-
Asked by clarkea to David, Helen, Ian, rhysphillips, Sarah on 14 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by meganelizabeth.
-
Helen Fletcher answered on 13 Jun 2011:
A third of the worlds population is infected with tuberculosis (TB) and 2 million people die of TB each year. We have antibiotics but you have to take 3 lots of antibiotics for up to 6 months. A lot of people can’t get a regular supply of antibiotics (for example clinic has run out, no money that week to buy them, road blocked due to heavy rain). If they don’t take the full course of antibiotics their TB never really goes away and can come back again, and may be resistant to antibiotics. Giving people a vaccine to prevent them getting sick in the first place is the best way to reduce the number of people getting sick with TB .We have made a new vaccine for TB called MVA85A. To find out whether the vaccine can protect people from TB we need to test it in an area of the world where there are high levels of TB in the community. In South Africa they have very high levels of TB in the community. In partnership with the University of Cape Town, and the local community, we have just vaccinated 1500 babies with MVA85A. We now have to wait for a year to see if the babies we gave the vaccine to are protected from TB or not
-
-
Ian van der Linde answered on 14 Jun 2011:
My area is “vision science” which is, as it sounds, the study of how people see. I study it because I find it very interesting to try to find out how visual information is stored and processed in our brains, and because there are lots of unanswered questions in this area so there are lots of challenges!
-
Rhys Phillips answered on 14 Jun 2011:
I study electromagnetic hazards in aircraft – this includes lightning strikes and also sparks in fuel tanks which could make the tank catch fire. It’s vital to understand these things in order to protect planes against them.
Comments