".the need for increased communication and engagement strategies around maternal vaccination [in Uganda]." The World Health Organization (WHO) and others have recognised the importance of contextualised and tailored delivery of vaccination programmes to identify possible concerns that could undermine confidence in vaccines.
(Graphic) K. Franklin/Science
Those databases will illuminate studies of human variation worldwide, in part because the great genomic diversity in Africans can uncover spurious links to medical conditions, explains Concepcion Nierras, an NIH Common Fund geneticist. For example, in Europeans a rare variant of a gene for a low-density lipoprotein that contributes to high cholesterol seemed to raise the risk of heart disease. But Fatumo and his colleagues found that among Africans, the variant was common even in those who did not have heart disease, suggesting it may not have clinical relevance. The
Nature paper uncovered 54 such variants that now need re-evaluation.
Two HIV vaccine trials launched in Uganda
December 23, 2020 One of the volunteers getting the jab
PrEPVacc is, for the first time, trialing two HIV vaccine regimens in Uganda, and at the same time testing a new form of daily oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) against the existing standard for PrEP.
The PrEPVacc trial, testing two ways to prevent HIV at the same time was launched on December 20 and begun giving its first injections and medicines to participants, at the Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (MRC/UVRI and LSHTM) Uganda Research Unit, an official statement released on December 20, said.