Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/460558
ByLauranNeergaard TheAssociatedPress WASHINGTON It took 16 years of twists and turns. Over and over, Dr. Nancy Sullivan thought she was close to an Ebola vaccine, only to see the next experi- ment fail. "A case of resuscitation more than once," is how the National Institutes of Health researcher describes the journey. But it is those failures that Sullivan credits for fi- nally leading her to a vac- cine promising enough to test in parts of West Af- rica ravaged by Ebola. Last week, volunteers in Libe- ria's capital began rolling up their sleeves for the first large-scale testing of two potential Ebola vaccines, the one Sullivan developed at NIH and a similar one created by Canada's gov- ernment. Sullivan just hopes it was in time to prove whether the shots really work. Ebola has claimed nearly 9,000 lives in West Af- rica over the past year, al- though new infections have dropped dramatically in re- cent months. It's too soon to declare victory: Last week, new cases inched up for the first time this year, and health officials fear a re- surgence if they don't com- pletely stamp out the dis- ease before the upcoming rainy season. Waning cases make it more difficult to tell if a vac- cine is protective, but the shots will be tested in mul- tiple places and ways "hop- ing that one of those will give us real data," said Dr. Bruce Aylward of the World Health Organization. Getting to that step is a story of nitty-gritty labora- tory science, the kind that seldom makes headlines. "You don't know what's going to be important 15 years from now," noted Sul- livan, a cell biologist who kept hitting roadblocks as she tried to unravel enough mysteries of the immune system to create an Ebola vaccine. "You need a failure to know what immune re- sponses aren't helpful, as difficult as they were at the time," she said. It all started in the late 1990s, when Sullivan, who had just earned her Ph.D. at Harvard, landed a new job at the University of Mich- igan. She wanted to study how Ebola infects cells, but her boss, Dr. Gary Nabel, gave her a bigger assign- ment: develop a vaccine ca- pable of protecting mon- keys. Back then, the average person probably knew of Ebola only from Richard Preston's best-seller "The Hot Zone" or the movie "Outbreak." Discovered in 1976, the virus cropped up every few years in remote parts of Africa, killed doz- ens to a few hundred peo- ple with horrifying swift- ness and retreated back into the jungle again. Early vaccine attempts had failed. "The thinking was, this virus was too aggressive, it's not possible to mount an immune response in suf- ficient time," recalled Sulli- van, who followed Nabel to NIH and now heads bio- defense vaccine research there. Most vaccines spur pro- duction of immune system antibodies that block a vi- rus from entering cells, but Sullivan didn't think that would be enough for Ebola, a large virus that infects in an unusual way. Gene-based vaccines can induce additional vi- rus fighters called T cells, so that's what Sullivan created with pieces of Ebola genetic material. In July 1999, col- leagues emailed that they'd given her vaccine to mon- keys and measured a big immune reaction. Sullivan recently showed President Barack Obama the lab note- book where she'd scribbled her reaction: "Yahoo!" In November 2000, Sul- livan and Nabel reported in the journal Nature that four vaccinated monkeys survived an otherwise le- thal dose of Ebola. "For the first time, a vac- cine protected monkeys against the lethal Ebola vi- rus, raising doctors' hopes of developing a means of inoculating people against the terrifying disease," The Associated Press reported at the time. But her vaccine required multiple shots over several months, not useful dur- ing an outbreak. Sullivan scaled back, using a hu- man cold virus, called an adenovirus, to carry the Ebola genetic material in one shot. Then she learned it wouldn't work in people who've had that particular cold virus. Using rare hu- man adenoviruses didn't work at all; finally a chim- panzee cold virus did the trick. Along the way came mul- tiple monkey studies to learn exactly what kind of T cells to target. "Lots of shoes have dropped," is how she de- scribes all the frustration. Sullivan had a few years' head start but after the 2001 anthrax attack other laboratories scrambled to study Ebola and other pos- sible bioterrorist agents. Soon after, the Public Health Agency of Canada reported creating its own Ebola vaccine using a live- stock virus to carry the ge- netic material — the sec- ond vaccine currently being tested in that large study in Liberia. "Thank God we had some of these" underway, said Eb- ola expert Thomas Geisbert of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galves- ton, an early collaborator on the Canadian vaccine who helped with some of Sullivan's initial work and now researches treatments. "You can't do that research in six months." As the Liberian vaccine study gets under way, work hasn't paused back in Sul- livan's lab. Her research in monkeys suggests long- lasting protection will re- quire a special booster shot, something yet to be- gin Phase 1 safety testing in people. She goes to Congo, where Ebola first was dis- covered, about twice a year for research. "It isn't the case where you discover something and instantly move it to humans," Sullivan wants the public to understand. "There are lots of pitfalls." EBOLA Twists,turnsleadtopromisingvaccine THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Dr. Nancy Sullivan, chief, Biodefense Research Section, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks in her office at the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. The Associated Press ELK GROVE A California city with a large number of whooping cough cases de- spite a high immunization rate is revealing the limi- tations of the current vac- cine used to protect against the disease, a newspaper re- ported. Elk Grove had a whoop- ing-cough infection rate three to five times higher than other places in Sac- ramento County last year even though only 80 of the suburb's 4,500 kindergart- ners opted out of vaccina- tions, according to the Sac- ramento Bee. "Children who were vac- cinated did not receive the protection desired," said Kate McAuley, program co- ordinator of communicable disease and immunization at the Sacramento County Public Health Department. Experts say the whoop- ing cough vaccine intro- duced in the late 1990s provides less protection each year after it is admin- istered, often leaving chil- dren vulnerable before they get their booster shot, the Bee reported. The new vac- cine uses only pieces of the bacteria that cause whoop- ing cough, or pertussis, as opposed to whole, dead bacteria. The change was made after some children who took the earlier vac- cine experienced reactions including a high fever and seizures. But the new vaccine loses its effectiveness after its first year, according to ex- perts and a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Concerns about the vac- cine come as a record-high 11,000 Californians caught whooping cough in 2014 and a measles outbreak sweeps the state. Parents of unvaccinated children have been blamed for the mea- sles outbreak, but experts say pertussis is different. "It's not correct to only pin (the pertussis outbreak) on the people who are un- vaccinated," Mark Sawyer, a professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego, and a member of the U.S. Centers for Dis- ease Control and Preven- tion's immunization prac- tices committee, told the Bee. "The effectiveness of the vaccine is a huge part of this. People who are immu- nized do still get pertussis." Still, Sawyer and other experts said parents should vaccinate their children against whooping cough because the vaccine re- duces the chances of infec- tion. Pertussis — symptoms of which include fever, vom- iting, fatigue and a severe cough that forces people to take deep breaths that re- sult in a "whooping" sound — can be fatal. And they en- courage adults to get a per- tussis booster shot if it has been more than a decade since their last shot, or they spend time around infants. "People shouldn't avoid this vaccine for any reason," Sawyer said. Information from: The Sacramento Bee, http:// www.sacbee.com. STATE Whooping-cough outbreak raises vaccine concerns PLEASE RECYCLE THIS NEWSPAPER. Thankyou! By Darlene Superville The Associated Press WASHINGTON Michelle Obama says she dropped boxed macaroni and cheese from her family's diet after her daughter couldn't turn a block of cheese into cheese pow- der. In an interview in the March issue of Cook- ing Light magazine, Mrs. Obama says Sam Kass, the family's former personal chef, had taken a stand against the boxed variety, which includes processed cheese powder among the ingredients. "He said there's noth- ing wrong with mac and cheese, but it's got to be real food," she said, cred- iting him with helping to eliminate processed food from their diet. Kass gave her daugh- ter Malia, who was about 8 years old at the time, a block of cheese and chal- lenged her to turn the fresh cheese into powder. "She sat there for 30 minutes trying to pulver- ize a block of cheese into dust," Mrs. Obama says. "She was really focused on it and it just didn't work, so she had to give up. And from then on, we stopped eating macaroni and cheese out of a box because cheese dust is not food, as was the moral of the story." As she marks the fifth anniversary of her anti- childhood-obesity initia- tive, the first lady says it feels like there's "a new norm" in how families think about food and what's healthy. Because food is per- sonal and people are ob- sessed with it, Mrs. Obama said she's trying to deliver "a message of change" that doesn't assign blame but provides information needed to make better choices. MICHELLE OBAMA Fo odi e fir st l ad y sa ys 'c he es e du st i s no t fo od ' Endsnoring An estimated 80 million people in North America snore. Taking into account the snorer's spouse and children, as many as 160 million people are negatively affected by snoring. Snoring not only interrupts your sleep cycle, it can also be a symptom of a condition called sleep apnea. Fortunately, there are cost-effective oral appliances for snoring and sleep apnea that dentists can prescribe to their patients. Traditional mandibular advancement appliances, such asSilentNightSlide-Link,TAP,EMA, help reduce or eliminate snoring by moving the lower jaw forward, opening the airway to allow air to flow more freely. CALL DR. RANDAL ELLOWAY IF YOU ARE SUFFERING FROM SNORING OR SLEEP APNEA. HE WILL BE GLAD TO DISCUSS YOUR SYMPTOMS. PROVIDE YOU WITH THE OPTIMUM APPLIANCE TO HELP YOU SLEEP PEACEFULLY AND WITH SECURITY. CALL (530) 527-6777 OFFICE HOURS MON-THURS 8-5 • FRI 8-12. EVERY OTHER WED 10-7 2426 South Main St., Red Bluff CA Serving Red Bluff for 30 years Look to us for Expert Eye Care. Board Certified by American Board of Ophthalmology Clinical Professor at UC Davis Medical Center Daniel M. King, M.D. Physician & Eye Surgeon 411 Cedar Street, Red Bluff (530) 527-6123 I;@F7D5AGBA@EB75;3> 750DavidAvenue,RedBluff•527-9193• www.tehamaestatesretirement.com findusonFacebook *lease required - new residents only Tehama Estates The areas #1 Senior Housing Provider SeniorRetirementApartments TehamaEstatesProvides: • 3 Delicious Healthy Meals Each Day • Daily Housekeeping • 24 Hour Staffing, 365 Days of the Year • Utilities Included (except phone & cable) • Transportation • Fun Activities and Events $400 off Your Monthly Rental Rate For 6 Months * CNAs neededat Red Bluff Health Care FT, PT, & On-call Call 527-6232 or stop by 555 Luther Rd. EOE NeedaDoctor? Wehavetherightoneforyou. This Complimentary Service... will help you find a doctor who is right for you. Call 888.628.1948 any time or visit dignityhealth.org/doctor redbluff.mercy.org HellohumankindnessTM 40 Chestnut Avenue Red Bluff 530-330-1096 BRING BALANCE TO YOUR BODY Bring balance to your LIFE LeBarre startinginMarch! Balance, Agility, Resistance, Recovery & Eloquence! 100JacksonStreet Red Bluff (530) 529-1220 No Enrollment Fee $25.00 month HEALTH » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, February 10, 2015 MORE ATFACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4