大象传媒

TB Vaccine
A new vaccine for tuberculosis that had shown early promise in stimulating an immune response in adults, has not replicated its initial success in a trial on infants in South Africa. Most babies around the world are given the traditional Bacille Calmette鈥揋u茅rin, or BCG vaccination, which protects them very well against some forms of tuberculosis but does not prevent pulmonary TB, the most common form of the disease. Helen McShane is Professor of Vaccinology at Oxford University and has devoted fifteen years to developing this vaccine; the first to be developed for 90 years. The long-awaited results have just been published in the medical journal Lancet.

Overweight Sri Lankan monks
The authorities in Sri Lanka have taken an unusual step; they have drawn up dietary guidelines for the majority Buddhists to ensure that their customary charitable food offerings to monks are healthy. This comes as reports suggest increasing numbers of the Buddhist clergy are putting on weight and contracting diet-related diseases including diabetes. The 大象传媒鈥檚 correspondent Charles Haviland reports from Colombo.

Addison鈥檚 disease
Addison鈥檚 is a rare chronic condition, brought about by the failure of the adrenal glands, which requires lifelong continuous treatment with steroid replacement therapy. When Carol McKay was diagnosed with the condition she wanted to find out how people coped with it, so she used social networking to ask other sufferers to recount their experiences. The result is an e-book called Second Chances; a compilation of stories from Addison鈥檚 sufferers around the world.

Credit: Science Photo Library