Vaccines: The Week in Review

15 February 2010
Center for Vaccine Ethics & Policy
http://www.centerforvaccineethicsandpolicy.org/
A program of
- Center for Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania
http://www.bioethics.upenn.edu/
- The Wistar Institute Vaccine Center
http://www.wistar.org/vaccinecenter/default.html
- Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Vaccine Education Center
http://www.chop.edu/consumer/jsp/microsite/microsite.jsp

This weekly summary targets news and events in the global vaccines field gathered
from key governmental, NGO and company announcements, key journals and
events. This summary provides support for ongoing initiatives of the Center for
Vaccine Ethics & Policy, and is not intended to be exhaustive in its coverage.
Vaccines: The Week in Review is now also posted in a blog format at
http://centerforvaccineethicsandpolicy.wordpress.com/. Each item is treated as an individual
post on the blog, allowing for more effective retrospective searching. Given email
system conventions and formats, you may find this alternative more effective. This
blog also allows for RSS feeds, etc.
Comments and suggestions should be directed to David Curry, Editor and
Executive Director of the Center, at
david.r.curry@centerforvaccineethicsandpolicy.org.

Lancet published a retraction of Wakefield AJ, Murch SH, Anthony

A, et al. “Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and
pervasive developmental disorder in children.” Lancet 1998; 351:
637–41.
“Following the judgment of the UK General Medical Council’s Fitness to
Practise Panel on Jan 28, 2010, it has become clear that several elements of
the 1998 paper by Wakefield et al are incorrect, contrary to the findings of an
earlier investigation.2 In particular, the claims in the original paper that
children were “consecutively referred” and that investigations were
“approved” by the local ethics committee have been proven to be false.
Therefore we fully retract this paper from the published record.”
The Editors of The Lancet
Hodgson H. A statement by The Royal Free and University College Medical
School and The Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust. Lancet 2004; 363: 824.
http://download.thelancet.com/flatcontentassets/pdfs/S0140673610601754.p
df

The Philadelphia Inquirer carries an article by Dr. Paul A. Offit which

comments on the retraction and the impact of the original Lancet article.
The MMR vaccine scare: How bad science resulted in suffering and
death is available at:
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents/84326297.html. Dr. Offit is chief of
the division of infectious diseases at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
and provides oversight for the Center for Vaccine Ethics and Policy, which
publishes this weekly update.
 The WHO continues to issue weekly “updates” and briefing notes on the
H1N1 pandemic at: http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/index.html
Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 - update 87
Weekly update
12 February 2010
As of 7 February 2010, worldwide more than 212 countries and overseas
territories or communities have reported laboratory confirmed cases of
pandemic influenza H1N1 2009, including at least 15292 deaths. More at:
http://www.who.int/csr/don/2010_02_12/en/index.html

WHO reported that a meningitis epidemic hit Burkina Faso and

Chad, noting that vaccination campaigns are being conducted in both
countries and that WHO is working with partners to support the ministries of
health in ensuring epidemiological and laboratory surveillance are reinforced
and that vaccine is made available.
http://www.who.int/en/

PATH announced that the Global Health Technologies Coalition

(GHTC) launched its new website www.ghtcoalition.org, “detailing health
technologies and key issues for advancing global health innovations.” The
coalition, housed at PATH and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,
includes “more than 30 organizations advocating for research and
development of tools to prevent, diagnose, and treat global diseases so
health solutions are available when populations need them.” The coalition
advocates for new vaccines, microbicides, drugs, devices, and diagnostics
that will improve health in developing countries. PATH said the new site
offers numerous resources and can serve as a clearinghouse of information
about coalition activities and global health research and
development. http://www.path.org/news/an100208-ghtc.php

The MMWR for February 12, 2010 / Vol. 59 / No. 5, includes: Update:
Mumps Outbreak — New York and New Jersey, June 2009--January 2010
State and local health departments, in collaboration with CDC, continue to
investigate a U.S. mumps outbreak that began in June 2009 at a summer
camp in New York. As of January 29, 2010, 1,521 cases had been reported,
97% of which have occurred in members of the same tradition-observant
religious community. Among patients for whom vaccination status was
reported, 88% had received at least 1 dose of mumps-containing vaccine,
and 75% had received 2 doses.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5905a1.htm
Journal Watch
[Editor’s Note]
Vaccines: The Week in Review continues its weekly scanning of key journals
to identify and cite articles, commentary and editorials, books reviews and
other content supporting our focus on vaccine ethics and policy. Journal
Watch is not intended to be exhaustive, but indicative of themes and
issues the Center is actively tracking. We selectively provide full text of
some editorial and comment articles that are specifically relevant to our
work. Successful access to some of the links provided may require
subscription or other access arrangement unique to the publisher. Our initial
scan list includes the journals below. If you would like to suggest other titles,
please write to David Curry at
david.r.curry@centerforvaccineethicsandpolicy.org

JAMA
Vol. 303 No. 6, pp. 481-576, February 10, 2010
http://jama.ama-assn.org/current.dtl
[No relevant content]

Journal of Infectious Diseases

1 March 2010 Volume 201, Number 5
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/jid/current
[Reviewed last week]

The Lancet
Feb 13, 2010 Volume 375 Number 9714 Pages 525 - 610
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/current
[No relevant content]

The Lancet Infectious Disease

Feb 2010 Volume 10 Number 2 Pages 67 - 138
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/issue/current
[Reviewed earlier]

Nature
Volume 463 Number 7282 pp709-840 11 February 2010
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v463/n7282/
[No relevant content]

New England Journal of Medicine

Volume 362 — February 11, 2010 — Number 6
http://content.nejm.org/current.shtml
[No relevant content

Pediatrics
February 2010 / VOLUME 125 / ISSUE 2
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/current.shtml
[Reviewed last week]

PLoS Medicine
(Accessed 14 February 2010)
http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=browse&issn=1549-
1676&method=pubdate&search_fulltext=1&order=online_date&row_start=1
&limit=10&document_count=1533&ct=1&SESSID=aac96924d41874935d8e1
c2a2501181c#results
Developing Global Maps of the Dominant Anopheles Vectors of
Human Malaria
Simon I. Hay, Marianne E. Sinka, Robi M. Okara, Caroline W. Kabaria, Philip M.
Mbithi, Carolynn C. Tago, David Benz, Peter W. Gething, Rosalind E. Howes,
Anand P. Patil, William H. Temperley, Michael J. Bangs, Theeraphap
Chareonviriyaphap, Iqbal R. F. Elyazar, Ralph E. Harbach, Janet Hemingway,
Sylvie Manguin, Charles M. Mbogo, Yasmin Rubio-Palis, H. Charles J Godfray
Health in Action, published 09 Feb 2010
doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000209

Science
12 February 2010 Vol 327, Issue 5967, Pages 747-906
http://www.sciencemag.org/current.dtl
[No relevant content]

Vaccine
Volume 28, Issue 7, Pages 1661-1892 (17 February 2010)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?
_ob=PublicationURL&_cdi=5188&_pubType=J&_acct=C000050221&_version
=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=06a70dff873c73731f4a31331c8deee2
&jchunk=28#28
[Reviewed last week]