His paper, "Live flavivirus vaccines: reasons for caution" appears as a rapid review article in the June 19, 2004, issue of the journal Lancet. Co-author is Ernest A. Gould, Ph.D., of CEH-Oxford in the UK.
Flaviviruses, which can recombine within species and may recombine between species, also include dengue, Japanese encephalitis and tick-borne encephalitis. They cause substantial sickness and death each year. Although live-virus vaccines offer great promise in terms of cost and efficacy, their use should be approved by an international authority due to safety concerns, the authors write.
The article lists five main lessons learned from other live virus vaccines:
The Lancet