Vaccines & Viruses: Swine flu toll nears 2,000 in India

Editor’s note: In an effort to keep our readers informed of the latest developments surrounding the current vaccine controversy, WORLD will post regular updates on vaccine success stories and failures, debate over vaccine exemptions, and the status of vaccine-preventable diseases.

Deadly swine flu. An ongoing outbreak of swine flu in India has sickened 32,663 and killed 1,947, according to the latest government figures, released on Monday. A swine flu vaccine is available, but health officials are only recommending it for children, the elderly, and healthcare workers. Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers said earlier this month the swine flu virus circulating in the nation of 1.3 billion might be more virulent than previous strains.

Challenge to vaccine court rejected. The U.S. Supreme Court last Friday declined to wade into a debate over the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, turning down a case involving a 23-year-old man, Ilya Dobrydnev, who claims he developed chronic fatigue syndrome as the result of a hepatitis B vaccine received at age 10. Congress set up the vaccine court in 1988 as a no-fault system for settling vaccine injury claims and protecting pharmaceutical companies from lawsuits. The court has awarded $2.9 billion to families over the years. The court had awarded nearly $1.1 million to Dobrydnev’s family as compensation for his chronic fatigue syndrome, but a federal appeals court overturned the award last year, claiming the family had not sufficiently proven the vaccine caused Dobrydnev’s illness. The Supreme Court’s Friday decision suggests it isn’t interested in deciding whether the vaccine court’s burden of proof for injury claims is too high.

Ebola battle. Trials for the new Ebola vaccine are underway in Liberia and Guinea, and Sierra Leone will start trials soon. West Africans are suspicious of the vaccine campaign, and some believe they’ll catch Ebola from the shot. When The Associated Press asked one Liberian student if he would get the Ebola vaccine, he hissed two times and said: “I don’t get myself associated with anything that is associated with Ebola.”

Somewhat effective. A double-blind Dutch study of 84,000 older adults found the most moneymaking vaccine in history, the Prevnar 13 pneumonia vaccine, is 46 percent effective at preventing the illness in people over age 64. But that applies only to the 13 strains of viruses contained in the vaccine: Overall cases of pneumonia were not reduced among study participants, due to other types of viruses, such as influenza. Pfizer makes the vaccine and funded the study.

Yellow fever vaccine death. A medical report determined an Oregon woman died as the result of a rare but serious reaction to a yellow fever vaccine, in which the virus replicated out of control. She was in her 60s and had an undiagnosed thymus tumor that may have contributed to the reaction. Yellow fever is a deadly illness common in Africa and South America.

Really? I had no idea you could immunize your dog against rattlesnake bites.