Science Media Centre

Researchers at the University of Auckland have found a vaccine used to protect Kiwis against Meningococcal B also provides some protection against gonorrhoea. Lead researcher Dr Helen Petousis-Harris presented the findings at a conference in England over the weekend. Though gonorrhoea is a major public health challenge, there has been little progress in developing a vaccine. […]

New Zealand scientists are preparing to move to human clinical trials on a vaccine they hope will aid in the treatment of bowel cancer. The University of Otago researchers studying a potential vaccine for colorectal cancer presented their findings at a Melbourne conference this week. PhD candidate Braeden Donaldson said the vaccine worked differently from […]

New international research indicates that just one dose of the Cervarix HPV vaccine – currently unavailable in New Zealand – could prevent the majority of cervical cancers. UPDATE: New comment below. Vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) can protect against infection and the risk of developing cervical cancer and a range of other HPV related diseases […]

The pharmaceuticals company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has said that its potential Ebola vaccine isn’t likely to be ready until late 2015. GSK is one of several companies trying to fast-track a vaccine to prevent the spread of Ebola in West Africa, compressing trials that would normally take up to 10 years into just 12 months. According to GSK’s press […]

Dominion Post reporter Nikki MacDonald interviews the Wellington scientists who have found, and patented, a new vaccine for asthma. The research – a collaboration between the Malaghan Institute and Victoria University’s Ferrier Research Institute – was published today in Nature Chemical Biology and shows that the vaccine prevents inflammation of the lungs and airways in mice. If successful in humans, the […]

New Kiwi research has demonstrated the potential of an oral vaccine for tuberculosis. In a study published this week in the open access journal PLoS ONE, researchers from the tested an oral formulation of the current tuberculosis (TB) vaccine in mice and found that it worked better than the standard injected vaccine in immunising against […]

Claims that an influenza epidemic of swine flu proportions are set to overwhelm the country are overblown, according to virologists at the National Influenza Centre.  Media reports that a ‘new strain’ of influenza — H3N2 — causing hallucinations and crippling nausea, is heading north from Canterbury, and that flu admissions are at ‘epidemic’ levels, are […]

All UK children are to be given the flu vaccination after experts said it could save up to 2,000 lives a year. The scheme, which is expected to be rolled out in 2014, will see all children aged two to 17 given the vaccination through a nasal spray (Fluenz® marketed by AstraZeneca). Younger children will […]

The MeNZB vaccine developed to control New Zealand’s meningococcal B epidemic in 2004-5 has helped researchers to create another, more advanced vaccine targeting more variants of the bacterial pathogen. The MeNZB vaccine was a  regionally specific vaccine for New Zealand targeting the B serotype of the bacteria Neisseria meningitidis, which cause meningococcal diseases, including meningitis. […]

New Zealand’s immunisation program has drastically reduced the prevalence of many potentially life-threatening communicable diseases, but it wont rest on it’s laurels when there is still room for improvement. This week is New Zealand’s National Immunisation Week, promoted by the Ministry of Health as a part of a larger World Health Organisation initiative. An awareness […]