in both the United States and the United Kingdom.1 During the 19th century, vaccinations against smallpox occurred through private networks, government mandates, or corporate enterprises.2 In many instances, there was variation in public support of variolization efforts for smallpox, ranging from intense attempts to promote the technology to more ambiguous and diluted efforts. This was due to lack of a universal smallpox vaccine as well as variations in vaccination practices by country and region.2 This article highlights how controversies from this early period are reflected in many current debates on COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
The roles of epidermal growth factor receptor in viral infections
Published in Growth Factors, 2022
Vaccinia virus (VACV) is the prototype of family Poxviridae. It is a large, enveloped virus with linear, double stranded DNA genome that is closely related to variola virus (VARV), the causative pathogen of smallpox disease. VACV was employed as smallpox vaccine for the eradication of the disease. Several members of family Poxviridae, including VACV and VARV encode homologs of cellular EGF and TGFα (Smith 2008). Previous studies have revealed that treatment of EGFR inhibitors, gefitinib and 324674 blocked the uptake of the two distinct forms of VACV infectious particles, mature virion (MVs) and extracellular virions (EVs) into HeLa cells. This suggested that VACV utilises vaccinia growth factor (VGF) to stimulate EGFR and its downstream signalling cascade involving P21-activated kinase 1 (PAK1) and actin dynamics to facilitate the macropinocytosis of virions (Figure 2(k)). However, CHO cells that lack of EGFR are susceptible to VACV infection, indicating EGFR mediates macropinocytosis of VACV in a cell-type-specific manner (Mercer et al. 2010; Schmidt et al. 2011).