Expert Alert Establishing Immunity: The Importance Of Getting Vaccines

Main Category: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Also Included In: Immune System / Vaccines
Article Date: 16 Apr 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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Did you know that vaccines have saved more lives than any other medical intervention in the last century? Yet according to the World Health Organization, around 397, 000 people in the Americas died from an infectious disease in 2002. Thanks to the many discoveries that have been made during the past decades, vaccines, when available, are a solution to protect populations against many diseases. Indeed it is estimated that two million deaths a year are prevented due to immunization.

In light of the National Immunization Awareness Week, CIHR-funded researchers are available to discuss how vaccines can save lives.

Experts:

Stopping an epidemic: The quest for an HIV vaccine
Dr. Bhagirath Singh, Scientific Director of the CIHR Institute of Infection and Immunity (London)

Keep your kids healthy! The benefits of pediatric vaccines
Dr. Michael Kramer, Scientific Director of the CIHR Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health (Montreal)
Dr. David Scheifele, CIHR-funded researcher from British Columbia Children's Hospital (Vancouver)

Cervical cancer: How the HPV vaccine can protect women
Dr. Eduardo Franco, CIHR-funded researcher from McGill University (Montreal)

Vaccination against Hepatitis A could improve public health among adults in Canada
Dr. David Scheifele, CIHR-funded researcher from British Columbia Children's Hospital (Vancouver)

Can vaccinating kids protect their grand-parents from the flu? What we can learn from the Hutterite community
Dr. Mark Loeb, CIHR-funded researcher from McMaster University (Hamilton)

Cheap, easy, painless protection: The future of needle free vaccines for infectious diseases
Dr. Scott Halperin, Director of the Canadian Centre for Vaccinology and Clinical Research Chair in Vaccines, Dalhousie University and IWK Health Centre (Halifax)

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is the Government of Canada's agency for health research. CIHR's mission is to create new scientific knowledge and to enable its translation into improved health, more effective health services and products, and a strengthened Canadian health-care system. Composed of 13 Institutes, CIHR provides leadership and support to nearly 12,000 health researchers and trainees across Canada

Source: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)