Thai company to develop whooping cough vaccine for poor nations
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Thu, 15 Jan 2009 06:18:12 GMT |
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Ayutthaya, Thailand - A joint Thai-French company on Thursday opened the Thailand's first private research and development centre dedicated to producing affordable vaccines for developing countries, starting with a vaccine to prevent whooping cough. "The opening of our R&D centre shows our commitment to bridge the huge vaccine gap between industrialized and developing worlds by delivering new and affordable vaccines to emerging countries," said Vitoon Vonghangool, managing director of Bio-Net Asia Company Limited. Bio-Net Asia, a joint venture between Thai and French investors, will soon start production of a new acellular pertussis vaccine, developed by a team of scientists from Bio-Net and Thailand's Mahidiol University, to prevent whooping cough. "This will, indeed, be the first time that developing countries will have access to an innovative and affordable vaccine before the industrialized world," said vaccine expert Jean Petre at the opening ceremony for the centre which is located in Ayutthaya province, 90 kilometres north of Bangkok. The joint venture has invested 300 million baht (8.6 million dollars) in the first phase of the project. "We believe that this project will help stimulate growth of future vaccine developers in our region," said Vitoon.
Copyright DPA
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Pertussis
By:
Dan ,
Sun, 01 Feb 2009 23:59:03 GMT
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Whooping cough is also known as Pertussis, which is a very highly contageous communicable bacterial disease. The severity of the disease depends on the stability of one’s immune system, and as well as if such people already have diseases within them. And Pertussis, known also as Whooping cough, can be a serious infection of the respiratory tract.
The cause is due to a microbe called Bordetella pertussis, a communicable gram-negative coccobicillus that was first described during the 1600s, yet was not isolated until the turn of the 19th century. What is unique about this microbe is that its pathogen is specifically designed for a human to be its host.
Pertussis is endemic throughout the world, which means that it is prevalent to particular unimmunized regions and is cyclic every few years. There are 40 million or so cases of Pertussis every year, with about 300,000 deaths worldwide every year as well.
It affects the elderly and infants the most as far as severity and complications. Over 70 percent of Pertussis cases are acquired by those who are less than 5 years old. Also, Pertussis is most aggressive in the Spring and Fall seasons. However, in December of 2008, areas in the Middle secion of the United States witnessed outbreaks of pertussis that far exceeded in numbers of cases compared to what they expected. In fact, last year saw nearly 10,000 cases of Pertussis, and that is the most who have acquired this disease in over 40 years.
It is a bacterial infection, so diagnosing Pertussis is done through performing a culture to isolate the bacteria that is causing the disease, so the proper antibiotic can be given to the patient. The antibiotic is usually most effective from what is known as the Macrolide class of antibiotics, or the antibiotic class of eurythromycin for two weeks of treatment.
Complications that become a cause of concern are of a respiratory nature, so those patients are usually placed in respiratory isolation in a medical institution, if their symptoms progress associated with this disease, which will be noticeable by their cough and pulmonary dysfunction.
Vaccinations are given usually in developed countries as well as in the United States, with a recommended booster pertussis vaccination as the child gets older- since the pertussis vaccine wears off after about 5 years. 5 doses of the vaccine are administered, with three doses during infancy, one dose as a toddler, and one dose as a child. The ones for children are known as DTP vaccinations. www.cdc.gov should provide you with additional information,
Dan Abshear
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