Influence of COVID-19 on trust in routine immunization, health information sources and pandemic preparedness in 23 countries in 2023

Image
pediatrics associates of dallas :: Article Creator Pediatric Diagnostic Associates Will Continue Serving Families As A Practice Independent Of CHI Memorial Pediatric Diagnostic Associates, which was previously associated with CHI Memorial Hospital, announced Thursday it will again become an independent practice under newly formed Scenic City Pediatrics PLLC. Effective Feb. 1, the medical group will enter a new contract with BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, including Networks P and S, among other insurers, according to a news release. The change follows a June decision on BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee's behalf to terminate its contract with Memorial relating to its Network S customers. Managing Partner Dr. Tony Friddell said in a phone interview Pediatric Diagnostic Associates has been under the CHI Memorial umbrella as a managed practice within the hospital system for 28 years. In some shape or form, Pediatric Diagnostic Associates...

Modified BCG vaccine could prevent TB in cattle and help end culls - New Scientist News

Cows
A TB vaccine is good moos for cattle

Stef Bennett/Alamy Stock Photo

A modified version of the BCG vaccine against tuberculosis could allow cattle around the world to be vaccinated against the disease for the first time. At present, the disease is controlled by slaughtering infected cattle and other animals thought to spread it, such as badgers, which has been a source of controversy.

The modified vaccine has been tested only in guinea pigs so far, but the team is confident it will work in cattle too. “We would expect it to work in cows,” says team leader Johnjoe McFadden at the University of Surrey, UK. Testing in large animals like cattle is expensive, he says, and the team hasn’t yet got the funding.

Vaccinating cattle with the standard BCG vaccine used in people – which contains a live bacterium – is banned in most countries. The reason is that the vaccine protects only about 70 per cent of cattle and a standard test can’t distinguish between cattle that have been vaccinated and those that are infected.

Advertisement

The test involves injecting dead TB bacteria into the skin, but vaccinated and infected cattle react in the same way. This means the disease could spread undetected if vaccination was allowed.

McFadden’s team has got around this by deleting six protein-coding genes from the BCG vaccine strain. If these six proteins are injected into the skin of cattle vaccinated with the new strain, there will be no response, but in infected cattle there will be a response. So if the modified vaccine is used in conjunction with the new skin test, infected animals can be detected.

The work was done in collaboration with research organisations in India, where TB in cattle is a particular problem. Cows can’t be culled there because Hindus consider them to be sacred.

In the UK, wild badgers are culled to halt the spread of the disease, a controversial practice that some studies suggest might be counterproductive. This practice could be stopped if vaccination became possible, says McFadden.

Earlier this year, another group described a test for distinguishing between vaccinated and infected animals based on existing differences between TB and the standard BCG strain. McFadden says these differences are small and much harder to detect. “Ours is an improvement,” he says.

Journal reference: Scientific Reports, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-54108-y

More on these topics:



https://ift.tt/2QXe5jZ

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

These Are the Top Doctors in the Hudson Valley in 2022

William Buoni, MD - Wexner Medical Center

Who are the top doctors in Columbus? Search by specialty with Columbus Monthly's 2021 list