Holocaust und globales Gedächtnis am Beispiel der Harry Potter Romane

Die Vergangenheit prägt die Gegenwart. Nicht nur wir persönlich lernen aus unseren Erfahrungen, sondern auch Gemeinschaften und Nationen schöpfen aus ihren Erinnerungen um sich dadurch zu definieren. Ein gemeinsames Gedächtnis grenzt eine Gruppe nicht nur von Außenstehenden bzw. den „Anderen“ ab, es formt vor allem das Selbstbild. Eines der Charakteristika, das eine Nation ausmacht ist seine Geschichte. Jeder Staat hat eine nationale Erinnerungskultur, die ihn von anderen Nationen abgrenzt. Was ist aber mit jenen Ereignissen der Geschichte, die verschiedene Gruppen bzw. die Menschheit gemeinsam erlebt haben? Kann es so etwas wie ein globales kollektives Gedächtnis geben? Die Soziologen Daniel Levy und Nathan Sznaider haben dazu Überlegungen angestellt und mit dem Holocaust einen Teil der Menschheitsgeschichte identifiziert, der ein globales Erinnern darstellt. Der Zweite Weltkrieg und die Schrecken des Holocaust waren und sind einzigartig. Der Umgang mit Vergangenheit stellte sich für viele Staaten und Gesellschaften lange Zeit als sehr schwierig und später auch äußerst umkämpft heraus. Inzwischen haben sich einige Faktoren verändert. Jene Generation, die sich heute mit dem Holocaust auseinandersetzt ist meist zu jung um diese Zeit und auch die Nachkriegsjahre miterlebt zu haben. Außerdem beschäftigen sich nicht mehr nur Akademiker wie Historiker und Soziologen mit den Ereignissen in der Menschheitsgeschichte, sondern immer öfter auch Produzenten von Massenprodukten. Steven Spielberg hat mit Schindlers Liste den Holocaust in die Kinos und damit zu einem breiteren Publikum gebracht. Aber auch Autoren von Kinderbüchern haben sich dem Thema angenommen. Der Nationalsozialismus und die Shoah wurden in den verschiedensten Formen für junge Leser aufbereitet. Auch in der Geschichte um den jungen Zauberer Harry Potter finden sich Elemente, die an die Nachkriegszeit in Europa und auch die Terrorherrschaft der Nationalsozialisten erinnern

A Whole Virus Pandemic Influenza H1N1 Vaccine Is Highly Immunogenic and Protective in Active Immunization and Passive Protection Mouse Models

The recent emergence and rapid spread of a novel swine-derived H1N1 influenza virus has resulted in the first influenza pandemic of this century. Monovalent vaccines have undergone preclinical and clinical development prior to initiation of mass immunization campaigns. We have carried out a series of immunogenicity and protection studies following active immunization of mice, which indicate that a whole virus, nonadjuvanted vaccine is immunogenic at low doses and protects against live virus challenge. The immunogenicity in this model was comparable to that of a whole virus H5N1 vaccine, which had previously been demonstrated to induce high levels of seroprotection in clinical studies. The efficacy of the H1N1 pandemic vaccine in protecting against live virus challenge was also seen to be equivalent to that of the H5N1 vaccine. The protective efficacy of the H1N1 vaccine was also confirmed using a severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mouse model. It was demonstrated that mouse and guinea pig immune sera elicited following active H1N1 vaccination resulted in 100% protection of SCID mice following passive transfer of immune sera and lethal challenge. The immune responses to a whole virus pandemic H1N1 and a split seasonal H1N1 vaccine were also compared in this study. It was demonstrated that the whole virus vaccine induced a balanced Th-1 and Th-2 response in mice, whereas the split vaccine induced mainly a Th-2 response and only minimal levels of Th-1 responses. These data supported the initiation of clinical studies with the same low doses of whole virus vaccine that had previously been demonstrated to be immunogenic in clinical studies with a whole virus H5N1 vaccine

Pathogen reduction/inactivation of products for the treatment of bleeding disorders:what are the processes and what should we say to patients?

Patients with blood disorders (including leukaemia, platelet function disorders and coagulation factor deficiencies) or acute bleeding receive blood-derived products, such as red blood cells, platelet concentrates and plasma-derived products. Although the risk of pathogen contamination of blood products has fallen considerably over the past three decades, contamination is still a topic of concern. In order to counsel patients and obtain informed consent before transfusion, physicians are required to keep up to date with current knowledge on residual risk of pathogen transmission and methods of pathogen removal/inactivation. Here, we describe pathogens relevant to transfusion of blood products and discuss contemporary pathogen removal/inactivation procedures, as well as the potential risks associated with these products: the risk of contamination by infectious agents varies according to blood product/region, and there is a fine line between adequate inactivation and functional impairment of the product. The cost implications of implementing pathogen inactivation technology are also considered

Current concepts in the prevention of pathogen transmission via blood/plasma-derived products for bleeding disorders

The pathogen safety of blood/plasma-derived products has historically been a subject of significant concern to the medical community. Measures such as donor selection and blood screening have contributed to increase the safety of these products, but pathogen transmission does still occur. Reasons for this include lack of sensitivity/specificity of current screening methods, lack of reliable screening tests for some pathogens (e.g. prions) and the fact that many potentially harmful infectious agents are not routinely screened for. Methods for the purification/inactivation of blood/plasma-derived products have been developed in order to further reduce the residual risk, but low concentrations of pathogens do not necessarily imply a low level of risk for the patient and so the overall challenge of minimising risk remains. This review aims to discuss the variable level of pathogenic risk and describes the current screening methods used to prevent/detect the presence of pathogens in blood/plasma-derived products