vivweb01

An interesting news item appeared last week in the BBC News Health Section.   As someone with an active interest in vaccine development it certainly attracted my attention, and I think it merits some discussion as a possible 'game changer' in our approach to preventing human disease…. The concept of a ‘Universal’ vaccine has been in the minds of those in the vaccine development field for many years, but the recent announcement is the first suggestion that such an intervention might actually be possible…and effective. I should add straight away that the Stanford research project alluded to in the above linked article is still very much in its early stages and positive results have only been shown in lab mice to date. The methodology is nowhere near entering human trials yet, and this will be the only way to demonstrate whether a more universal approach to vaccination would be viable in humans. Immunity is a lifelong process, and apart from anything else, the difference i...

Despite the rather arresting title, anyone expecting an exciting cautionary tale about the dangers of World War 2 fortifications faced by over-adventurous offspring from this blog article will, I’m afraid, be disappointed.... The pill-boxes I refer to are those clever little inventions many of us now use to ensure we remember to take our medications as prescribed, i.e. at the right time on the right day . Some younger readers might think this is a task that should be easy enough for anyone of sound mind without external aid; they may even go so far as to scoff at the need for something so pedestrian and 'low tech', given that the only medication they ever need is the occasional paracetamol or ibuprofen for a headache. What we need to remember, though, is that the average age of our UK population is increasing rapidly, and its general health is continuing to decline in the face of a failing health service, (which is now, sadly, forced to ration its care by availability)...