Science Daily – [PLoS Pathogens] – Researchers have demonstrated a technique that has the potential to reduce the toxicity of vaccines and to make smaller doses more effective???Developing vaccines is fraught with challenges, particularly because many candidates carry a high risk of toxic side effects. For example, twenty percent of people immunized against smallpox will suffer side effects???.
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Medical News Today [Journal of Clinical Investigation] – The development of effective vaccines for people with compromised immune systems may be feasible after all, according to a team of researchers, who demonstrated their approach could protect against pneumocystis pneumonia in mice lacking the same population of immune cells that HIV destroys in humans. The vaccine platform developed by Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh researchers, working in collaboration with researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and Louisiana State University, suggests that the immune system can be primed to ward off other infections as well, such as those caused by the flu, smallpox or exposure to anthrax, even in patients who have the highest risk for infection.
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Money – A look at the buildup of vaccines in the Strategic National Stockpile.
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Associated Press – Researchers at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases are studying the long-term effects of repeated administration of multiple vaccines, including an anthrax vaccine, Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed.
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Boston Globe – Vaccine makers are asking the US government for help to keep plants primed in case of bioterror attacks.
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Fort Detrick Standard – Since the bad old days when nations developed biological warfare agents to use against each others’ militaries, Venezuelan equine encephalitis has seemed to be the weapon of choice to disable–but not kill–troops.
Today, a new VEE vaccine is on the road to licensure because of fruitful research performed at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.
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Washington Post – A look at how tax breaks lead to BioPort’s decision to locate its new anthrax vaccine factory in Maryland.
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Associated Press – A firsthand look at the quaint system of producing flu vaccine, which is based on seasonal egg-laying and has harsh implications for what would happen if new batches had to be made in a hurry to fight a super-strain pandemic.
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News-Medical.net [British Medical Journal] – The compulsory use of vaccines to prevent the effects of a bioterrorist attack seems to be based on an unproved threat, according to an editorial in this week’s BMJ.

The BMJ editorial may be found here.
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