The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine win Yoshinori Ohsumi for his discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy

This year's Nobel Laureate discovered and elucidated mechanisms underlying autophagy, a fundamental process for degrading and recycling cellular components. The word autophagy originates from the Greek words auto-, meaning "self", and phagein, meaning "to eat". Thus,autophagy denotes "self eating". This concept emerged during the 1960's, when researchers first observed that...

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It's International Left-Handers Day, Why Are People Left-Handed?

It’s International Left-Handers Day, so it’s time to give left-handers some overdue appreciation. There was once a time (a long time ago), when people believed that being left-handed meant a person was more prone to “dealings with the devil” and that the trait should be corrected, according to the New York Times. Thankfully, the prejudice is gone, but people are still curious—why...

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Immunological basis of Vaccination

Introduction Immunization aims to artificially induce immunity against disease. This may be active, whereby the immune system is recruited to provide protection against the disease or infection, or passive, where exogenous protection is provided, albeit temporarily. Normal immune response The immune system provides protection against infectious agents. Classically,...

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Precautions and Contraindication before vaccination

There are many reasons to avoid or postpone vaccines.Sometimes people may have unreasonable concerns that lead to indecision to get vaccination even when there is no risk.  It is critical for vaccine providers and relevant healthcare workers to distinguish among these different reasons. In this article we try to make rough idea about this facts. Before that lets refresh...

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The immunisation schedule in UK

The overall aim of the routine immunisation schedule is to provide protection against the following vaccine-preventable infections: ● diphtheria ● tetanus ● pertussis (whooping cough) ● Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) ● polio ● meningococcal serogroup C disease (MenC) ● measles ● mumps ● rubella ● pneumococcal disease (certain serotypes) ● human papillomavirus types 16...

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National Immunization Programme of Sri Lanka and Key Principles in Immunization

In the year 1798, Edward Jenner first demonstrated that vaccination offered protection against smallpox. He used cowpox (poxvirus bovis) for the immunization of man against the smallpox virus (poxvirus varialae). For the last 200 years, the use of vaccines has continued to reduce the burden of many bacterial and viral diseases. Smallpox itself has been eradicated,...

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