Notebook

Contents Trial veteran Resistance in rivers I contain multitudes Chlamydia in heart disease Tomatoes vs. armyworms Look, Ma, no paws Peroxide damage

Philip Brunell receives the first injection at NIH of the experimental shingles vaccine from nurse Patricia Hohman.

TRIAL VETERAN When Philip Brunell received the first shingles vaccination in a Phase III trial June 17, it was not exactly a shot in the dark. The senior attending physician at the National Institutes of Health clinical center estimates he's been injected in the name of science 20-30 times. "Whenever we've had a vaccine trial and I've been eligible, I've taken the first dose." The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases trial tests a more potent version of the vaccine used to immunize children against the chicken pox to cause an immune response against varicella-zoster virus (VZV). VZV causes both shingles and chicken pox. The virus remains dormant in nerve...