Live attenuated cold-adapted reassortant (CR) influenza virus vaccines were evaluated in institutionalized asthmatic children and severe psychomotor-retarded (SPR) patients. Almost all the vaccinees were seropositive to the vaccine strains before immunization. Trivalent CR vaccine (containing A H1N1 (CR-125), A H3N2 (CR-149) and B (CRB-117)), bivalent CR vaccine (CR-125 and CR-149) and monovale...

BACKGROUND The 2005 southern hemisphere formulation of the inactivated split-virion influenza vaccine Vaxigrip unintentionally contained a lower concentration of haemagglutinin (HA) than European Pharmacopoeia (EP) and WHO specifications for one of the three strains. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the immunogenicity of the 2005 southern hemisphere formulation of an influenza vaccine containing 9 micr...

Assessment of the severity of disease due to the 2009 pandemic influenza A(H1N1) in Australian states and territories has been hampered by the absence of denominator data on population exposure. We compared antibody reactivity to the pandemic virus using haemagglutination inhibition assays performed on plasma specimens taken from healthy adult blood donors (older than 16 years) before and after...

The aim of this field study was to determine the efficacy of vaccination against highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus strain H5N1 in Indonesia. A limited, prototype clinical trial was performed using a standardised treatment group, in which poultry flocks were vaccinated at least twice with a selected H5N1 vaccine, and a control group comprising flocks treated with non-standardised pr...

OBJECTIVE To determine the baseline Widal titres in apparently healthy children in Davangere. METHODS Cross-sectional study was done on 250 children. Widal titers were found using tube agglutination test. RESULTS Out of 250,64.2% had a titre of less than 1:20,22.4% had a titre equal to 1:20,9.6% had a titre of 1:40 and 3.6% had a titre of 1:80 to 'O' antigen and 67.2% had a titre of less th...

In the sera of ten normal humans and twenty-eight candidates for organ transplantation, the passive haemagglutination test detected a 50% incidence of preformed antibodies of low titre directed against horse serum. Such antibodies were also found to cross react with goat or rabbit sera in most instances. Seventeen of the organ recipients were later studied after the institution of treatment wit...

Gentiana kurroo Royle is a critically endangered medicinal plant species endemic to the northwestern Himalayas. This plant was studied for the immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory potential. Carrageenan paw edema model was used to study the potential of the drug in inflammation in Wistar rats. SRBC specific haemagglutination titre and DTH assays were carried out in Balb/C mice for observing t...

A serosurvey for mosquito-borne viruses was carried out in 93 wild boars (Sus scrofa), using a plaque-reduction neutralization microtest with Vero cells. The boars were sampled on 24 hunting grounds of the Breclav district (South Moravia) from 2000 to 2002. Specific antibodies to Flavivirus West Nile (WNV) were detected in six (6.5%) animals, and only in Lanzhot and Kostice, i.e., in the area o...

Cell lysates from 16 strains of eight Leishmania species were used to test haemagglutination activity (HA) against a variety of RBC. HA was detected using native or neuraminidase-treated rabbit RBC; it was found in promastigotes of all the Leishmania strains tested and in axenic amastigotes of L. mexicana. The HA was trypsin-sensitive, heat-resistant and partially dependent on divalent cations....

OBJECTIVE In SLE, a decreased antibody response on influenza vaccination has been reported. In this study, we assessed whether a booster vaccination could improve antibody responses, as determined by seroprotection rates, in SLE patients. METHODS SLE patients (n = 52) with quiescent disease (SLEDAI < or =4) and healthy controls (HCs) (n = 28) received subunit influenza vaccine in October-Dece...