Tag Archives: Pennsylvania

Q&A with Dr. Sylvie Trottier, Canadian researcher working on Zika vaccine

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[A team of Canadian researchers is working diligently to develop a vaccine to combat the Zika virus/CBS]

A team of Canadian researchers is signing up volunteers to be part of the first human clinical trial of a vaccine to combat the Zika virus.

The Université Laval’s Infectious Disease Research Centre and Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec-Université Laval will be one of a trio of research centres to conduct the trial.

There is currently no treatment or vaccine for Zika, the virus that most recently emerged in South America. While most cases of Zika are relatively mild, the virus can cause microcephaly in infants born to infected mothers.

Yahoo Canada News spoke to Dr. Sylvie Trottier, director of the Laval faculty of medicine’s department of microbiology, infectious diseases and immunology, about the study.

Q: What does the trial involve?

The trial involves the first injection of the developing Zika vaccine. This vaccine has been through all the pre-clinical studies and now it is ready to be given to human beings for the first time.

This study is being conducted in Quebec City along with in two American centres.

Q: How long will it take?

The whole study will take about one year. We will give the vaccine to the volunteers and after we will observe the response in the immune system. This means there will be three shots of the vaccine. After that, it will be blood tests for quantification of the human response.

Q: So these are healthy people and you’re studying whether it has any adverse effects?

We want to see if there are any adverse effects and we want to see if there is immune response.

Q: How was the vaccine developed?

Researchers in Pennsylvania and Canada decided nine months ago that a Zika vaccine should be developed because of the pending outbreak of Zika in Brazil.

[Laval’s involvement is linked to the arrival of Dr. Gary Kobinger, a doctor of microbiology, professor in Université Laval’s Faculty of Medicine, researcher with Centre de recherche du CHU, director of Laval’s Infectious Disease Research Centre, and a global authority on vaccine research]

Q: That’s relatively quick?

Yes. This is a high-tech vaccine, a DNA vaccine.

[A DNA vaccine is a standard development technique in which genetic material is injected into a living host in order to prompt cells to produce an immunological response.]

This kind of vaccine is already in development for other viruses or microbes.

Q: So the team nine months ago foresaw the outbreak of the Zika virus?

In fact, the thing is that there were already two outbreaks in relatively small communities. In 2007, on Yap Island, Micronesia, 70 per cent of the people were infected.

The concern at that point was Guillain-Barre [an illness of the nervous system that can cause paralysis, and has been associated with Zika]. In the 2013 outbreak, the number of cases of Guillain-Barre was 20 times more than normal.

I don’t think anyone could have foreseen the onset of neurological defects in children. It could be more severe than we ever would have expected.

Q: Has this emerging problem of microcephaly made this vaccine more urgent?

Yes. These infants that are born with microcephaly have a lifelong disability and they will need a lot of care.

This is a human tragedy.

Q: This is an early stage of a human clinical trial. If everything goes as you hope, how long before a vaccine is available?

This is why we are working so hard now. But it is still hard to tell.

With the preliminary data, if we have good human immune response, this study can move quickly into Phase II, perhaps as early as the beginning of 2017.

Q: How many volunteers do you need?

We need 40 volunteers for the whole study. We want to proceed quickly to try and vaccinate them before the end of July or at the very beginning of August.

Q: What do you want Canadians to know about this study and Zika virus?

Even if, in Canada, we don’t have the mosquito that spreads this virus, this virus is transmitted sexually. In Canada now we have 161 cases and 160 of these cases involve travelers to affected countries. As there are more people, there will be more sexual transmission.

So it is not only a problem of South America or Central America. It is going to be a problem for us here, even if we don’t have transmission by the mosquito.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Source: Q&A with Dr. Sylvie Trottier, Canadian researcher working on Zika vaccine

Yes, I’m a nine-year-old girl. But I’m still a serious reporter | Hilde Kate Lysiak

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I’m Hilde Kate Lysiak, the publisher of the Orange Street News.

I am nine years old.

My story went viral this week when I responded to residents in my town who were upset that I was reporting on a serious crime, rather than doing – well, whatever it is they think nine-year-old girls should be doing.

Here’s what happened. On 2 April, there was a homicide in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. It took place just a few blocks from my house, where I run my newspaper.

I acted on a tip from a good source that I was able to get through some of my other reporting. After confirming with the police department, I then went straight to the scene and spoke to neighbors and got more information. I worked very hard.

Because of my work I was able to keep the people of Selinsgrove informed about this very important event hours before my competition even got to the scene.

In fact, some other news sites run by adults were reporting the wrong information or no information at all while the Orange Street News was at the scene doing the hard work to report the facts to the people.

In the hours that followed, many residents of Selinsgrove began making negative comments about me on my website and other social media sites. I understand that, as a reporter, the things I cover will sometimes make people mad. But these negative comments were not so much about the homicide I was covering, but the fact that I – a nine-year-old girl – was covering it at all.

Residents of Selinsgrove publicly called my work trash and told me I should leave it to the professionals. Other people told me I should stick to tea parties and playing with dolls.

Maybe that’s what the “professionals” were doing while I was working the scene, because they sure weren’t there. I have since found out that the police had asked the media not to run the story. I may be nine, but I have learned that my job as a reporter is to get the truth to the people. I work for them, not the police. I think that some people are angry that I didn’t follow along like everyone else.

My parents and I have also been warned that covering this story meant my reporting was no longer “cute”. I don’t think people should be able to decide for me who I should be and what I should be doing. I never began my newspaper so that people would think I was cute. I started the Orange Street News to give people the information they need to know.

I want to be taken seriously. I’m sure other kids do, too. Grownups usually treat kids like they cannot do anything great. If adults don’t think we can do something, then it is hard for us to believe that we can. And then how will we have great things in this world?

Kids should know that if they work hard, they can do amazing things. One time, I heard there was a robbery on my street. My source told me the robber tried to pop the window screen out. I found a house with a screen missing and spent a couple days knocking on the door. When the owner finally answered, it was the wrong house. (At least they became subscribers!) So I knocked on every other door of the block until I found the right one and was able to get my interview. Kids should know how amazing I felt when I finally got that story. It was like Christmas morning!

Some people have asked me if I thought people would have reacted differently if I were a boy. Maybe, maybe not. I could see them saying a boy should go and play with racing cars instead of how they told me to play with dolls. Or maybe they wouldn’t have said much at all. The thing is, I like playing with dolls, and having tea parties. I also think racing cars are really cool! Grownups shouldn’t assume that a kid – boy or girl – should be doing just one thing or another. Kids can do exceptional things and still be kids!

To everyone who has supported me (and there have been many): a huge thank you! To those of you who would rather I stay home and be playing tea parties, I say this:

Yes, I am a nine-year-old girl.

But I’m a reporter, first.

I report the news.

And so long as there is news to report in Selinsgrove, I’m going to continue trying my best to give the people the facts.

And for those of you who think I need to mind my place, I’ll make you a deal. You get off your computer and do something to stop all the crime going on in my town and I’ll stop reporting on it.

Until then, I’m going to keep doing my job.

Source: Yes, I’m a nine-year-old girl. But I’m still a serious reporter | Hilde Kate Lysiak | Opinion | The Guardian