Events

Oral vaccination in developing countries - can we do better? 

Oral rotavirus, polio and cholera vaccines are less immunogenic and less effective in children living in resource-poor regions of Africa and Asia. The lower efficacy of multiple oral vaccines in similar settings suggests there may be common mechanisms that limit immunity induced by oral vaccines in such environments.

Professor Gagandeep Kang will talk about the role of maternal antibodies, the presence of bacterial and viral pathogens, the intestinal microbiota, intestinal inflammation and the systemic and mucosal immune response in children from lower socio-economic status families. Professor Kang is Professor of Microbiology at the Christian Medical College in Vellore, India. She is currently on sabbatical as the Executive Director of the Translational Health Science Technology Institute, an autonomous institute of the Department of Biotechnology. She works on enteric infections in children, particularly on transmission and immune responses, in order to design effective interventions. Current studies include active hospital and community based surveillance and clinical trials of new and existing vaccines, with use of molecular based assays to study the diversity of pathogens and the immune response of children with viral and parasitic enteric infections.