Category: Vaccine

Humboldt County Department of Health & Human Services press release:

Public Health staff have been in contact with at least 109 people who were exposed to measles after an individual with the virus visited two Eureka locations late last week and is asking anyone who thinks they may have been exposed, but has not been contacted, to call 707-268-2182.

Through interviews, vaccine records and in some cases immunity testing, the majority of those who were known to be exposed are likely immune to measles, and 10 individuals were given the post-exposure prophylaxis vaccine which can be given up to 72 hours after exposure.

On Friday, May 10, the Humboldt County Department of Health & Human Services issued a news release informing the community that individuals who visited the Days Inn by Wyndham, 270 Fifth St. in Eureka from Thursday, May 9, at 2 p.m. through Friday, May 10, at 3 a.m. or the Providence St. Joseph Hospital Emergency Department, 2700 Dolbeer St. in Eureka Friday, May 10, between 2:30 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. may have been exposed to measles.

If you were inside of either of these locations during the times mentioned and have not been in contact with Public Health staff, please call 707-268-2182, whether or not you are experiencing symptoms. A Public Health nurse will evaluate your possible exposure, help determine your immunity status, and provide additional information.

Anyone who contracted the virus after last weeks exposure would start to be contagious anywhere from early Friday morning through May 31. If you think you may have measles, contact your primary care provider or Public Health. Do not physically go into a medical facility. According to the California Department of Public Health, measles is a highly contagious virus that lives in the nose and throat mucus of an infected person. It can spread to others through coughing and sneezing. The virus can live for up to one hour in an airspace after the infected person leaves the area, and other people whobreathe the contaminated air or touch the infected surface, then touch their eyes, noses or mouths can become infected.

It can take anywhere from 7 to 21 days to develop symptoms after exposure to measles, and symptoms usually begin with a fever that lasts for a couple of days, followed by a cough, runny nose, conjunctivitis (pink eye) and a rash. The rash typically appears first on the face, along the hairline and behind the ears and then affects the rest of the body. Infected people are usually contagious from about four days before their rash starts to four days afterward. Children under 5 years old and people who are pregnant or have compromised immune systems are at highest risk for severe disease and complications from measles.

Measles is a vaccine-preventable illness. The measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is 97% effective at preventing illness. For more information about the vaccine, contact your primary care provider and visitcdc.gov/measles/vaccination.html.

Most children and young adults digital vaccination records are available through the California Department of Public Healths Digital Vaccine Record:myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov.

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UH OH: More Than 100 Individuals in Humboldt Exposed to Measles Last Week (But Most are Likely Immune, Says ... - Lost Coast Outpost

THE HPV jab is cutting cases of cervical cancer by 90 per cent, a new study has found.

Scientists say the disease, which killed Big Brother starJade Goodywhen she was just 27, could be eradicated "in our lifetime" thanks to the jabs.

The study, led by Queen Mary University of London, adds to previous evidence that suggested the jab is most effective when taken in Year 8 at school.

It also found the vaccine works similarly well across the socio-economic spectrum, with most cases being prevented in more deprived groups.

Until now, there have been concerns that the HPV jab could have an unequal impact across society, meaning it misses out on those in deprived groups where the disease is most prevalent.

Cancer Research UKs Michelle Mitchell said: Todays news is promising the HPV vaccination programme is paving the way to make cervical cancer a rare disease for all."

The jabs, which have been given to teenage girls since 2008, protect against high-risk strains of human papillomavirus, which spreads during sex and causes 99 per cent ofcervical cancers.

In the UK, the elimination of cervical cancer as a public health problem in our lifetime is possible with continued action to improve access to vaccination and screening for all

The study, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), looked at incidences of cervical cancer in more than 650,000 women who had received the jab between the ages of 12 and 18.

It found that women in their 20s who got the jab aged 12 or 13 were 90 per cent less likely to get cervical cancer than unvaccinated women.

Meanwhile, women who received catch-up vaccines between the ages of 14 and 18 cut their risk by as low as 30 per cent.

When researchers compared the effectiveness of the jab among socio-economic groups, they found it prevented an estimated 190 cases of the disease in the most deprived group and 60 in the most affluent.

Professor Peter Sasieni, lead author, said:Our research highlights the power ofHPVvaccination to benefit people across all social groups.

Historically, cervical cancer has had greater health inequalities than almost any other cancer, and there was concern thatHPVvaccination may not reach those at greatest risk.

"Instead, this study captures the huge success of the school-based vaccination programme in helping to close these gaps and reach people from even the most deprived communities.

In the UK, the elimination of cervical cancer as a public health problem in our lifetime is possible with continued action to improve access to vaccination and screening for all."

There are more than 3,000 cervical cancer cases per year but NHS England has pledged towipe out the tumours for good by 2040 by blocking the virus.

Minister for Health, Maria Caulfield said: The governments rollout of theHPVvaccine across the country has saved countless lives and resulted in cervical cancer rates drastically falling. Im incredibly proud of that work not only as a minister, but as a nurse too.

Preventing cervical cancer also saves families from the incredibly stressful experience of navigating treatment and frees up time and resource on the NHS".

She added: "I urge all those eligible to get in touch with their GP to get the vaccine if they havent had it yet.

Steve Russell, vaccines chief at NHS England, said:"We welcome this study which shows the HPV vaccine is significantly reducing cervical cancer rates, especially in more deprived communities.

The NHS is committed to eliminating cervical cancer in England by 2040, making it one of the first countries to do so, and the HPV vaccine is a key tool in this effort.

"The vaccination is offered in schools, and those who missed it can get it up to the age of 25 by contacting their GP.

Coverage of the HPV vaccine dropped last year, with 16.8 per cent of girls and 21.4 per cent of boys not immunised by the end of school Year 10.

In 2022, the proportion of unprotected was 13.5 per cent for girls and 18.5 per cent forboys.

The HPV vaccine can also preventcancersof the throat, neck, head, penis, vagina and anus, which may all be caused by HPV.

There are dozens of HPV types, and they are very common, with more than eight in 10 people contracting at least one in their lifetime.

Most are harmless, but some contribute to cancer, while others can cause warts.

The HPV vaccine protects against some of the risky HPV types that can lead to genital warts and cancer.

Gardasil has been the HPV vaccine used in the NHS vaccination programme since 2012. It is protective against nine types of HPV.

For example it is effective against types 16 and 18 which cause around 80 per cent of cervical cancers in the UK.

That's why it is important for people who have a cervix to still get asmear testwhen invited by the NHS.

Cervical cancer takes the lives of 854 people a year currently - but this is expected to continue decreasing thanks to the vaccine.

There are around 3,200 new cases of the devastating cancer a year, with peak incidence in women in their early 30s.

But the HPV vaccine doesnt just prevent cervical cancer - it stops some anal, genital (vaginal and penile), mouth and throat (head and neck) cancers.

These affect both men and women.

Who should take it?

The first dose of the HPV vaccine is routinely offered to girls and boys aged 12 and 13 in school Year 8.

The second dose is offered 6 to 24 months after the 1st dose.

If a school child misses their doses, you can speak to the school jab team or GP surgery to book as soon as possible.

Anyone who missed their jab can get it up to their 25th birthday.

But people who have the first dose of the HPV vaccine at 15 years of age or above will need to have three doses of the vaccine because they do not respond as well to two doses as younger people do.

The HPV vaccine used to only be given to girls who are at risk of cervical cancer when they are older.

But in 2018, it wasannounced that boys- who can get HPV-related cancers of the head, nech, anal and genitals - would also be given a jab.

Girls indirectly protect boys against HPV related cancers and genital warts because girls will not pass HPV on to them.

But the programme was extended to further eliminate risk of the virus spreading in the future.

Men who have sex with men (gay and bisexual) do not benefit from this indirect protection, and soare also able to get the HPV vaccineup to the age of 45.

Some transgender people can also get the vaccine.

Those assigned female at birth would have gotten one as a child. But those assigned male at birth could get a jab if they transition to female and have sex with men.

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HPV vaccine prevents 90% of cervical cancer cases and could eradicate killer disease in our lif... - The US Sun

A new vaccine for dengue received prequalification from the World Health Organization (WHO) on 10 May 2024. TAK-003 is the second dengue vaccine to be prequalified by WHO. Developed by Takeda, it is a live-attenuated vaccine containing weakened versions of the four serotypes of the virus that cause dengue.

WHO recommends the use of TAK-003 in children aged 616 years in settings with high dengue burden and transmission intensity. The vaccine should be administered in a 2-dose schedule with a 3-month interval between doses.

The prequalification of TAK-003 is an important step in the expansion of global access to dengue vaccines, as it is now eligible for procurement by UN agencies including UNICEF and PAHO, said Dr Rogerio Gaspar, WHO Director for Regulation and Prequalification. With only two dengue vaccines to date prequalified, we look forward to more vaccine developers coming forward for assessment, so that we can ensure vaccines reach all communities who need it.

The WHO prequalification list also includes CYD-TDV vaccine against dengue developed by Sanofi Pasteur.

Dengue is a vector-borne disease transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito. Severe dengue is a potentially lethal complication which can develop from dengue infections.

It is estimated that there are over 100-400 million cases of dengue worldwide each year and 3.8 billion people living in dengue endemic countries, most of which are in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The largest number of dengue cases reported was in 2023 with the WHO Region of the Americas reporting 4.5million cases and 2300 deaths. Dengue cases are likely to increase and expand geographically due to climate change and urbanization.

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WHO prequalifies new dengue vaccine - World Health Organization (WHO)

Not long after receiving AstraZenecas Covid vaccine, Brianne Dressen began feeling a strange pins-and-needles sensation that quickly spread across her whole body.

It was like an electric pulse, it was horrific. Id never felt anything like it, she recalled. Within hours, her vision blurred and her ears started ringing.

Dressen was given the AstraZeneca jab at a laboratory in Utah as part of the pharmaceutical companys early clinical trials in November 2020. The British-made vaccine went on to be widely distributed in the UK, but never ended up being approved for use in the US. More than three years later, the 42-year-old mother still experiences crippling pain.

Dressen had desperately wanted to be part of the solution to a global pandemic that had shut down

More:

Covid vaccine volunteer reveals health nightmare: 'I can't be the mum I used to be' - The Times

The AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine was named CoviShield in India.

British-Swedish pharma giant AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine, made in collaboration with Oxford University has been found to raise the risk of vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (VITT) -- a rare but fatal blood clotting disorder, claimed researchers today.

While not new, VITT emerged as a new disease following adenovirus vector-based Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine -- sold as Covishield in India and Vaxzevria in Europe -- at the height of the Covid pandemic in 2021.

"An unusually dangerous blood autoantibody directed against a protein termed platelet factor 4 (or PF4)" was found as the reason for VITT.

In separate research in 2023, scientists from Canada, North America, Germany and Italy described a virtually identical disorder with the same PF4 antibody that was fatal in some cases after natural adenovirus (common cold) infection.

Now in a new research, Flinders University in Australia and other international experts found that the PF4 antibodies in both adenovirus infection-associated VITT and classic adenoviral vector VITT share identical molecular fingerprints or signatures.

"Indeed, the pathways of lethal antibody production in these disorders must be virtually identical and have similar genetic risk factors," said Professor Tom Gordon from Flinders

The researcher noted that the "findings have the important clinical implication that lessons learned from VITT are applicable to rare cases of blood clotting after adenovirus (a common cold) infections, as well as having implications for vaccine development".

The same team had in a 2022 study "cracked the molecular code of the PF4 antibody and identified a genetic risk factor".

Their new findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, also have important implications for improving vaccine safety.

The research comes after AstraZeneca "accepted, in a legal document submitted to the High Court in February, that its Covid vaccine 'can, in very rare cases, cause Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Syndrome (TTS)'."

TTS is a rare side effect that can cause people to have blood clots and a low blood platelet count. It has been linked to the death of at least 81 people in the UK as well as hundreds of serious injuries.

The company has also voluntarily withdrawn "marketing authorisation" of its Covid vaccine from Europe and other global markets.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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AstraZeneca Covid Vaccine Linked To Another Fatal Blood Clotting Disorder - NDTV

After acceptance of side-effects by Covishield maker AstraZeneca, a recent study has highlighted the side-effects of Bharat Biotech's Covaxin, a Covid-19 vaccine, which was widely administered in India during Covid-19 period. According to a report published on SpringerLink, nearly a third of the participants reported experiencing adverse events of special interest (AESI) following vaccination.

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Out of the 1,024 individuals enrolled in the study, researchers managed to follow up with 635 adolescents and 291 adults over the course of one year. Among the reported adverse events, viral upper respiratory tract infections were prevalent among both adolescents and adults.

Reported Covaxin Side Effects:

Menstural abnormalities observed in FemalesFemale participants also noted menstrual abnormalities, while ocular abnormalities and hypothyroidism were observed in a smaller percentage of participants. Moreover, serious AESIs such as stroke and Guillain-Barre Syndrome were identified in a fraction of individuals.

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The findings underscore the importance of extended surveillance of vaccinated individuals to monitor the development and outcomes of adverse events. Researchers emphasized the need for focused monitoring, particularly for individuals with a pre-vaccination history of Covid-19 and those with underlying health conditions.

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Common side effects of CovaxinAccording to the Indian governments Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), the vaccines main side effects include: Fever

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Other adverse effects:Severe allergic reaction

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Should you worry now?The administered vaccines have been in circulation for a couple of years now. Experts assure that adverse side effects typically do not manifest after an extended period. Therefore, if you have not experienced any adverse side effects thus far, there should be no cause for concern regarding the safety or severe side effects of the vaccine.

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Covaxin side effects: What are the symptoms reported in adverse event cases? Should you worry? - The Economic Times

A girl receives a dose of the Covaxin coronavirus disease vaccine manufactured by Bharat Biotech, during a vaccination drive in New Delhi. File photo/Reuters

Covishield vs Covaxin? Which is a better, safer vaccine? The debate has been going on since the pandemic days, and both the jabs are now under scrutiny.

Days after AstraZeneca admitted that its jab causes a rare side effect, it was withdrawn from across the world . That raised questions about the safety of Covishield, the AstraZeneca-Oxford Institute shot, produced in India by the Serum Institute of India . Now it is Bharat Biotechs Covaxin that is in the spotlight.

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A new study reveals adverse events in some participants who took the India-made jab. We explain what that means.

What did the study on Covaxin reveal?

A report on SpringerLink, an integrated platform for journals and other materials published by Springer Researchers, published an observational study on the side effects of Bharat Biotechs COVID-19 vaccine. Nearly a third of the participants reported adverse events of special interest (AESI), the research found, according to a report in The Economic Times (ET). Female adolescents and those with a history of allergy are at a higher risk of AESI after receiving Covaxin, it said.

The study was conducted by Dr Sankha Shubhra Chakrabarti and his team at Banaras Hindu University (BHU). It found that a majority of the AESI persisted at the one-year follow-up.

What adverse events does the vaccine cause?

One thousand and twenty-four individuals enrolled for the research. Of these 635 adolescents and 291 adults could be contacted during the one-year follow-up.

Viral upper respiratory tract infections were reported by 304 (47.9 per cent) adolescents and 124 (42.6 per cent) adults in this period. New-onset skin and subcutaneous disorders (10.5 per cent), general disorders (10.2 per cent), and nervous system disorders (4.7 per cent) were the common AESIs in adolescents, the research revealed.

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General disorders (8.9 per cent), musculoskeletal disorders (5.8 per cent), and nervous system disorders (5.5 per cent) were the common AESIs in adults. Menstrual abnormalities were noticed in 4.6 per cent of female participants. Ocular abnormalities and hypothyroidism were observed in 2.7 per cent and 0.6 per cent of participants, respectively. Among serious AESIs (one per cent), stroke and GuillainBarre syndrome were identified in 0.3 per cent and 0.1 per cent of participants, respectively.

Among the participants, adolescents, female individuals, and those with a history of allergy and post-vaccination typhoid were at a higher risk of AESIs. Adults with co-morbidities had more than two times higher odds of AESIs and persistent AESIs.

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Also read: AstraZeneca vaccines side effects. Why Covishield takers shouldnt worry

What is AESI?

AESI (an adverse effect of special interest) is a pre-specified medically significant event that has the potential to be causally associated with a vaccine product that needs to be carefully monitored and confirmed by further special studies, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

It is identified through active vaccine safety surveillance systems if there is: 1) proven association with immunisation that is true for most, if not all vaccines. 2) proven association with a known vaccine or adjuvant that is being used in any COVID-19 vaccine 3) theoretical concern based on immunopathogenesis of COVID-19 disease 4) theoretical concern related to viral replication during COVID-19 infection 5) theoretical concern because it has been demonstrated in an animal model with one or more candidate vaccine platforms.

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Is there a reason to worry? What does the study conclude?

The patterns of adverse events developing after Covaxin differed from those reported with other COVID-19 vaccines, as well as between adolescents and adults, the study said.

With the majority of AESIs persisting for a significant period, extended surveillance of COVID-19-vaccinated individuals is warranted to understand the course and outcomes of late-onset AESIs. Serious AESIs might not be uncommon and necessitate enhanced awareness and larger studies to understand the incidence of immune-mediated phenomena post-COVID-19 vaccination, the researchers concluded.

The relationship of AESIs with sex, co-morbidities, pre-vaccination COVID-19, and non-COVID illnesses should be explored in future studies, it added.

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Also read: AstraZeneca, Serum Institute to be sued by parents of woman who died after Covishield jab: What happened?

What has Bharat Biotech said?

The company has not commented on the study.

However, after AstraZeneca admitted the rare side effect, the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech said that Covaxin was developed with a single-minded focus on safety first. It underlined that Covaxin was the only COVID-19 vaccine in the Indian governments COVID-19 immunisation programme to have conducted efficacy trials in India.

Covaxin was evaluated in more than 27,000 subjects as part of its licensure process. It was licensed under restricted use in clinical trial mode, where detailed safety reporting was carried out for several hundred thousand subjects, the vaccine manufacturer said in a statement released on 2 May.

As seasoned innovators and product developers, the Bharat Biotech team was well aware that, while the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines may be short-lived, the impact on patient safety could last a lifetime. Hence safety is the primary focus for all our vaccines, it added.

According to information available on Bharat Biotechs portal, severe allergic reactions may very rarely occur after getting a dose of Covaxin. These may not be all the possible side effects of Covaxin. Serious and unexpected side effects may occur, it stated, reports The Times of India.

What is the controversy surrounding Covishield?

Weeks ago, global pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca admitted that its COVID-19 vaccine could lead to low platelet counts and formation of blood clots in very rare cases. It accepted a link between the vaccine and Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS) , a medical condition characterised by abnormally low levels of platelets and the formation of blood clots.

Last week, reports emerged that AstraZeneca was withdrawing its vaccine worldwide for commercial reasons. It would no longer be manufactured or supplied as there are newer vaccines, which can target newer COVID-19 variants. The company has insisted the decision to withdraw the vaccine is not linked to the court case or its admission that it can cause TTS.

In India, Covishied was widely administered during the pandemic and reportedly 1.75 billion (175 crore) doses were delivered.

With inputs from agencies

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After AstraZeneca side effect, adverse events in some who took Covaxin. Is it a reason to worry? - Firstpost

Last week, the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca announced that its coronavirus vaccine was being discontinued, and would therefore no longer be manufactured or supplied. This has been accompanied by scary news headlines about its capacity to cause rare blood clots but these are needlessly scary headlines. Fundamentally, the situation is this: there isnt a new smoking gun; the AZ vaccine was one of the first and cheapest vaccines; it saved millions of lives globally; and there are better vaccines out there now, adapted to new variants.

The AZ vaccine wasone of the first approved at the end of 2020,cheaperthan Pfizer, and importantly easier to distribute and administer in lower resource settings as it didnt requiresuper-low temperaturesfor storage. AstraZeneca also offered a guarantee of 300 million doses of the vaccine on a non-profit basis to make it more accessible for low- and middle-income countries.

In most countries it was first rolled out in older adults, as they were the most at-risk population. As it was rolled out in younger adults, a very rare, serious, side effect was noticed: it could cause deadly blood clots in the first few weeks after the first dose.

Vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (VITT) was a new, rare condition that affected approximately one in 50,000 AZ vaccine recipients under 50 years old, and one in 100,000 for those aged 50 and older.Crucially, this wasspotted quicklyandstudied. Established protocols for vaccine monitoring did their job. It should also be emphasised that no long-term effects have been reported from the vaccine (monitoring of side effects is ongoing long after an initial vaccine roll-out) and the rare occurrences of VITT all happened shortly after vaccination.

Many countries then (in mid-2021)restricted the AZ vaccine to older populations,as long as their populations had access to other vaccines, such as the Pfizer mRNA vaccine. TheAZ vaccine remainedfarsafer than catching Covid, even if only considering the likelihood of getting blood clots. For instance, a Covid infection was 190 times more likely to result in a blood clot in the vein and about nine times more likely to result in low blood-platelet count.

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Because the AZ vaccine was affordable and relatively easy to roll out at scale, it was widely used in that first crucial vaccine year of 2021, particularly in lower-income countries. Its efficacy has been widely studied andit reduced severe infections by 90 per cent. Imperial College estimatedthat all Covid vaccines saved about 20 million lives by the end of 2021. Afurther studyby vaccine type estimated that the AZ vaccine in particular saved more than six million lives by the end of 2021.

In terms of updating the vaccine for new variants, the way the AZ vaccine is made means this takes longer and is harder to do than mRNA vaccines such as Pfizer and Moderna. Specifically, the AZ vaccine is an example of a viral vector-based vaccine. We have several different ways that we create vaccines and this is one that was already being used for diseases such as Ebola. These vaccines use a modified virus which we call the vector to deliver genetic code for, in this case, the coronavirus spike protein to our cells. The viral vector is usually a harmless virus we are unlikely to have had prior exposure to, such as a monkey adenovirus (which is a mild cold virus).

The vector is weakened so it cannot replicate in our cells and cause a disease. The viral vector will infect our cells and instruct them to make large amounts of antigens, which then trigger an immune response. In effect, the vaccine is triggering what usually happens naturally with a viral infection. This has a huge benefit because these types of vaccines are incredibly good at stimulating our immune cells (specifically, our T and B cells). The T cells can target virally infected cells for destruction and the B cells can make antibodies, and both cell types will also generate memory cells.

Although this is a well-established technology to make vaccines, it is complex to manufacture and this is one reason it is not very amenable to be tweaked for an ever-evolving virus. Another reason is that prior exposure to the viral vector can reduce its effectiveness if used several times; there is a chance your immune response will recognise the vector and destroy it before it gets a chance to deliver its vaccine package, making the AZ vaccine less suitable for regular boosters.

In the context of Covid-19, where we have had a constant shifting set of variants and subvariants, there was always a finite lifetime for this vaccine. Since 2023, organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) have no longer recommended targeting the original coronavirus spike protein for vaccine production. The current recommendations are for a further shift to target the JN.1 variants.

All this means that, three years on, there are better vaccines out there that are cheaper, (even) safer and quicker to update than the AZ vaccine. It is simply no longer needed and has been retired. There is nothing about this that is nefarious and, most importantly, it doesnotnegate the vital role it played in 2021 in saving millions of lives across the world.

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The AstraZeneca vaccine saved millions of lives it should not be demonised - The New Statesman

A week after British-Swedish pharma company AstraZeneca withdrew its COVID-19 vaccines worldwide, the organisation announced on Thursday that its vaccine, made in collaboration with Oxford University, was found to increase the risk of a rare but deadly blood clotting disorder known as vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (VITT).

VITT is not unknown and it emerged as a new disease after the administration of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, known as Covishield in India and Vaxzevria in Europe, during the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak in 2021, IANS reported.

The reason for VITT was found to be an unusually dangerous blood autoantibody directed against a protein termed platelet factor 4 (or PF4).

In the studies conducted in 2023, researchers from Canada, North America, Germany, and Italy described an almost identical condition featuring the PF4 antibody, which proved fatal in certain instances after contracting a natural adenovirus infection, commonly associated with the common cold.

In a new research, Australia's Flinders University along with other experts found that PF4 antibodies in adenovirus infection-associated VITT as well as classic adenoviral vector VITT were sharing similar molecular fingerprints.

Professor Tom Gordon from Flinders told IANS, Indeed, the pathways of lethal antibody production in these disorders must be virtually identical and have similar genetic risk factors.

He added that the findings have the important clinical implication that lessons learned from VITT are applicable to rare cases of blood clotting after adenovirus (a common cold) infections, as well as having implications for vaccine development.

On Thursday as per Reuters, AstraZeneca revealed that the vaccine's COVID-19 prevention treatment successfully lowered the risk of infection among individuals with compromised immune systems, meeting the primary objective of the late-stage trial.

The company stated that sipavibart, a long-acting antibody therapy, demonstrated a "statistically significant reduction" in symptomatic COVID-19 cases among immunocompromised patients, Reuters reported.

Iskra Reic, the company's Executive Vice President for Vaccines and Immune Therapies said, Immunocompromised patients currently have limited or no options for COVID-19 protection and continue to face a significant burden of disease, despite often being fully vaccinatedwe will now work with regulatory authorities globally to bring sipavibart to these vulnerable patients.

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AstraZeneca Covid vaccine related to another rare but deadly blood clotting disorder - Hindustan Times

A 42-year-old American woman has taken legal action against pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, claiming that her participation in the companys COVID-19 vaccine trial has left her with permanent disabilities.

According to The Telegraph, Brianne Dressen, a former teacher from Utah, says she developed a severe neurological condition called post vaccine neuropathy, after taking part in a vaccine trial in 2020.

This lawsuit, filed in Utah, marks the first of its kind in the United States, where the AstraZeneca vaccine underwent clinical trials but was never approved for widespread use.

Last month, the British company also came under the spotlight after it admitted in court documents that its Covishield vaccine can cause a rare side effect, that can lead to blood clots in the body and a decrease in the number of platelets in the blood.

Dr Jagadish Hiremath, public health intellectual explains, Post vaccine neuropathy refers to nerve damage that occurs after vaccination, resulting in symptoms such as pain, numbness, and tingling. This condition can involve both peripheral and central nervous system damage.

The exact mechanism linking vaccines to neuropathy is not fully understood, he says, but it is believed to involve an autoimmune response triggered by the vaccine. The immune system may mistakenly attack the nervous system, leading to inflammation and nerve damage.

Studies, such as those published in the Journal of Neurology and The Lancet, according to Dr Hiremath, have documented cases of post-vaccine neuropathy following various vaccines, including those for influenza and COVID-19. These cases, while rare, highlight the need for ongoing surveillance and research into vaccine side effects.

Common symptoms include severe pins and needles sensations, numbness, tingling, burning pain, muscle weakness, and in severe cases, paralysis. The symptoms can affect various parts of the body, often starting in the extremities and potentially spreading.

Dr Hiremath elaborates, Symptoms typically begin within days to a few weeks after vaccination. The onset can be acute, with symptoms appearing suddenly and progressing rapidly. In some cases, symptoms may develop gradually over several weeks.

According to a study in the Annals of Neurology, he informs, most cases of post-vaccine neuropathy occur within the first two weeks post-vaccination, with the severity and duration of symptoms varying among individuals.

Dr Hiremath admits, Post vaccine neuropathy is considered rare. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) report that the incidence of serious neurological complications following vaccination is extremely low, estimated at less than 1 in 100,000 doses.

Factors that might contribute to the occurrence of post-vaccine neuropathy include genetic predisposition, pre-existing autoimmune disorders, and individual immune responses. Dr Hiremath cites a study in the Journal of Autoimmunity that suggests that individuals with a history of autoimmune diseases or previous adverse reactions to vaccines may be at higher risk.

Some vaccines, due to their components and mechanism of action, might have a slightly higher association with neuropathy, he states.

Treatment and management of post-vaccine neuropathy

Dr Hiremath stresses that early intervention is crucial. Treatments typically start with pain management, using medications such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), gabapentin, or pregabalin to alleviate symptoms.

For severe cases, he says, corticosteroids may be used to reduce inflammation and modulate the immune response. Rehabilitation through physical therapy can help maintain muscle strength and improve mobility, aiding in recovery and preventing complications.

Regular follow-ups with a neurologist are essential to monitor progress and adjust treatment plans. Psychological support may also be beneficial, as chronic pain and disability can impact mental health, he adds.

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First uploaded on: 16-05-2024 at 15:30 IST

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US woman sues AstraZeneca for leaving her with permanent disabilities; know more about this condition - The Indian Express