An overview on the short, only 200 years, past history and future expectations in the field of vaccines is presented. The focus is on development trends and potential rather than individual vaccines. While the first vaccines were a result of keen observation, the further development has been tightly dependent on the development of microbiology to provide both the knowledge basis and the technol...

The Third Age is now considered by many to be the “golden years” of adulthood. It is generally defined as the span of time between retirement and the beginning of age-imposed physical, emotional, and cognitive limitations, and today would roughly fall between the ages of 65 and 80+. This is a period of adulthood when typically there are fewer responsibilities (e.g., career and family-rearing) t...

BACKGROUND In the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) birth cohort, chronic disabling fatigue lasting ≥6 months affected 1.3% of 13-year-olds, was equally common in boys and girls, and became more prevalent with increasing family adversity. METHODS ALSPAC data were used to estimate the prevalence of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) at age 16 years, defined by parental repor...

Between January 1985 and December 1988, 20 patients over the age of 55 years (extremes 56-63 years; 15 men and 5 women) underwent cardiac transplantation. The cause of cardiopathy was ischemic in 70% of the cases. The immunosuppressive regimen consisted of cyclosporin A, corticoids, and azathioprine. Rejection episodes were monitored by endomyocardial biopsies and treated by pulses of corticoid...

Hospital admission rates before 2 years of age are reported for two complete birth cohorts born within a geographically defined area five years apart in 1980 and 1985. Admission rates for individual children in the cohort before 2 years of age showed an increase between 1980 and 1985 from 209 to 247 children/1000. The most significant increase took place in those children admitted three or more...

Typhoid fever continues to be a major health problem in India. The disease is considered less common in children below 5 years of age(l,2), but later reports indicate an increasing prevalence in this age group (3,4). The clinical features of the disease in infants and young children are nonspecific, vary significantly, are usually severe and take a longer time for recovery (5). Lately we have b...