Category: Vaccine

A mother whose eleven-month-old son was rushed to hospital with measles has called for the MMR vaccine to be made available to children before the age of one.

Kelly Smart, whose son Oscar was taken to Birmingham Children's Hospital after showing symptoms of the highly contagious disease, said that it was 'frustrating' that it 'wasn't an option' for him to have been given a first dose of the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccination.

In Britain, children are given the vaccination in two doses. The first is offered at one-year-old, with a booster given at three-years-old and four months.

Eleven-month-old Oscar had been due to have his dose the following month.

'It felt like every time he was blinking there were more dots appearing down his body,' Ms Smart told Sky News, referring to the tell-tale red rash that appears on those that have contracted the illness.

Once paramedics arrived, Oscar was 'instantly' taken to hospital and was treated in an isolation ward. He was running a high fever.

'He just looked awful, his eyes were swollen, his top lip was swollen, he was pale,' Ms Smart recalled. Oscar is now recovering.

The UK is currently battling a measles outbreak that has concerned health professionals.

The UK Health Security Agency has declared a national incident and warned last week of 'further outbreaks' without 'urgent action taken to increase MMR uptake in areas at greatest risk.'

There have been 216 confirmed cases of measles and 103 probable cases in the West Midlands between October 1 and January 18. Over 80% have been in Birmingham.

There are thought to be some 3.4m people under the age of 16 at risk from contracting measles, due to a declining uptake in MMR vaccination.

'We're at a point where there's a very large susceptible population of children,' Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, the chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation told The Guardian. He added that a vaccination rate of over 95% is required 'to keep measles at bay'.

The percentage of children aged five having had a full course of the MMR vaccination has declined to 84.5%, according to health data, the lowest level in over a decade.

In 2017, the World Health Organisation had declared the UK measles-free. This status was rescinded within two years. The UN body warned recently of a thirty-fold increase in cases across Europe.

Debate about the particularly quick rise in measles cases and declining vaccine uptake in the UK has focussed attention on logistical difficulties for parents, suspicion of vaccines generally, and NHS overstretch.

There are also concerns that children born during the pandemic may have missed their initial or second dose of MMR, requiring them to catch-up.

Children born during the pandemic are now older than the standard age-range that are seen by doctors for regular vaccinations.

In 2021, according to the UK Health Security Agency, there were only 360 cases of measles reported across the country. There were 1,603 in 2023. The majority of these cases were in children under the age of 10.

The NHS has been rolling out 'pop-up' vaccination centres in areas most affected by measles.

Health Secretary Victoria Atkins appealed to parents to take their children for vaccination.

'It is completely safe,' she said. 'There are two types of vaccination which can help people who may be worried about pork products,' she added.

'We can absolutely help you get vaccinated to help the whole community.'

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My 11-month-old son was rushed to hospital with measles - I want the MMR vaccine to be offered before the age - Daily Mail

U.K. health officials are urging millions of parents to book their children for missed measles, mumps and rubella shots during a sharp increase in the number of measles cases and the lowest vaccination rates in a decade

By

SYLVIA HUI Associated Press

January 22, 2024, 8:46 AM ET

3 min read

LONDON -- U.K. health officials on Monday urged millions of parents to book their children for missed measles, mumps and rubella shots during a sharp increase in the number of measles cases and the lowest vaccination rates in a decade.

The National Health Service is launching a publicity campaign after figures showed there were about 250 confirmed measles cases in parts of England last year. Most cases were in children under 10 years old.

The combined measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine is offered in the U.K. in two doses to all children, first at 12 months and then again at 3 years. Vaccination rates have dropped to about 85% nationally, and far lower in parts of London, according to U.K. Health Security Agency chief executive Jenny Harries.

That is too low to maintain safe population coverage we want that at about 95%" as advised by the World Health Organization, she said.

Public health officials say more than 3.4 million children under 16 years old are unprotected and at risk of catching the preventable diseases.

Measles was declared eliminated in the U.K. in 2017, meaning the disease was no longer native to the country.

But transmissions began again when epidemics broke out in the rest of Europe. Officials said outbreaks can take place anywhere where vaccine coverage is below the 95% needed to achieve herd immunity.

WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in November that measles deaths globally spiked by more than 40% last year, and cases rose after vaccination levels dramatically dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Measles is among the most infectious diseases known and spreads in the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes. It's most common in children under 5. Symptoms include fever, cough, runny nose and a distinctive rash.

Infection can lead to permanent physical damage such as deafness. Most deaths are due to complications like encephalitis, severe dehydration, serious breathing problems and pneumonia.

Harries said there was clearly misinformation about vaccines and urged people to consult trusted sources.

Officials said intense media coverage in the late 1990s about the now discredited claim linking the MMR vaccine to autism led to a drop in vaccinations and took many years to recover from.

More recently, declines in vaccination uptake were exacerbated partly by the pandemic and anti-vaccine sentiment, said Helen Bedford, a professor of children's health at University College London.

The pandemic, with new vaccines introduced and vaccination constantly discussed, may have resulted in the public having more questions about vaccination: its safety, effectiveness and, for a disease like measles which had become rare in the U.K., its necessity, she said. Asking questions about vaccination is to be encouraged, but we need trained staff to do this.

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Millions in the UK are being urged to get vaccinations during a surge in measles cases - ABC News

A nurse prepares to administer a newly approved malaria vaccine, RTS,S, to an infant at the health center in Datcheka, Cameroon, on Jan. 22. Cameroon is the first country in the vaccine campaign. Plans are to introduce the vaccine in 20 additional countries by 2025. Desire Danga Essigue/Reuters hide caption

A nurse prepares to administer a newly approved malaria vaccine, RTS,S, to an infant at the health center in Datcheka, Cameroon, on Jan. 22. Cameroon is the first country in the vaccine campaign. Plans are to introduce the vaccine in 20 additional countries by 2025.

The rollout of malaria vaccines in Africa the world's first routine immunization program against this mosquito-borne disease has raised excitement for a surprising reason. The vaccine reduces all kinds of deaths among children not just malaria deaths by 13%.

This RTS,S vaccine is "not only a huge step forward for malaria control but also a major advancement in child health," says Dr. Mary Hamel, the World Health Organization's senior technical officer on malaria, in an email interview with NPR.

The 13% statistic came from a successful WHO pilot campaign in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, where over two million children from age 5 months to 2 years have received the malaria vaccine since 2019. Developed by the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, the RTS,S vaccine prevented about 39% of malaria cases and 32% of severe cases in Phase 3 trials, as compiled by WHO.

The campaign for the new malaria vaccine is underway in Cameroon, which has some 330,000 doses and more on the way. Desire Danga Essigue/Reuters hide caption

The campaign for the new malaria vaccine is underway in Cameroon, which has some 330,000 doses and more on the way.

"While 39% efficacy seems low for a vaccine, when we consider the sheer burden of malaria, this means potentially a huge reduction in cases and deaths among children," said Dr. Aaron Samuels, CDC's Kenya malaria program director, in 2021.

Indeed, in 2022, there were an estimated 249 million cases of this mosquito-borne disease globally and 600,000 deaths. Africa was home to 95% of these deaths, including almost half a million children under 5.

The new vaccine does present some challenges: children need four doses over a year to be fully vaccinated, which may be difficult to coordinate outside of clinical trial settings. A huge quantity will be needed, and each dose costs about $9.80. There had been concerns about getting an adequate supply from pharma company GSK. But the approval of a second malaria vaccine by WHO, called R21/Matrix-M, should help address shortages in vaccine coverage since it requires only 3 doses, each costing $2-4, with 100 million doses expected to be available later this year.

The RTS,S vaccine campaign began on Monday in Cameroon, with the goal of reaching 6.6 million children across 20 African countries by 2025. Dr. Kate O'Brien, director of the Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals at WHO, expects the scale-up of the malaria vaccine will save tens of thousands of lives annually.

Noah Ngah (left) was the first baby to receive the malaria vaccine on Jan. 22 in Cameroon. His twin sister, Judith Ndzie, is by his side. The mosquito-borne disease kills more than 600,000 people a year, mainly in Africa, according to the World Health Organization. Etienne Nsom/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Noah Ngah (left) was the first baby to receive the malaria vaccine on Jan. 22 in Cameroon. His twin sister, Judith Ndzie, is by his side. The mosquito-borne disease kills more than 600,000 people a year, mainly in Africa, according to the World Health Organization.

Certainly, some of these averted deaths will be directly related to malaria. But the unexpected development is that the vaccine seems to reduce deaths where malaria is only a contributing factor, exacerbating other diseases but not killing the patient itself, according to Dr. Steve Taylor, a global health and infectious disease expert at Duke.

As an example, he notes that contracting malaria makes you more likely to get salmonella disease the most common bloodstream infection in Africa with a case fatality of up to 20-25%. Malaria also seems to make people susceptible to bacterial infections more broadly, with a Lancet study out of Eastern Kenya in 2011 demonstrating that over half of bacteremia cases were attributable to malaria.

In an email to NPR, Hamel also describes how children who have HIV or face chronic malnutrition are at higher risk of severe malaria, which in turn can exacerbate HIV and malnutrition, potentially leading to death. "We have seen this before with malaria," she says, in trials where children got insecticide-treated nets or preventive antimalarial tablets, "that the reduction in mortality is more than what one would expect from a decrease in malaria deaths alone."

Decreasing non-malaria deaths is not the only spillover benefit of the vaccine. Malaria is a "major reason for school absenteeism, anemia and impaired cognitive development," said Dr. Mohammed Abdulaziz, head of disease control and prevention at Africa CDC, at the press conference. "This vaccine is a crucial element in improving African children's educational outcomes and cognitive ability, which can help break the cycle of adversity plaguing our youth."

Ruth Kavere of Mukuli, Kenya, demonstrates how to use a mosquito net to ward off the malaria carriers. She's with her granddaughter Faith, 3, who has another kind of protection: The child completed doses of the world's first malaria vaccine, RTS,S in a pilot program in 2023. Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Ruth Kavere of Mukuli, Kenya, demonstrates how to use a mosquito net to ward off the malaria carriers. She's with her granddaughter Faith, 3, who has another kind of protection: The child completed doses of the world's first malaria vaccine, RTS,S in a pilot program in 2023.

This vaccine also comes at an important time as malaria caseloads have been steadily increasing from 209 to 233 million in Africa between 2000-2022. "We've had resurgences of malaria in a lot of places and particularly during the pandemic," says Dr. Chris Plowe, a malariologist at the University of Maryland. "A lot of progress that was made in the first part of the 21st century has plateaued and, in some places, reversed." Climate change, for instance, has contributed to increased malaria exposure in sub-Saharan Africa, and growing drug and insecticide resistance has made fighting malaria more difficult.

"The parasite is so plastic, so malleable, so quickly able to evolve all these interventions," Plowe continues. "If you let up pressure, it will evolve, it will change, it will come back."

So, while malaria experts are celebrating the vaccine, it needs to be part of a preventive program with mosquito nets and other existing tools, said Dorothy Achu, lead for tropical and vector-borne diseases in the WHO Regional Office for Africa, at the press conference. "In the malaria community, we always say we do not have any magic bullet."

That's why experts were reassured to see that, in the pilot campaign, the vaccine didn't reduce the use of insecticide-treated bednets, people's willingness to seek malaria treatment, or uptake of other childhood vaccines because parents thought the malaria vaccine was sufficient and it was fine to skip the others, according to O'Brien from WHO. While the RTS,S vaccine itself may only prevent 30-40% of malaria cases, this number rises to 90% when combined with mosquito nets and protective malarial tablets, according to a Lancet Infectious Diseases study from 2023.

This expanded protection is why the malaria vaccine will usher in a "transformative chapter in Africa's public health history," Africa CDC's Abdulaziz told reporters. "For a long time, we have been waiting for a day like this. It brings more than just hope. It brings a reduction in the mortality and morbidity associated with malaria."

Simar Bajaj is an American journalist who has previously written for The Atlantic, TIME, The Guardian, Washington Post and more. He is the recipient of the Foreign Press Association award for Science Story of the Year and the National Academies award for Excellence in Science Communications.

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Malaria vaccine brings surprise benefit to children : Goats and Soda - NPR

TOPLINE:

The vaccine Cervarix was effective in protecting women from cervical cancer when administered between ages 12 and 13 years, according to a new study published in Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

"Continued participation in screening and monitoring of outcomes is required, however, to assess the effects of changes in vaccines used and dosage schedules since the start of vaccination in Scotland in 2008 and the longevity of protection the vaccines offer."

The study was led by Timothy J. Palmer, PhD, Scottish Clinical Lead for Cervical Screening at Public Health Scotland.

Only 14,645 women had received just one or two doses, which may have affected the statistical analysis.

The study was funded by Public Health Scotland. Cuschieri reports attending an advisory board meeting for HOLOGIC and Vaccitech. Her institution received research funding or gratis support funding from Cepheid, Euroimmun, GeneFirst, SelfScreen, Hiantis, Seegene, Roche, Hologic, and Vaccitech in the past 3 years.

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HPV Vaccine Highly Effective in Girls Years Later - Medscape

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Strategies to reduce the risks of mRNA drug and vaccine toxicity - Nature.com

Measles would be gone if we wanted it to be. Weve had a highly effective, safe vaccine for it for 60 years. But because of rising anti-vaccine sentiments, measles is back, with recent cases in Philadelphia, New Jersey and Virginia. Unless we tackle the misinformation that is at the root of vaccine hesitancy, more children will get sick from this and other nasty, preventable diseases in 2024.

The U.S. is not the only high-income country seeing measles outbreaks. Europe saw a thirty-fold increase in cases last year. In England, the West Midlands is currently experiencing its highest rates since the 1990s, with health leaders urging a national call to action on measles. Officials in Sydney, Australia have recently issued a measles alert as cases are being identified there. The problem is even worse in low-and-middle countries, with measles still common in many countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Globally, there were an estimated 9 million cases and 136,000 deaths in 2022 alone.

Measles is one of the worlds most contagious diseases, infecting about 90% of unvaccinated people who come into close contact with an infected person. Because it spreads so quickly, measles is a good litmus test for how vaccinated a population is , highlighting gaps in countries immunization coverage and warning of possible future infectious-disease outbreaks. The good news is that measles is highly preventable: even one dose out of the recommended two is 93% effective. Unfortunately, about 1 in 5 children globally havent received a single measles shot.

Global vaccination programs have stalled over the past few years due to the pandemic and other factors like conflict and displacement. However, one of the other major reasons we are seeing a measles resurgence is vaccine hesitancy. Even before COVID-19, vaccine hesitancy was identified by the WHO as one of the biggest threats to human health. Its gotten worse since then. Ironically, at the same time the world has witnessed one of the biggest vaccine successes of the past half centurythe rapid development and use of COVID-19 vaccinesglobal confidence in vaccines has plummeted.

Unfortunately, thats no coincidence. Spillover hesitancy is where concerns over one vaccine can be generalized to other or all vaccines, and one recent U.S. study showed that distrust of the COVID-19 vaccine has caused some people to avoid the one for measles. In the U.S., only 79% of people now think that childrens vaccines are important, a decrease of more than 10% since 2020. (For a population to have herd immunity , at least 95% of people need two doses of the measles vaccine.)

This appears to be a global phenomenon. A report last year by UNICEF found that vaccine confidence dropped in 52 out of 55 countries for which data were available. Most worryingly, younger adults ages 35 and under are much more likely to be hesitant about childrens vaccines than older adults. Unless we tackle measles misinformation, vaccine hesitancy is only likely to get worse.

The infamous Andrew Wakefield paper claiming a link between the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine and autism is now more than 25 years old. His completely unscientific and debunked theory (the paper was later retracted by the scientific journal The Lancet) still casts a long shadow, and even though Wakefield has been struck off the U.K.s medical register, hes become a darling of the anti-vaxx movement. The myth that vaccines can cause autism still leads to vaccine hesitancy the world over, from Somali immigrants in Norway to parents in Kyrgyzstan. It is even the reason why some people are not getting their dogs vaccinated.

Another problem is that misinformation-and-conspiracy-driven vaccine hesitancy affects some groups more than others. In particular, those from lower-income and some racial and ethnic minority communities tend to be more vulnerable to conspiracy theoriesa phenomenon which needs to be understood in relation to a long history of mistrust in medical and political authorities and experiences of discrimination and disadvantage. This partly explains lower vaccination rates amongst children in lower-income neighborhoods and some racial and ethnic minority communities.

Measles is a horrible disease. It can cause disability and even death in unvaccinated young children. It can also cause something called immune amnesia, when the immune system temporarily forgets how to fight other illnesses.

In countries like the U.S., only the older generations will remember what measles was like, before vaccines started vanquishing it starting in the mid-1960s. We are already starting to see a bit of social amnesia creep in with COVID-19, which, when combined with vaccine misinformation, is part of the reason why so few people have gotten the latest updated shot. If we as a society continue to forget how dangerous measles, COVID-19, and other infectious diseases have been in the past, this will have serious implications for public health in the future.

The globalization of misinformation is a priority for more than just measles and vaccines. In a World Economic Forum report, 1,700 world leaders and experts cited misinformation as the greatest risk to society over the next two years, ranked above threats including interstate armed conflict, societal polarization, and pollution. Misinformation is so dangerous because it can catalyze all of these threats at once, and obstruct solutions to them.

Anti-misinformation scientist Dr. Peter Hotez has argued for vaccine diplomacy in the fight against measles. That means ensuring that all countries globally have sufficient access to necessary vaccines and accurate information about them. Vaccinations are more divisive and political than ever. In the U.S., there is now a big gulf in support for MMR vaccines between Republicans and Democrats. Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have amplified vaccine misinformation and have been embraced or endorsed by anti-vax movements. Research has shown how being exposed to anti-vax messages by such political leaders on social media can intensify some followers vaccine hesitancy. Vaccine diplomacy therefore also requires navigating and combating the growing misinformation and politicization surrounding vaccines.

Our childrens livesand our livesdepend on it.

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Measles and Misinformation Are Two Huge Public-Health Threats - TIME

ROME, ITALY, NEW YORK and CAMBRIDGE, USA January 22, 2024 ReiThera Srl, the Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard, and IAVI are pleased to announce a collaboration to develop a novel HIV vaccine candidate that will be composed of ReiTheras GRAd vector and HIV T-cell epitopes identified by the Ragon Institute, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Each partner will be responsible for a different aspect of the program:

ReiThera, a contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) dedicated to technology and process development and GMP manufacturing for advanced therapies and genetic vaccines; IAVI, an international nonprofit research organization focused on developing vaccines and antibodies against infectious and neglected diseases; and the Ragon Institute, a leading research institute focused on harnessing the immune system to prevent and cure human disease, have entered the manufacturing phase of the collaboration, to begin production of the clinical trial material.

The program will be focused on supporting two key goals:

The combined expertise of IAVI, ReiThera, and the Ragon Institute will contribute to the development of a novel HIV vaccine component designed to generate a broadly protective potent CD8 T-cell response toward mutationally constrained (highly networked) HIV epitopes. Prior findings by the Ragon Institute have shown that mutation of residues at important network positions disproportionately impaired viral replication and occurred with high frequency in epitopes presented by protective human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I alleles. Moreover, CD8+ T-cell targeting of highly networked epitopes distinguished individuals who naturally control HIV, even in the absence of protective HLA alleles.1

ReiTheras vaccine platform uses a novel proprietary replication-defective Gorilla adenoviral (GRAd) vector, belongingto species C adenoviruses that are considered among the most potent vaccine carriers for the induction of CD8 T-cell responses to the encoded antigens and having a low seroprevalence in humans.

The choice of the GRAd vaccine platform was selected based on evidence generated in preclinical and clinical studies demonstrating a strong induction of T-cell responses to the encoded antigens and a very low frequency of anti-GRAd pre-existing immunity in humans.2

The research is aimed to primarily benefit those in lower- and middle-income countries, particularly in Africa, who are disproportionately impacted by HIV and lack access to suitable prevention options.

Stefano Colloca, ReiTheras Chief Technology Officer and co-Founder, said, We look forward to collaborating with IAVI and the Ragon Institute and continuing to advance our shared vaccine commitment to address the global challenges posed by HIV. The funding validates the potential of our novel GRAd vector technology to develop vaccine candidates stimulating a strong T-cell response.

We are thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with ReiThera and IAVI, with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to advance the GRAd-HIV highly networked T-cell vaccine candidate towards clinical evaluation, said Gaurav Gaiha, Ragon faculty member. We are particularly pleased that this takes place with partners in sub-Saharan Africa, given the immense need for new solutions to curtail the ongoing HIV epidemic. Key partners in this program include researchers at the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) in South Africa, and Mutala Trust and Charles River Medical Group (CRMG) in Zimbabwe.

Sangeetha Sagar, IAVIs Vice President of Product Development, said, IAVIs Product Development Center [PDC] is so pleased to be able to partner with ReiThera and the Ragon Institute to advance the clinical testing of the GRAd-HIV vaccine candidate through a Phase I clinical trial. The PDCs purpose is to advance promising biomedical innovations across the global health field by supporting clinical testing and product development, and we are excited to have the opportunity to support this new approach to HIV vaccine development.

***

About ReiThera Srl ReiThera Srl isaCDMOcompany dedicated to technology and process development and GMP manufacturing,providing support for theclinical translation of genetic vaccines and medicinal products for advanced therapies. The company has extensive expertise in developing scalable processes for viral-vector manufacturing and a consolidated experience in GMP production of Adeno-Associated Vector (AAV), Lentivirus, Adeno Viral vector (AdV), Modified Vaccinia AnkaraandHerpes Simplex Vector. ReiTheras core manufacturing capacity is based in a state-of-the-art facility, which includes stirred-tank bioreactors at scales of 50L, 200L, 1000L, and 2000L, as well as fixed-bed bioreactors for cell growth in adherence. The GMP facility also comprises a filling suite and quality control laboratories. ReiTheras headquarters, R&D laboratories, and GMP facilities are located in Rome, Italy. For more information, visit http://www.reithera.com.

About the Ragon Institute The Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard was established in 2009 with a gift from the Phillip T. and Susan M. Ragon Foundation, with a collaborative scientific mission among these institutions to harness the immune system to combat and cure human disease. The Ragon Institute draws scientists, clinicians and engineers from diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise to study and understand the immune system with the goal of benefiting patients. For more information, visitwww.ragoninstitute.org

About IAVI IAVI is a non-profit scientific research organization dedicated to addressing urgent, unmet global health challenges including HIV, tuberculosis, and emerging infectious diseases. Its mission is to translate scientific discoveries into affordable, globally accessible public health solutions. Read more at iavi.org.

Follow IAVI onFacebook,LinkedIn,Instagram, andYouTube, andsubscribeto news updates.

1 Gaurav D. Gaiha et al. , Structural topology defines protective CD8+ T cell epitopes in the HIV proteome.Science364,480-484 (2019).DOI:10.1126/science.aav5095 2 Stefania Capone et al. , GRAd-COV2 vaccine provides potent and durable humoral and cellular immunity to SARS-CoV-2 in randomized placebo-controlled phase 2 trial.Cell Rep Med. (2023) Jun 20;4(6):101084. DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2023.101084

CONTACTS ReiThera Media Relations media@reithera.com

Ragon Institute ragoncommunications@mgh.harvard.edu

IAVI Heather Teixeira hteixeira@iavi.org

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ReiThera Srl, the Ragon Institute and IAVI announce collaboration to advance highly networked T-cell HIV vaccine ... - IAVI

LONDON A serious outbreak of measles in England could grow to tens of thousands of cases, health experts there have warned, as Europe grapples with a spike in the highly contagious disease.

The U.K. Health Security Agency said Friday that since October, there have been 216 confirmed cases and 103 probable cases in the West Midlands region, an urban part of England centered on the city of Birmingham, where around 80% of the cases were recorded. Thats higher than last years total of 209 measles cases and the 2022 tally of 53.

Last year, the government warned that a measles outbreak in London could lead to between 40,000 and 160,000 cases there if the vaccination rate did not improve. The rate in England has been falling for years due to misinformation and declining community health budgets.

Around 89% of children in England have received their first measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine dose by age 2, according to the state-run National Health Service down from 93% a decade ago. The World Health Organization considers 95% the necessary threshold to maintain herd immunity.

A British information campaign is now urging people to ensure their children get the vaccination.

British lawmaker Maria Caulfield, who was previously the minister of state for health, laid bare the scale of the challenge when she told the House of Commons on Monday that more than 3.4 million children under 16 are not vaccinated against measles.

In Europe overall, Hans Kluge, the World Health Organizations director for the region, warned Wednesday that there had been 42,200 measles cases across 41 countries in 2023 a nearly 45-fold increase from the 941 recorded the previous year. He said last month that nearly 21,000 people had been hospitalized.

A crisis is also building in central Asia, where more than 13,600 cases were recorded in 2023, the majority among unvaccinated children under 14, the WHO said.

Three U.S. states have also recorded measles cases in the last month. Philadelphia has confirmed at least eight locally acquired cases, in addition to one imported case that prompted a health alert in December. Camden County, New Jersey, confirmed a case on Jan. 13, then Georgia health officials confirmed the states first case in four years soon after: an unvaccinated resident in Atlanta.

Measles is most common in children. The disease is characterized by a red, blotchy rash that usually follows a high fever, cough, runny nose and red, watery eyes. Around 1 in 5 unvaccinated people with measles are hospitalized, and up to 3 out of 1,000 children with measles die from complications such as pneumonia or swelling of the brain, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The MMR vaccine is offered to children in Britain starting at 12 months, with a second dose shortly after they turn 3. Children in the U.S. get their second dose between 4 and 6 years old. Two shots are 97% effective, according to the CDC.

Even if you reach them, its really difficult to keep such high levels of vaccination sustained over a long period, said Helen Bedford, a professor at University College Londons Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health. You get there, the disease goes away, people think, Oh, well, the disease has gone away; I dont need to vaccinate.

Several other factors have fueled Englands vaccination challenges, experts said. One is that uptake remains especially low among low-income and more ethnically diverse groups, according to a 2021 NHS study in southeast England.

Its poor people, people who are highly mobile and dont stay in one place, said Azeem Majeed, professor of primary care and public health at Imperial College London. In regards to messaging, the NHS needs to be more proactive on this.

On Thursday, in an effort to reach non-English speakers, the local council in the borough of Brent released a video about measles in Romanian.

A second factor is a now-discredited study published in 1998 that falsely claimed the MMR vaccine was linked to autism. The paper was partially retracted in 2004, but by then vaccine uptake had dipped to 81%. The study was fully retracted in 2010 and its author, Andrew Wakefield, was removed from the U.K. medical register.

Thousands of children born in the late 90s and the early 2000s are now unvaccinated adults.

Its this combination of low uptake about 20 years ago, so youve got lots of young adults that are susceptible, and then over the years an accumulation of susceptible people, particularly in some parts of London, Bedford said.

However, Bedford doesnt consider vaccine hesitancy and the spread of conspiracy theories to be the main problem. British parents confidence in vaccines is as high as 90%, according to a 2022 study.

The anti-vaccine movement is very, very small, but it has a very loud voice, she said. So I think its important not to get too hooked on that because there are lots of things we can do. And if we just focus on anti-vaccine, its much more difficult to know what to do.

Instead, Bedford pointed a finger at two other factors: a reduction in community nurses and reforms made to the NHS namely the 2013 decision to spread the responsibility for vaccines across several agencies rather than one.

Whats more, she said, there is a lingering opinion among some Britons that measles is a trivial childhood illness,which is a dangerous view.

In a best-case scenario, measles is a nasty disease that makes children feel very ill. But of course there is a recognized significant complication rate, with ear infections, pneumonia, inflammation of the brain and, yes, it can kill you, Bedford said.

This week, doctors clinics in the West Midlands area urged patients not to turn up unannounced if they suspect they have measles: Call ahead, that way if you do have measles you wont pass it on to others it can be a fatal disease if someone has a weak immune system, a public information flyer said.

Patrick Smith reported from London and Aria Bendix from New York.

Patrick Smith is a London-based editor and reporter for NBC News Digital.

Aria Bendix is the breaking health reporter for NBC News Digital.

Read the rest here:

Measles in the U.K.: Health authorities warn outbreak could grow - NBC News

Mass. doctor on vaccine's 'exceptional results' for kids, adults

Updated: 7:15 PM EST Jan 26, 2024

FIVE AT 535 ON YOUR HEALTH TONIGHT, EXCEPT ANGEL RESULTS FOR A VACCINE THATS OFFERED TO MIDDLE SCHOOLERS IN THE U.S. HERE TO EXPLAIN IS DOCTOR SCOTT HADLAND, CHIEF OF ADOLESCENT AND YOUNG ADULT MEDICINE AT MASS GENERAL FOR CHILDREN. GREAT TO SEE YOU, DOCTOR. HADLAND. GOOD TO SEE YOU, TOO. ALL RIGHT. DOCTOR HADLAND, WEVE KNOWN FOR A WHILE THAT THE HPV VACCINE IS VERY EFFECTIVE AT PREVENTING CERVICAL CANCER LATER IN LIFE. SO WHAT ARE YOU LEARNING FROM THIS NEW STUDY ABOUT IT? THATS RIGHT. THIS WAS A STUDY LOOKING AT WOMEN FROM ALL ACROSS THE COUNTRY OF SCOTLAND AND SPECIFICALLY LOOKED BACK AT WOMEN WHO HAD GOTTEN THAT HPV VACCINE, WHICH AGAIN, WE NOW KNOW TO PREVENT AGAINST CERVICAL CANCER, AND LOOKED BACK AT THE WOMEN WHO HAD GOTTEN THE VACCINE WHEN THEY WERE 12 OR 13 YEARS OLD. AND THESE WERE WOMEN THAT, YOU KNOW, FAST FORWARD WHEN WE WHEN THE RESEARCHERS STUDIED THEM IN THEIR LATE 20S OR EARLY 30S AND ASKED THE QUESTION, YOU KNOW, HOW MANY WOMEN IN THIS GROUP THAT GOT VACCINATED EARLY DEVELOPED INVASIVE CERVICAL CANCER? THE ANSWER WAS ZERO. NOT A SINGLE WOMAN DEVELOPED INVASIVE CERVICAL CANCER, JUST DEMONSTRATED HOW INCREDIBLY EFFECTIVE THIS VACCINE IS. AND THE GOOD NEWS IS THIS VACCINE IS AVAILABLE HERE IN THE UNITED STATES. WE RECOMMEND IT. WE TYPICALLY OFFER IT TO TO YOUNG PEOPLE WHEN THEYRE ABOUT 11 OR 12 YEARS OLD. AND SO THIS LIFE SAVING SORT OF CAPABILITY, THIS LIFE SAVING VACCINE IS AVAILABLE HERE TO FAMILIES. WOW. YEAH. WELL, SO, DOCTOR HADLAND, YOU MENTIONED THEY WERE 1213. MY UNDERSTANDING IS ITS RECOMMENDED KIDS GET THE VACCINE BEFORE 14. SO IF YOU WOULD EXPLAIN WHY THAT IS RIGHT. WELL, THE RESEARCHERS JUST FOUND IN THIS STUDY THAT WHEN WOMEN WAITED UNTIL 14 OR OLDER TO GET THE VACCINE, IT ACTUALLY TURNED OUT THERE WERE SOME CASES OF INVASIVE CERVICAL CANCER THAT HAPPENED IN THAT GROUP OF WOMEN. FOR SALLY, THE RATES OF CERVICAL CANCER IN THAT GROUP WERE ACTUALLY HALF THAT OF WOMEN WHO DID NOT GET THE VACCINE. AND SO, YOU KNOW, ITS CLEAR THAT THE HPV VACCINE WORKS AND IS EFFECTIVE. ITS JUST BETTER IF YOU GET IT IN AT A YOUNGER AGE, TYPICALLY BY AGE 12 OR 13, WHICH IS, AGAIN, WHAT WE RECOMMEND HERE IN THE UNITED STATES. AND THE REASON FOR THAT, THE REASON YOU WANT TO GET IT IN EARLY, IS THAT HPV IS A VIRUS THAT IS SPREAD THROUGH SEXUAL CONTACT. AND ACTUALLY, TEENS OF THIS CURRENT GENERATION ARE WAITING LATER THAN PRIOR GENERATIONS OF TEENS TO HAVE SEX. THEYRE USING CONDOMS AT HIGHER RATES THAN PRIOR GENERATIONS. AND SO THEYRE DOING THE THINGS THAT THEY SHOULD DO TO PROTECT THEMSELVES. AND YET WE STILL KNOW THAT SOME TEENS WILL HAVE SEX AND WE WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT THE VACCINE IS PROVIDED TO THEM BEFORE THAT FIRST CONTACT. ALL RIGHT. SO YOU KIND OF ALLUDED TO THIS. IF YOU DIDNT GET THE VACCINE BEFORE YOU TURNED 14, I WOULD IMAGINE ITS NOT TOO LATE TO GET IT NOW. ITS NOT TOO LATE. AND YOU KNOW, IN THIS STUDY IN SCOTLAND, ABOUT 9 IN 10 WOMEN HAD GOTTEN THE HPV VACCINE. HERE IN THE UNITED STATES, OUR RATES ARE LOWER. THERE ARE ABOUT 6 IN 10 PEOPLE HAVE GOTTEN THE HPV VACCINE. AND HPV IS A VIRUS LINKED NOT JUST TO INVASIVE CERVICAL CANCER, BUT IS ALSO LINKED TO CANCERS OF THE HEAD AND NECK. CERTAIN GI CANCERS. ITS LINKED TO PENILE CANCERS IN MEN, AND SO THERES A LOT OF REASONS TO GET THIS VACCINE. AND AND SO, YOU KNOW, IF YOUR CHILD HAS MISSED IT OR IF YOUVE MISSED IT, ITS NOT TOO LATE TO GO BACK AND GET IT. AND IN FACT, THE HPV VACCINE IS AVAILABLE IN THIS COUNTRY TO PEOPLE UP TO THE AGE OF 45. AND SO IVE GOTTEN THIS VACCINE TO PROTECT MYSELF BECAUSE ITS, YOU KNOW, A REALLY IMPORTANT AND LIFE SAVING VACCINE. AND

Mass. doctor on vaccine's 'exceptional results' for kids, adults

Updated: 7:15 PM EST Jan 26, 2024

Dr. Scott Hadland, chief of adolescent and young adult medicine at Mass General for Children. talks about the benefits of the HPV vaccine.

Dr. Scott Hadland, chief of adolescent and young adult medicine at Mass General for Children. talks about the benefits of the HPV vaccine.

See the rest here:

Mass. doctor on vaccine's 'exceptional results' for kids, adults - WCVB Boston

Measles was officially declared eradicated in the U.S. more than 20 years ago, but new outbreaks of the disease are popping up and experts saydeclining vaccination ratesare jeopardizing herd immunity and increasing the risk.

In Philadelphia, nine cases were reported after a cluster started in a hospital and spread to other medical facilities and a day care center. Measles is a highly contagious and potentially deadly virus that causes a tell-tale rash.

According to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, during the 2021-2022 school year, 94.3% of kindergarteners in Philadelphia County were fully vaccinated with the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella. Last school year, that dropped to 92.8% below the 95% needed for herd immunity.

click to expand

"That's really a wake-up call, because the real number in many communities is probably far below 93%," Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for vaccine development and professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, told CBS News.

He says outbreaks like this one are more likely when vaccination rates drop.

"Measles does not typically occur among highly vaccinated population. So in that sense, low vaccination rates are the indirect cause of measles," Hotez says. "My concern is that we're still going to see additional measles cases, and I worry that ... roughly 20% of measles cases require hospitalization. So if this continues, we're going to start seeing hospitalized kids with measles."

This is a trend we could see nationwide, as MMR vaccine levels have been dropping over the last few years and now are at 93.1%.

"We're just seeing now, this is the tip of the iceberg," Hotez says. "We're going to be seeing this in communities across the United States in the coming weeks and months because of the spillover of the U.S. anti-vaccine movement of childhood immunizations."

And the trend goes beyond just MMR vaccines.

In November, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a report that showed a record number of American kindergarten students started school the previous year with an exemption from at least one of the key vaccines health authorities require a list that includes:

Among children enrolled in public and private kindergarten during the 2022-2023 school year, the report found vaccination coverage remained lower than the pre-pandemic levels, at about 93%, down from 95%.

Vaccination exemptions increased to 3% of kindergarten students the highest exemption rate ever reported in the country and a vast majority of those exemptions were not for medical reasons.

A medical exemptionis allowed when a child has "a medical condition that prevents them from receiving a vaccine," according to the CDC. Nonmedical exemptions, for religious or philosophical reasons, are allowed in all but three states, the agency says. In recent years,New YorkandCaliforniahave passed laws clamping down on nonmedical exemptions afteroutbreaksofmeasles.

Read the rest here:

What's causing measles outbreaks? Experts point to vaccination decline, waning herd immunity - CBS News