Christine Stabell Benn’s Post

Live vaccines are associated with beneficial non-specific effects, non-live vaccines with harmful non-specific effects in females. A new study compared children vaccinated with a live or non-live version of the vaccine against Japanese Encephalitis. The children, who received the live vaccine against Japanese Encephalitis, had significantly lower risk of lower respiratory tract infection in the following months. The effect was particularly strong in females and those, who had been ill a lot prior to vaccination. Link to the paper in comments. The findings add to many other studies showing that live vaccines carry benefits for the general immune system, most likely due to "Innate immune training". In contrast, there are serious safety signals related to non-live vaccines that have not yet been resolved.

Forskningens Døgn - på Syddansk Universitet - lørdag den 20. april. Hvad gør man som forsker, når ens forskningsområde bliver genstand for intens medieinteresse og offentlig debat? Hvordan formidler man kompleks forskning, når mange stemmer og studier bidrager til et mudret billede for den almindelige borger? Det ser jeg frem til at diskutere med Anton Pottegårds og Clement Kjersgaard - herunder min specielle kæphest: hvorfor er det, at forskere kan se på de samme data og nå forskellige konklusioner, og hvordan skal man navigere som borger. Link til event og billetbestilling i kommentarer.

The interest in non-specific effects is increasing. Introducing a new webinar series, the French Society of Immunology writes "In the field of vaccination, epidemiological data suggested that vaccination with live attenuated vaccines, and BCG in particular, had a beneficial impact on the occurrence of infections with different pathogens. Studies carried out to understand this effect have shown that, following such vaccinations, an epigenetic reprogramming of innate immune cells, such as monocytes, macrophages and/or natural killer cells (known as trained peripheral immunity), can be observed. It has been shown that this reprogramming can also be observed in immune progenitor cells in the bone marrow (i.e. trained central immunity). The French Society of Immunology's Vaccinology Club is organizing 3 webinars to provide a better understanding of this subject and its potential impact/interest in vaccination. The different webinars will focus on 1) Molecular mechanisms of Trained immunity 2) Central training of HSPCs and local training of tissue-resident innate cells 3) Trained immunity in clinical practice". In the first webinar, great colleagues and friends Maria Yazdanbakhsh ad Mihai Netea will be presenting their research. I will be present our work at a later weminar in the series. All webinars are open and free for all.

Er du studerende med viden om og interesse for kommunikation og skal Studiegården være din nye arbejdsplads? Så er vores opslag om studentermedhjælp måske noget for dig. Vi er på SDU, men stillingen kan søges af studerende fra uddannelsesinstitutioner. Deadline for ansøgning 12. marts. Link til call i kommentarer.

An experiment: What comes out of sending 9 researchers (including myself) from the 5 faculties at University of Southern Denmark (SDU) to Guinea-Bissau for a week? Within 3 days I already know the answer: A lot. The trip is funded by the Danish Institute for Advanced Study (DIAS) at SDU. DIAS' mission is to bring together outstanding researchers in an interdisciplinary center to support curiosity-driven research and unlock new ideas. I am witnessing that happening in real time here. The researchers have been visiting our research station Bandim Health Project and learned about the discoveries made here, based on the unique longitudinal data collection covering 200,000 individuals for >45 years. They have seen the routine data collection in practice. They have visited IBAP, the national institute for biodiversity and protected areas and discussed the use of drones for surveillance of the nature and the wildlife. They have been on a tour to the protected areas, including a boat trip through the mangrove, to see how the reforestation takes place. They have visited the national meteorological institute, seen the data collection, and learned that Guinea-Bissau is the second-most vulnerable country in the world, when it comes to raising sea-levels. The beautiful Bijagos Islands are particularly threatened. Yesterday, as a highlight, they had a meeting at UNDP, with the Director, Dr. Casazza and representatives from other UN programs and from World Bank, to present their areas of expertise and how the as experts interpret - and may help to solve - some of the large challenges in the country. A red thread in these first days has been the striking benefit of seeing things through the lenses of different disciplines. An example related to climate change: We need climate experts like Sebastian Mernild and Cintia Quintana to predict the climate changes and the impact on nature. We need drone experts like Elzbieta Pastucha to optimise the use of drones for surveillance, and we need IT, represented by Sani Abdullahi, to ensure strong databases and data security. We need experts in social sciences like Søren Askegaard and Shriram Venkatraman to estimate the impact on human capital, consumption and decision making. We need experts in migration and entrepreneurship as Maria Elo to find solutions to the changes in people's life caused by the foreseeable displacement. And we need humanities, represented by Sune Steffensen, to come up with the idea that existing local narratives about previous isolated climate events, like flooding or droughts, can be invoked to help understand the future challenges (and we of course need ourselves, the health researchers, to predict and mitigate the impact on human health). I am more than ever convinced that the biggest challenges in the world are solved in collaboration between disciplines, in open and curious and playful, yet dead-serious (because the problems that this country face are so overwhelming), collaboration.

Fruitful meeting today, between the coastal project in Guinea-Bissau, represented by Mary Seck and Jorge Oliveira, and researchers from University of Southern Denmark (SDU) Elzbieta Pastchuba and Cintia Quintana - to discuss a joint project, where the SDU researchers will conduct a training course in drone flying, image processing and mapping of the coastal areas, with support from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Cross my fingers that this project will (literally) fly.

On my way to Guinea-Bissau with a delegation of 8 researchers from ⁦ University of Southern Denmark and Danish Institute for Advanced Study. Guinea-Bissau and Denmark has collaborated for more than 45 years, within the area of health, through the Bandim Health Project (www.bandim.org). Now, we will explore whether there are other areas of collaboration. The 8 researchers represent the four other faculties at University of Southern Denmark. Their interests span areas as diverse as climate, marketing, entrepreneurship, linguistics and drones. Link to their profiles in comments. In the coming days I will attempt to summarise our experiences. I am hopeful, on behalf of Guinea-Bissau and Denmark, that we can strengthen the ties between the two countries - and more broadly between Africa and Europe - a wish also recently shared by the Danish minister for foreign affairs.

Does BCG vaccine protect against Alzheimer's? Intriguing research suggests that this vaccine's beneficial effects may reach beyond the specific protection against tuberculosis, and also beyond the non-specific effects on the immune system that leads to non-specific protection against other infections that we uncovered in Guinea-Bissau. This latter effect may namely also protect people from developing Alzheimer's. A new newspaper article summarizes what is known in this area. Link in comments.

A study with direct policy implications, It is rare to be able to conduct a study that very directly points towards changes in global policy. We achieved that with this new study (link in comments). To reduce the high neonatal mortality WHO currently recommends three home visits, including an assessment of the baby, promotion of exclusive breast feeding and cord care. Providing vaccines is not part of the recommendations. We have seen in numerous studies that BCG vaccine against tuberculosis and oral polio vaccine (OPV) have beneficial non-specific effects, strengthening the immune system and protecting against a broad range of infections. Both vaccines are recommended at birth, but typically children born at home will only get them once they get to a health center. We therefore tested in a randomised trial the effect of providing BCG and OPV at the home visits, vs. just having the home visits. The study showed that providing BCG and OPV reduced non-accidental early infant mortality by 59% (8–82%). The intervention also reduced non-accidental hospital admissions. This study highlights the importance of early vaccination; thus, local practices such as restrictive vial opening should be removed, so vaccines are provided as early as possible. The WHO recommendation of providing home visits after birth should be revised to include provision of BCG and OPV wherever possible. This minor change in the WHO recommendations could have a major impact on neonatal mortality among the poorest in the world. Karen Elise Jensens Foundation was the main funder of the trial. The Laerdal Foundation also supported the trial. We are immensely grateful for that support.

Forslag til udredningsprogram for patienter med komplekse lidelser efter COVID-19 vaccination. Selvom der er en mærkbar uvilje, ikke mindst hos sundhedsmyndighederne, mod at anerkende, at COVID-19 vacciner, præcist ligesom COVID-19 infektion, kan give anledning til langvarige komplekse senfølger, så er det klart for enhver med en smule immunologisk kendskab, at selvfølgelig kan det ske. Lige nu blokerer den manglende anerkendelse for, at patienterne får den bedste udredning og behandling, og for at der samtidigt laves god forskning, der på sigt kan lede til bedre behandling og forebyggelse. Det er urimeligt overfor patienterne - der strakte armen frem og viste samfundssind - og det er skadeligt for vaccinetilliden og kan på sigt true tilslutningen til vaccinationsprogrammerne. Vaccinepatienterne kastes lige nu frem og tilbage fra specialister og specialafdelinger. Det er omkostningstungt og ingen lærer noget af det. Vaccinepatienterne har været nægtet adgang til senfølgeklinikkerne. Efter pres for at ændre på denne forskelsbehandling, ser det nu ud til, at svaret er at lukke senfølgeklinikkerne. At lægge disse svært multisyge patienter - både dem, der er syge efter infektion, og dem der er syge efter vaccination - ud til de praktiserende læger er til skade for både patienterne og de praktiserende læger. Og igen: der kommer ingen samlet erfaringsopsamling og forskning ud af det. De komplekse syndromer kalder på en række undersøgelser: kliniske såvel som hæmatologiske, mikrobiologiske og immunologiske - både undersøgelser, der er en del af rutinerne, og specialanalyser, der kun udføres i forskningsøjemed. Lennart Friis-Hansen og Allan Randrup Thomsen og jeg har efter bedste fælles evne designet, hvad vi mener er et ideelt udredningsprogram, der kunne gøre os alle klogere. Det er målrettet patienter med komplekse lidelser efter infektion eller vaccination (defineret som "fortsatte eller nye symptomer indenfor 3 måneder efter infektion eller vaccination, hvor disse symptomer varer i mindst 2 måneder uden anden forklaring"). Vi har indsendt forslaget til Ugeskrift for Læger, hvor det er under review. Vi har også (efter tilladelse fra Ugeskriftet) allerede nu lagt forslaget op som preprint (link i kommentarer). Vores mål er at starte en konstruktiv dialog med myndigheder og andre læger om, hvordan vi bedst tager hånd om disse patienter, med den ansvarsfuldhed og ordentlighed, som de fortjener - og fordi det slet og ret kan betale sig for samfundet.