Dementia
Shingrix linked to substantial reduction in diagnoses in the six years after people received the shot
Thu 25 Jul 2024 11.00 EDT
Researchers have raised hopes for delaying dementia after finding that a recently approved shingles vaccine was linked to a substantial reduction in diagnoses of the condition in the six years after receiving the shot.
The discovery, based on US medical records, suggests that beyond the health benefits of preventing shingles, a painful and sometimes serious condition in elderly people, the vaccine may also delay the onset of dementia, the UKs leading cause of death.
Dr Maxime Taquet at the University of Oxford, the first author on the study, said the results supported the idea that shingles vaccination may prevent dementia. If validated in clinical trials, these findings could have significant implications for older adults, health services, and public health.
Shingles is caused by the herpes zoster virus and can flare up in people who have previously had chickenpox. When a shingles vaccine, Zostavax, was first rolled out in 2006, a number of studies found hints that the risk of dementia seemed to be lower in those who got the shots.
The development of a new and more effective shingles vaccine, Shingrix, led to a rapid switch in the US in October 2017, meaning those who were vaccinated before that date received Zostavax, while those vaccinated after tended to have Shingrix.
The Oxford team studied the health records of more than 200,000 US citizens vaccinated for shingles, about half of whom received the new vaccine. Over the next six years, the risk of dementia was 17% lower in those who received Shingrix compared with Zostavax.
For those who went on to develop dementia, that amounts to an extra 164 days, or nearly six months, lived without the condition. The effect was stronger in women, at 22%, than in men at 13%.
The researchers went on to examine dementia rates in people who received other vaccines. Writing in Nature Medicine, they describe how those given Shingrix had a 23 to 27% lower risk of dementia than people who were vaccinated against flu, tetanus, diphtheria or pertussis. One of the authors of the study, Prof John Todd at Oxford, is a consultant to GSK, the manufacturer of Shingrix, but the researchers said the study was conducted without any involvement from the pharma company, who were informed of the work when it was accepted for publication.
Last year, the NHS made Shingrix available to people turning 65. The expectation is that if this is indeed a causal effect, then we would see a reduction in dementia in the UK once people start taking up the Shingrix vaccine, said Taquet.
There are more than 55 million people globally living with dementia and more than 900,000 in the UK alone. One in three people will develop the condition in their lifetime, and while drugs that appear to slow the disease have recently been approved, there is no cure.
The latest study does not prove that Shingrix delays dementia, but Prof Paul Harrison, a senior author on the paper, said more groups were working on the question. If the vaccine does protect against dementia, it is unclear how. One possibility is that the resurgence of virus in shingles drives pathological changes that lead to dementia. Another is that chemicals called adjuvants in the vaccine, which make the immune response to the vaccine more potent, play a role.
Also unclear is whether any protection against dementia would be more effective if the vaccine were given to younger people, such as those in their 50s, or whether it would wear off too soon.
It will be interesting to see if these data become publicised, that more people choose to take [Shingrix] when theyre offered it, said Harrison. I certainly wouldnt recommend that people should start demanding the vaccine just because they think itll reduce the risk of dementia.
Andrew Doig, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Manchester, said: This is a significant result, comparable in effectiveness to the recent antibody drugs for Alzheimers disease. Administering the recombinant shingles vaccine could well be a simple and cheap way to lower the risk of Alzheimers disease.
Now, we need to run a clinical trial of the [new] vaccine, comparing patients who receive the vaccine with those who get a placebo. This is the most reliable way to find out how well the vaccine works. We also need to see how many years the effect might last and whether we should vaccinate people at a younger age. We know that the path to Alzheimers disease can start decades before any symptoms are apparent, so the vaccine might be even more effective if given to people in their 40s or 50s.
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The recombinant shingles vaccine (Shingrix) was associated with a larger reduction in dementia risk than the live shingles vaccine (Zostavax), an analysis of more than 200,000 U.S. older adults showed.
Over a 6-year follow-up period, adults who predominantly received the recombinant herpes zoster vaccine had a 17% increase in time without a dementia diagnosis (restricted mean time lost ratio 0.83, 95% CI 0.80-0.87, P<0.0001) compared with those who received the live vaccine, reported Maxime Taquet, PhD, of the University of Oxford in England, and co-authors.
This translated into 164 additional days without a dementia diagnosis, Taquet and colleagues reported in Nature Medicine. The reduction in dementia risk was present in both men and women, but greater in women.
The recombinant shingles vaccine also was tied to a lower risk of dementia compared with two other vaccines commonly used in older people -- influenza and tetanus/diphtheria/pertussis (Tdap) vaccines.
"The size and nature of this study makes these findings convincing, and should motivate further research," Taquet said in a statement.
"They support the hypothesis that vaccination against shingles might prevent dementia," he continued. "If validated in clinical trials, these findings could have significant implications for older adults, health services, and public health."
Several studies have linked viral illnesses with subsequent dementia. Human herpesvirus 6A (HHV-6A) and human herpesvirus 7 (HHV-7) have been found in postmortem tissue samples of people with Alzheimer's disease at levels up to twice as high as non-Alzheimer's disease samples, for example.
Researchers also have suggested that herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) coupled with an APOE4 gene may raise Alzheimer's risk considerably. Based on early HSV-1 research, a trial of the antiviral drug valacyclovir (Valtrex) in mild Alzheimer's disease is currently underway.
Last year, a preprint study in Wales suggested that the live shingles vaccine may be associated with a 20% reduction in dementia risk, with the relationship stronger in women than men.
"Although previous studies have suggested immunization against herpes viruses might protect against dementia, particularly in women, this took advantage of a change in vaccine type to overcome the many confounding variables that may have provided alternative explanations," noted Robert Howard, MD, of University College London, who wasn't involved with the new Oxford study.
"The next question is how does vaccination exert this dementia protection effect?" Howard asked in a post on the U.K. Science Media Centre. "Is it through suppression of virus or is the induced immune response targeting a step in the molecular pathology of Alzheimer's disease?"
In the U.S., the recombinant shingles vaccine was approved in October 2017. In 2018, it received a preferential recommendation by the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) over the live shingles vaccine. As of November 2020, the live shingles vaccine was no longer available, according to the CDC.
Taquet and co-authors used TriNetX electronic health records in the U.S. to study 103,837 individuals ages 65 and older who received a first dose of shingles vaccine between November 2017 and October 2020; 95% received the recombinant vaccine. These older adults were propensity-score matched with 103,837 individuals who received their first dose between October 2014 and September 2017 (98% had the live vaccine). People with previous diagnoses of dementia or neurodegenerative disease were excluded from the study.
Median follow-up was 4.15 years in the recombinant vaccine group, and 6.0 years in the live vaccine group. The primary outcome was a first diagnosis of dementia from 3 months (to exclude possible pre-existing dementia) to 6 years post-vaccination in a time-to-event analysis, based on ICD-10 codes.
Associations between recombinant shingles vaccination and dementia were consistent across dementia types except frontotemporal and Lewy body dementia. Older adults vaccinated after October 2017 also were less likely to have a herpes zoster infection post-vaccination.
The study was observational and cannot show causality, the researchers acknowledged. It relied on electronic health records, which may have had errors. Being diagnosis-free does not mean participants were disease-free, they pointed out.
Nonetheless, the findings are "intriguing and encouraging," said co-author Paul Harrison, FRCPsych, also of the University of Oxford. "Anything that might reduce the risk of dementia is to be welcomed, given the large and increasing number of people affected by it."
Judy George covers neurology and neuroscience news for MedPage Today, writing about brain aging, Alzheimers, dementia, MS, rare diseases, epilepsy, autism, headache, stroke, Parkinsons, ALS, concussion, CTE, sleep, pain, and more. Follow
Disclosures
This research was supported by the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre.
Taquet and Harrison had no disclosures.
One co-author was a consultant for GSK, maker of Shingrix. GSK was not aware of the study until after the manuscript had been accepted.
Howard reported no conflicts of interest.
Primary Source
Nature Medicine
Source Reference: Taquet M, et al "The recombinant shingles vaccine is associated with lower risk of dementia" Nat Med 2024; DOI: 10.1038/s41591-024-03201-5.
Until theres a cure or a vaccine, we will need to sustain the AIDS response beyond 2030, UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said last month.
When drugmaker Gilead Sciences announced interim late-stage trial results of its injectable HIV prevention drug last month, researchers, advocates and Wall Street collectively rejoiced. None of the more than 2,000 women at high risk for contracting HIV who were given two annual injections of lenacapavir were infected. It is gobsmackingly exciting to see zero in a clinical trial, Mitchell Warren, executive director of the global HIV prevention nonprofit AVAC told Forbes.
The results were so promising that an independent committee recommended all of the 5,300 women participating in the trial get the twice-yearly injections rather than continuing with comparison groups taking daily oral pills, which averaged around two out of every 100 women getting infected. As the 25th annual International AIDS Conference kicks off in Munich this week, California-based Gilead is expected to release the full data from the Phase 3 trial; additional data from a trial including men and transgender people is expected by early next year. But the potential of a new long-acting HIV prevention tool could be short-lived as the perennial political football enters the equation: cost.
There's so much trepidation in the HIV community about how it's going to be made accessible, Monica Gandhi, a professor of medicine and director of the UCSF Center for AIDS Research, told Forbes. Who's going to get it? Only rich people in the United States, not anyone in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Lenacapavir is already approved as a twice-yearly antiretroviral treatment for people with multi-drug resistant HIV (which costs $42,250 for the first year of treatment and $39,000 each year after in the U.S.). This most recent trial is focused instead on using it as a prevention tool known as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, which is for people at high-risk of contracting the disease. As Gilead waits for more clinical trial data and pursues regulatory clearance, it is too early to state the price of lenacapavir for PrEP, Gilead spokesperson Meaghan Smith told Forbes in an email.
In a press release, Gilead said it plans to ensure supply in countries where the need is greatest, until it negotiates voluntary licensing agreements, which usually allow for some lower income countries to get generic versions of brand name drugs at a fraction of the cost. The concern is that even at a much-lower price point, it would still be out of reach for many people in the most hard-hit regions of the world. Gilead would not say whether it specifically intends to work with the U.N.-backed Medicines Patents Pool on these agreements.
Around 39.9 million people worldwide are living with HIV and there are an estimated 1.3 million new infections each year, with cases rising in the Middle East and North Africa, Eastern Europe, central Asia and Latin America, according to the latest numbers from the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, or UNAIDS. In 2016, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a target of ending AIDS by 2030, but this is unlikely. Even UNAIDS acknowledges the world is off track. New HIV infections are three times higher than the 2025 target, funding for HIV prevention is shrinking worldwide, a quarter of people infected arent receiving treatment and regressive policies from authoritarian governments are hindering access to prevention.
While there have been amazing advances with PrEP options, people need to continue taking the medication as long as they remain at-risk, which could be an entire lifetime. The obvious solution would be a much cheaper vaccine that could provide years of protection, but its a research puzzle that has eluded top scientists in government, academia and industry for more than two decades. Until theres a cure or a vaccine, we will need to sustain the AIDS response beyond 2030, in every part of the world, UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said last month.
Governments, nonprofits and companies have spent upwards of $18 billion on HIV vaccine research since 2000, per AVAC estimates; not a single clinical trial has made it beyond Phase 3. In January of last year, Johnson and Johnson pulled the plug on its Mosaico trial after it failed to show an effective response. And in December 2023, PrEPVacc, the final remaining late-stage HIV vaccine trial, was stopped early when it was determined there was little or no chance of an effective response.
AIDS activists demonstrating in Spring 1991 at Grand Central Station in New York City, NY. Today a person dies from AIDS-related causes every minute.
In an untreated person, HIV will generate around 10 billion new virus particles per day. While antiretrovirals have done wonders to prevent and control HIV infection, most people have to stay on them for life, or else the virus will start replicating in their bodies with a vengeance. Its for this very reason that developing a vaccine that would help the body generate its own active immune response to keep the virus in check is the holy grail of HIV prevention, Jim Kublin, executive director of the HIV Vaccine Trials Network based at Fred Hutch Cancer Center told Forbes.
The dream would be to have a vaccine that protects a person for years on end like the ones that exist for tetanus or smallpox or, even better, for a lifetime, like the measles vaccine. Gileads lenacapavir results for the twice-yearly shot only raise the bar for any future vaccines, said Warren of the prevention nonprofit AVAC. The vaccine would have to have a similarly high rate of stopping infections, last much longer in duration and be priced much lower.
There are several big challenges with HIV that boil down to the same principle: its a very sneaky escape artist that is constantly changing and using decoys to evade capture by the immune system. The usual approach for many vaccines is to introduce inactivated virus or pieces of virus into the body so that the immune system can prepare a response in advance of infection. But HIV relies on a series of tricks that makes it incredibly challenging for the body to even recognize it is an invader in the first place, including infecting the very cells that are supposed to trigger the response.
As a point of comparison, take Sars-CoV-2, the virus that caused the coronavirus pandemic, which takes its name from the Latin word for crown. Thats because when it enters the body, its like a brilliant glittering diamond-encrusted tiara, in which each diamond is a spike protein that tells the body it's an invader. HIV, on the other hand, is just a plain metal crown with only a handful of diamonds placed few and far between and some of those are decoys. That makes it not only hard for the body to recognize it as a virus, but it also acts as a form of armor preventing antibodies from latching on.
HIV is also mutating at an extremely high rate, so even if the body does end up spotting the invader, HIV has already come up with another disguise by the time it generates a response. It's constantly evolving, sacrificing what it was before in order to try to evolve to its environment very, very quickly, Katharine Bar, an infectious disease doctor and associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania told Forbes.
Most vaccines on the market for other diseases try to jumpstart the bodys natural immune response. In the case of HIV, the natural [response] fails, Otto Yang, professor and associate chief of infectious diseases at UCLA Health, told Forbes. If you try to copy it, he said, you're copying a failing process. One potential solution is to re-engineer the immune system to generate a response that attacks the rare spots in the virus structure that are less likely to mutate. There's some parts of the viruses that hopefully are like Achilles heels, said Yang.
He likens the current efforts by scientists working on multiple types of vaccine responses to top-secret World War II codebreakers in Englands Bletchley Park. You're trying to solve something that's unknown, and you're getting together the best minds to figure out how to decode the enigma machines, said Yang, though he is not confident that an HIV vaccine is currently possible without a major breakthrough. And theres generally agreement in the research community that any successful vaccine would need to combine multiple methods.
And even if it ever does come to pass, an HIV vaccine wont be a silver bullet. The key, says Gandhi of UCSF, is to give people who are at-risk of HIV infection a choice. Theres so far been low uptake of PrEP in Africa, particularly among high-risk groups like young women, due to a combination of factors, including stigma, lack of awareness and distrust. Some people will be okay with a daily pill, while others might want a shot. It's really a matter of providing these options, just like contraception, Gandhi said.
While the decades-long quest for an HIV vaccine has yet to be successful, what scientists have learned along the way has majorly contributed to how the world has responded to other pandemics, like the rapid development of Covid-19 vaccines. The Nobel Prize-winning research of Katalin Karik and Drew Weissman underpinning the mRNA Covid vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech originated two decades ago in the quest for an HIV vaccine. We learn a ton from trying to do the hardest thing, said Bar.
When will it finally pay off? There's this sort of sad aphorism that we're always 10 years away from an effective HIV vaccine, she said. But I think science doesn't necessarily move at a linear pace. It's a big breakthrough followed by iterative changes, followed by another breakthrough.
MORE FROM FORBES
The 24-hour news cycle is just as important to medicine as it is to politics, finance, or sports. At MedPage Today, new information is posted daily, but keeping up can be a challenge. As an aid for our readers, and for a little amusement, here is a 10-question quiz based on the news of the week. Topics include the Shingrix vaccine, doctors' PTSD during the pandemic, and the "Best Medical Schools" rankings. After taking the quiz, scroll down in your browser window to find the correct answers and explanations, as well as links to the original articles.
A new drug described as the closest we have ever been to an HIV vaccine could cost $40 (31) a year for every patient, a thousand times less than its current price, new research suggests.
Lenacapavir , sold as Sunlenca by US pharmaceutical giant Gilead, currently costs $42,250 for the first year. The company is being urged to make it available at a thousand times less than that price worldwide.
UNAids said it could herald a breakthrough for HIV prevention if the drug was available rapidly and affordably.
Given by injection every six months, lenacapavir can prevent infection and suppress HIV in people who are already infected.
In a trial, the drug offered 100% protection to more than 5,000 women in South Africa and Uganda, according to results announced by Gilead last month.
Lenacapavir is currently licensed for treatment, not prevention.
In a study presented at the 25th international Aids conference in Munich on Tuesday, experts calculated that the minimum price for mass production of a generic version, based on the costs of lenacapavirs ingredients and manufacturing, and allowing for 30% profit, was $40 a year , assuming 10 million people used it annually. In the long-term, 60 million people would probably need to take the drug preventatively to lower HIV levels significantly, they said.
Dr Andrew Hill, of Liverpool University, who led the research, said: Youve got an injection somebody could have every six months and not get HIV. Thats as close as weve ever been to an HIV vaccine.
Most HIV prevention presently relies on daily pills and barrier measures, such as condoms.
Campaigners want Gilead to allow generic licensing through the UN-backed Medicines Patent Pool in all low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), which account for 95% of HIV infections. Similar mechanisms have been in place in the HIV treatment market for decades, where wealthy countries pay higher prices than poorer ones.
If that did not happen, Hill said, countries should consider issuing compulsory licences allowing generic manufacture in the face of a public health emergency.
Gilead said it was too early to price lenacapavir for prevention, as it was awaiting clinical trial data and potential regulatory filings, but promised a strategy to enable broad, sustainable access globally.
This would include both Gilead supply in the countries where the need is greatest until voluntary licensing partners are able to supply high-quality, low-cost versions of lenacapavir and a voluntary licensing programme for high-incidence, resource-limited countries. Gilead said choosing those countries was ongoing.
But campaigners said it was vital that all LMICs, including upper middle-income nations such as Brazil, had access to low-cost generic forms of the drug.
Similar selections in the past had excluded countries where the HIV epidemic was growing fastest, they said.
Trials in LMICs made the case for universal access even stronger, Hill said, pointing to the Helsinki Declaration on medical ethics, which said that trials should only be performed in populations who stood to benefit from the results.
Joyce Ouma, senior programmes officer at Y+ Global, a network of young people living with HIV, said a twice-yearly injectable would be transformative for young people like me living with or at risk of HIV.
Ouma said: Its not an exaggeration to say that meeting the 2030 goal of ending new HIV transmissions hinges on Gilead ensuring people in the global south have fair access to lenacapavir.
Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAids, said treatment could be life-saving by providing a more discreet option than daily tablets for people who faced stigma because of their HIV status or sexuality.
The headline of this article was amended on 23 July 2024 to reflect that, although the lead researcher said it was as close as weve ever been to an HIV vaccine, lenacapavir is a drug rather than a vaccine.
Hello, health and wellness readers. My name is Kaitlin, your guide to the latest news you may have missed.
Lets take a look at what our team wrote about this week:
Pesticide exposure may be just as bad as smoking, a new study found and Natalie Rahhal spoke with experts about how to avoid them.
Super-gonorrhea?! Its rare but smart, writes Rachel Bender, and doctors are concerned.
Kerry Justich caught up with your 90s boy band crush Lance Bass to talk about how his type 1.5 diabetes diagnosis is a full time job to manage.
Having excess belly fat and arm fat, specifically, could raise your risk of dementia and Parkinsons. Can we do anything about it? Natalie found some answers.
Did TikTok convince you that you have a hormonal imbalance? Kerry writes about why you may want to take a step back before exploring social medias solutions to cortisol face.
Fruit may help alleviate depression, Korin Miller writes but you cant exactly watermelon your way to better mental health. Heres why.
Heres what else to know:
A twice-yearly shot from pharmaceutical company Gilead was 100% effective in preventing HIV infections in women, per new research. The study, which involved 5,338 HIV-free participants in South Africa and Uganda, found that none of the women who received the shots of drug Lenacapavir contracted HIV, while 2% of those using existing daily prevention pills did. This result led researchers to stop the study early and offer the shots to all participants.
Why it matters: Winnie Byanyima, head of UNAIDS, called Lenacapavir a miracle product and it could make a major difference in the fight against HIV and AIDS, particularly for communities where infection rates are high. Right now, we have tools to prevent HIV, but there are some drawbacks. PrEP (a short term for pre-exposure prophylaxis) is a highly effective preventive option, but it involves taking a daily pill, which may be difficult for some people to stick to and is prohibitively expensive.
The goal now will be to make the drug, which the Associated Press reported will be sold under the name Sunlenca, affordable so it can be easily accessible in developing countries. Gilead has yet to state how much they believe it will cost per patient.
Wildfires burning across California, Oregon, Arizona, Washington and Canada have caused significant smoke and haze. This has led to air quality alerts in many parts of the western United States, with Oregon seeing the most fires of any state. The uncontained Durkee Fire is the largest active fire in the country and is located near the Oregon-Idaho border.
Why it matters: Smoke from fires can cause respiratory problems and worsen existing health conditions such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart disease.
You dont need to see fire or even smoke in order to feel the effects on your health. You can check your air quality by going to AirNow.gov and typing in your zip code, which can give you updated information on how to protect yourself depending on reported levels.
In general, you can protect yourself from smoke by staying indoors with windows and doors closed and using air purifiers with HEPA filters. If you must go outdoors, avoid exerting yourself and wear an N95 or P100 mask.
Research from Oxford University suggests that the shingles vaccine, Shingrix, might delay the onset of dementia by five to nine months. Exactly why this happens is unclear, but researchers think it may have to do with Shingrix reducing the impact of the herpes zoster virus, which is linked to dementia. Its also possible that the vaccine's ingredients may support brain health. Right now Shingrix is offered to people ages 70 to 79, as well as those with a weakened immune system, but it is being gradually rolled out to people 65 and older.
What it means: Over 50 million people worldwide live with dementia, with this number only expected to increase possibly to as much as 230 million people by 2050. Delaying the onset of dementia can give people more time to make caretaking plans and critical medical decisions, improving the quality of life for patients and reducing the overall burden on loved ones. However, more research is needed to confirm the potential dementia benefits and determine the best timing for the vaccine.
This news also comes on the heels of new drugs for the treatment of Alzheimers, a type of dementia. Eli Lillys drug Donanemab showed a 35% reduction in progress of the disease in 18 months, in people between 60 and 85.
Drug vial with label - Vaccines Save Lives
One of my earliest childhood memories was watching my father, a doctor, make house calls to his patients around Nashville. Witnessing his healing, empathy, and dedication to the science of medicine first inspired me to follow in his footsteps not just as a physician, but in his passion to make the world a healthier, better place for all. It inevitably guided me to the halls of the U.S. Capitol as a senator representing my home state of Tennessee.
In those halls, I saw the greatness of this country at its best moments times of bipartisanship, when the health, happiness, well-being, and freedom of the American people were prioritized above all else.
That was 17 years ago. Since then, we have watched that bipartisanship crumble and those good moments become fewer and farther between, reaching a precipice during the COVID-19 pandemic a precipice we are dangerously close to careening over.
The pandemic not only led to a devastating loss of life, but it also gave rise to a scourge of misinformation causing a level of distrust in medicine and science unseen in modern times. Never in my lifetime has the word vaccine been so controversial. As a physician, and as a representative of the American people, its disappointing, but it is by no means insurmountable.
Recent data on vaccine hesitancy must be our wake-up call our rallying cry to right the ship, most importantly for our young people. The CDC has reported that immunization rates for critical vaccines like MMR, DTaP, and polio continue to fall, dropping below levels from the 2011-2012 school year, amounting to nearly 250,000 children who may not be protected against measles and other infectious diseases. We are already witnessing the effects.
With the emergence of a measles vaccine in the early 1960s, we saw a 99% reduction in measles cases in the U.S., achieving the elimination goal in 2000. However, due to vaccine hesitancy since then, we have witnessed an alarming rise in outbreaks across the country. Between November 2022 and February 2023, a measles outbreak affected several schools and daycares in central Ohio, infecting 85 children 80 of whom were unvaccinated. Already this year, there have been 11 outbreaks in the U.S., with cases spanning 22 states. Of this years cases, 65% of the children under age 5 were hospitalized.
Globally, outbreaks of other vaccine-preventable diseases like polio and cholera are also on the rise, and will almost certainly make their way to the U.S. These diseases know no borders, and if vaccination rates continue to decline here, the relatively small number of cases we have now could very quickly become tens or hundreds of thousands of infected people.
Vaccines have, and continue to be, our greatest defense in preventing infectious diseases and safeguarding public health. Historical data underscores their success. The introduction of the polio vaccine in 1955 drastically reduced the number of polio cases, contributing to the Americas being declared polio-free in 1994. Recent studies have also shown the high efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, with mRNA vaccines like those from Moderna and Pfizer demonstrating effectiveness rates of over 90% in preventing severe illness and hospitalization. Furthermore, the new RSV immunization, nirsevimab, has shown 90% effectiveness in preventing RSV-related hospitalizations in infants.
Children and parents line up outside the Children's Hospital to receive polio vaccines, Cincinnati, ... [+] Ohio, April 24, 1960. The day marked to first day that the vaccine was made available to US children and was popularly referred to as 'Sabin Sunday,' after Dr. Albert Sabin whose research at the hospital lead to the vaccine. (Photo by Cincinnati Museum Center/Getty Images)
In addition to their effectiveness, vaccines have a robust safety profile with minimal risk of side effects, having been subject to rigorous studies and double-blind tests. Contrary to what rampant misinformation would have you believe, the vast majority of vaccine side effects are mild and temporary, such as a low-grade fever. These successes and safety assurances highlight the critical role of vaccines in combating both long-standing and emerging infectious diseases, underscoring the importance of continued vaccination efforts.
Vaccines are critical for more than individual health, they also ensure the safety of those around us. A viruss effects are exponential: One unvaccinated individual can cause severe illness among entire communities and lead to preventable loss of life, especially among the most vulnerable including children, grandparents, front-line workers, and the immune-compromised like transplant recipients, whose lives hang in the balance.
It falls to all of us to correct the course, combat misinformation, get vaccinated, and urge our loved ones to do the same. And to our lawmakers the men and women fortunate enough to hold offices that are a public trust it is past time to live up to the roles bestowed by the American people. It is the responsibility of our leaders to take the sometimes uncomfortable, even unpopular, position when the health and safety of our people are at stake. Trust the science, trust the medicine, work together, and boldly combat the rising vaccine hesitancy and skepticism that needlessly put our nation at risk.
Danielle Smith, the conservative premier of the western Canadian province of Alberta, re-confirmed on Monday that she will table amendments to the Alberta Human Rights Act to include vaccination status as a protected ground from discrimination.
The amendment was a key campaign promise, along with the enactment of the Alberta Sovereignty Act, which allows the province to challenge or ignore federal laws that negatively impact Albertas interests. The Alberta Sovereignty Act was enacted and came into force on December 15, 2022, shortly after the premier took office. Premier Smith later walked back on her promise of amending provincial human rights legislation to include vaccination status as a protected ground.
On the day she was sworn in, Premier Smith was asked how the choice to vaccinate was comparable to other protected grounds under the Alberta Human Rights Act, such as race, gender and sexual orientation. In response, she described the unvaccinated group, which has faced issues such as being fired by their employers, not being able to visit loved ones in hospitals and being unable to travel, as the most discriminated group she has seen in her lifetime. She later clarified her comments in a written statement.
Vaccination status was a significant issue among healthcare workers in Alberta during the COVID-19 pandemic, pitting the competing social values of public health and safety against bodily autonomy and personal choice. More than a thousand healthcare workers who were not fully immunized were put on unpaid leave in 2021 and 2022 until the vaccine mandate was lifted. These employees later settled grievances, receiving financial compensation for their time off work.
As a federation, the jurisdictions of the provincial and federal governments in Canada are set out in sections 91 and 92 of the Constitution Act 1867. Human rights are protected through both provincial and federal laws. Nationally, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, part of the Canadian Constitution, guarantees fundamental freedoms from unreasonable government laws or actions. Provincial legislation also protects human rights in areas of exclusive provincial jurisdiction, such as property, housing, employment, and goods, services and facilities.
The re-confirmation comes about one and a half years after Premier Smith took office after her United Conservative Party won a divisive provincial election. The amended bill of rights is expected to be tabled in the provincial legislature in the fall.
World Health Organization (WHO)Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesusannouncedthat the vaccines willbe administeredto childreninthecoming weeks.
Henoted thatno cases of polio have been recorded yetbutwithout immediate action, itwasjust a matter of time before it reaches the thousands of children who have been left unprotected.
Humanitarians have expressed deep concernsaboutthe impact of apossible polioemergencyin Gaza, amid disastrous sanitary conditionsmarked byoutbreaks of hepatitis A and myriad other preventable diseases, along witha lack of access to healthcare, because of the war.
Earlier this week,Dr.AyadilSaparbekov, Team Lead for Health Emergencies at WHO in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,warnedthat the spread of polio and other communicable diseases could lead to more people dying of preventable illness than from war-related injuries currently 39,000, according to the local health authorities.
On 16 July, the WHO said that vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 had beenidentified at six locations in sewage samples collectedlast monthfrom Khan Younis and Deir Al-Balah two Gaza cities left in ruins bynearly 10 months of intense Israeli bombardment.
WHO explained that polio virus canemerge in areaswhere poor vaccinationcoverage allows the weakenedform of the orallytakenvaccinevirusstrainto mutate into a stronger version.
Before the war, sparked by Hamas-led terror attacks on multiple locations in southern Israel, Gazan youngsters had access torobust routine vaccination services, the UN health agencyinsisted on Friday.
But while an estimated 99 per cent of children in theOccupied PalestinianTerritory received their third dose of polio vaccine in 2022, this fell to 89 per cent in 2023, according to the latest routine immunization estimates by WHO and theUNChildrens Fund (UNICEF).
As part of collective efforts tocombat circulating variant poliovirus type 2 in Gaza and beyond, theWHOconvened health ministersfrom acrossthe Eastern Mediterraneanregionon Thursday.
I witnessed at first hand living conditions that are highlyfavourable for the spread of polio and other diseases, saidDr HananBalkhy,WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, who called the meeting. This is an important timeto come together to act swiftly and decisively to contain this outbreak, for the children of Gaza.
Measures agreed upon at the meeting includedintensified surveillance andmultiple mass polio immunization campaigns that can be integrated with other crucial health service delivery,when feasible.
Representatives also called for a safe and enabling environment for vaccination roll-out by way of a ceasefire or days oftranquillity, to allow for steps to be taken to stop polio from paralyzing children in Gaza, and surrounding areas and countries.
Thelatest gathering of theRegional Subcommittee on Polio Eradication and Outbreaksalsohighlightedthe urgent need to stop all forms of poliovirus in the Eastern Mediterranean. It is home to the last two countries in the world with endemic wild poliovirus transmission: Afghanistan and Pakistan. Countries of the region are also facing active variant poliovirus outbreaks, such as Somalia,Sudan and Yemen.
Kroger recently has been thinking about prominent health issues inspired by back-to-school season. If you have any questions about the vaccines needed before classes resume, the clinical team is available to help. The pharmacists and nurse practitioners will ensure that everyone is up-to-date on their needs. Kroger wants to remind the public vaccines are offered in a place thats convenient for them, right in their local Kroger. The Kroger Health team also offers expertise on the shingles vaccine, especially for people who are age 50 or older. Shingles is a painful viral infection that affects approximately 1 million people in the U.S. each year. And, it affects about 1 in every 3 people in the United States in their lifetime. The disease can sometimes lead to serious complications such as vision loss and long-term nerve pain. The Shingles vaccine can significantly reduce a persons chances of getting the infection and the severity of the illness if one is diagnosed with it. While customers can choose to walk-in to receive a Shingles vaccine, they are also welcome to make an appointment or kroger.com/health to learn more about vaccine offerings. At Kroger, the Shingles vaccine is available at no charge for most patients with insurance.
