The immune system recognizes vaccine agents as foreign, destroys them, and ‘remembers’ them. When the virulent version of an agent comes along the body recognizes the protein coat on the virus, and thus is prepared to respond, by (1) neutralizing the target agent before it can enter cells, and (2) by recognizing and destroying infected cells before that agent can multiply to vast numbers.
SARS or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome is a viral respiratory illness caused by a coronavirus – the SARS associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) – which can be life-threatening.
Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that have a halo or crown-like (corona) appearance when viewed under a microscope and are a common cause of mild to moderate upper-respiratory illness in humans and can cause severe disease in animals where they can cause respiratory, gastrointestinal, liver and neurologic disease – coronaviruses have also sometimes been linked to pneumonia in humans, especially those with weakened immune systems.
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Influenza shot
A FLU jab that triggered fits in children will be rolled out again next winter.
The Health Department gave the drug companies the go-ahead to make more of the controversial vaccine.
The department’s Australian Influenza Vaccine Committee has approved a repeat production of the cocktail of swine flu and two seasonal flu strains for the next Australian winter.
Health authorities are still investigating why the world-first, three-in-one vaccine induced febrile convulsions at nine times the normal rate before it was suspended in April for use in children younger than five. Read more…
