Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0085437 (bacterial meningitis)
 4,038 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Since the early days of Jenner, vaccination against infectious agents appeared a very efficacious way for preventing millions of deaths and patients with serious sequelae. However, only limited success has been obtained in eradicating infectious diseases. Smallpox is the only human infectious disease that has been eradicated so far by vaccination, and eradication of polio is in its endgame. Data from the WHO in 2003 show that 2.5 million children under five still die from vaccine preventable diseases, but many more die from the major microbial killers in the world, i.e. HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis for which there are no effective vaccines. Very serious morbidity is the consequence of many infectious diseases often leading to disablement for a lifetime. As a junior post-doc with a position in the department of Medical Microbiology at the University of Amsterdam, I was touched by the seriousness of bacterial meningitis. This laboratory is the National Reference Center for Bacterial Meningitis in the Netherlands. It receives more than 80% of all isolates from meningitis patients in the country and has access to patient information for epidemiological research. This environment triggered me to use my experience as a biochemist with a PhD on composition, structure and functioning of the outer membrane of Escherichia coli to move from basic microbiology research to research on pathogenic bacteria, and ultimately prevention of serious bacterial infections.
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PMID:Portrait of a leading vaccinologist: dedicated to meningitis and respiratory tract infections. 1985 75

Human vaccines, with their exquisite antigenic specificity, have greatly helped to eliminate or dramatically abate the incidence of a number of historical and current plagues, from smallpox to bacterial meningitis. Nonetheless, as new infectious agents emerge and the number of vaccine-preventable diseases increases, the practice and benefits of single-pathogen- or disease-targeted vaccination may be put at risk by constraints of timely production, formulation complexity, and regulatory hurdles. During the last influenza pandemic, extraordinary efforts by vaccine producers and health authorities have had little or no influence on disease prevention or mitigation. Recent research demonstrating the possibility of protecting against all influenza A virus types or even phylogenetically distant pathogens with vaccines based on highly conserved peptide or saccharide sequences is changing our paradigm. "Universal vaccine" strategies could be particularly advantageous to address protection from antibiotic-resistant bacteria and fungi for which no vaccine is currently available.
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PMID:Universal vaccines: shifting to one for many. 2068 48