Posts Tagged ‘vaccinations’
Inhalable Measles Vaccine Set to Debut in First Human Trials
Snort a dose of prevention for measles or other diseases
The inhalable vaccine bypasses the need for icky needles by mixing liquid carbon dioxide with weakened measles virus. That process creates microscopic bubbles and droplets which dry out and become an inhalable powder. Patients can then inhale their protection through a plastic nozzle similar to the neck of a plastic water bottle.
Making the breakthrough required researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder to develop a mixing device known as the Carbon Dioxide Assisted Nebulization with a Bubble Dryer, or CAN-BD. The device mixes two streams of fluid and then rapidly expands them to atmospheric pressure, before mixing in warm nitrogen to try the tiny bubbles and droplets.
"One of our primary goals of this project is to get rid of needles and syringes, because they frighten some people, they hurt, they can transmit diseases and there are issues with needle disposal," said Robert Sievers, a biochemist at CU Boulder. His innovation also represents a cost-effective method, at just 26 cents per dose, or about the cost of an injectable vaccine.
The no-needles approach has proved popular elsewhere. Australian scientists have developed a postage stamp-sized that can deliver a tiny but effective dose through the skin.
A first focus on measles makes sense, given that the inhalable vaccine goes directly to the lungs where measles typically attacks. But trypanophobes can also keep their fingers crossed for an inhalable treatment which delivers antibiotic particles for treating tuberculosis, or an inhalable treatment for the papilloma virus which causes cervical cancer.
Mathematical Model Analyzes Facebook Networks to Prioritize Who Should Receive Vaccinations
People who are "bridges" among different social groups appear as good vaccination bets
The mathematical model focused on the fact that just a few individuals often form the links between different social groups. It also made use of data that came from back in 2005, when Facebook was only open to college students.
The relationships and interactions on five university campuses provided a useful starting scenario for the model to recognize clusters of people and predict bridges between them.
"When a new virus starts spreading, neither the time nor the necessary doses of vaccine to immunize everyone is available," said Marcel Salathe, a postdoc biology researcher at Stanford University. So you'd want a strategy that allows you to protect a population as much as possible given the limited resources that you have."
More details on the Stanford work appear in the April 8 issue of the PLoS Computational Biology.
Scientists have made growing use of social networking data that contains once-personal info. HP Labs researchers recently announced that they used Twitter data to of the latest Hollywood films. And the Pentagon's DARPA challenged people to sift through the disinformation available on social networks such as Twitter and hunt down the physical location of located around the U.S.
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