Category: Vaccine

Q: Every three months, I give my dog a beef-flavored chew that kills any ticks that bite her. She has also been vaccinated against Lyme disease. Why dont these options exist for people?

Its funny, in Lyme disease, animals have so many more options than humans do, said Dr. Linden Hu, a professor of immunology at Tufts University School of Medicine. That includes several Lyme vaccines, as well as oral and topical tick-prevention medications.

Safety concerns and doubts about public acceptance have hindered the development of these types of drugs for people. But with rates of Lyme and other tick-borne illnesses increasing in recent years, researchers are exploring new (and old) options, and a few are now being tested in human clinical trials.

Between 1999 and 2002, there actually was a human vaccine for Lyme disease available in the United States. The drug, called Lymerix, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1998 after clinical trials deemed it safe and effective for preventing infection with Lyme-causing bacteria. It was recommended for people between the ages of 15 and 70 who were living or working in areas where Lyme disease was common.

Shortly after people started receiving the shots, reports of side effects emerged, most notably symptoms of arthritis. Federal health officials looked at it very carefully and didnt find evidence that the vaccine was unsafe, said Dr. Erol Fikrig, an infectious disease expert at the Yale School of Medicine, who was involved with developing the drug.

But the reputational damage had been done. Sales of the Lyme vaccine plummeted, and in 2002, GlaxoSmithKline, which manufactured the drug, pulled it from the market.

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Why Is There a Tick Vaccine For Dogs and Not Humans? - The New York Times

Infant gets vaccinated against diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough) and tetanus. Vaccination ... [+] provides long-term protection against certain infectious diseases.

Whooping cough outbreaks are expanding across Europe, Asia and parts of the United States, including Northern California. Since December of last year, cases of whooping cough have risen sharply in the U.K. and Europe, in particular. This years uptick represents the largest surge since 2012, according to NBC News.

In Europe, the situation is concerning. In the Netherlands, for example, according to the Dutch news service NOS 1,800 cases of whooping cough were reported in the first two weeks of April, including 50 in babies who are most at risk.

And this years aggregate tally thus far is 5,303, which includes 276 babies. Nearly half of the 276 infants were admitted to hospital and four have died. Also, the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment reported this week the death of a person with whooping cough who was over 80 years old.

According to the Dutch Institute, the numbers are very high compared to previous years. To illustrate, in 2023 there were a total of 2,842 cases of whooping cough for the whole year.

The Dutch Public Health Authority cites as a possible cause of the current outbreak cited the declining childhood vaccination rate. Public health officials note that when parents do not fully vaccinate their children, the risk of transmission increases.

The Czech Republic has also been hit lately by a soaring number of whooping cases, according to Barrons. The rapidly intensifying outbreak there has already led to three fatalities, health authorities said earlier this week.

The country has registered 7,888 cases of the respiratory illness this year. Last week alone, health authorities recorded 1,494 new cases, which was the fastest weekly growth in 2024. At least 183 patients are currently hospitalized.

Bloomberg News says that in China whooping cough cases surged to over 32,000 in January and February of this year, compared to just 1,400 in all of 2023.

Whooping cough is a very contagious respiratory disease that is spread through small droplets consisting of saliva or mucus and other matter from surfaces of the respiratory tract. Pertussis is highly communicable. Once the disease enters a given household, up to 90% of contacts can become infected.

The disease is caused by bacteria called Bordetella pertussis. These bacteria attach to the cilia, or hair-like extensions, that line part of the upper respiratory system.

The U.K. Health Security Agency describes how the disease typically manifests itself. While the first symptoms of whooping cough are similar to a common cold, after a week or two the characteristic whooping cough can develop, a sound that is made when sufferers gasp for breath between coughs. Uncontrolled bouts of intense coughing can last for several minutes, sometimes causing vomiting. Coughing tends to be worse at night. Babies under three months old who are not fully protected through immunization are at the highest risk of developing severe complications.

The illness can inflame young babies bronchial tubes, or airways, making it difficult to breathe. The most common complication of an infection is pneumonia, which can be fatal.

Before the introduction of vaccines in the 1940s as many as 9,000 people died in the U.S. from pertussis every year. That number diminished to the single digits by 1976 as a result of large-scale immunization campaigns which began in the late 1940s.

And at its peak, globally, the number of people dying each year from whooping cough was in the hundreds of thousands. Even as recently as 2002, pertussis caused the deaths of approximately 294,000 people worldwide, with the largest proportion in Africa. By 2019, mass administration of vaccines brought about a sharp decline in pertussis-related fatalities to around 120,000.

At present, cases of whooping cough in the U.S. in 2024 are still relatively low, but recent clusters have been detected in the San Francisco area. As with the ongoing measles outbreaks the key to prevent or contain the spread of this vaccine-preventable disease is to ensure that parents do not refrain from having their children immunized. The more vaccine hesitancy, the greater the chance that infectious diseases such as whooping cough stage a comeback, as were witnessing today in Europe.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend parents start their childrens vaccine serieswhich can prevent diphtheria, tetanus and pertussisbeginning at two months old. The series includes four more shots, at four and six months, 15 to 18 months, and four and six years old.

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Whooping Cough Cases Rise Across Europe, Asia And Parts Of U.S. - Forbes

This year is not yet one-third over, yet measles cases in the United States are on track to be the worst since a massive outbreak in 2019. At the same time, anti-vaccine activists are recklessly sowing doubts and encouraging vaccine hesitancy. Parents who leave their children unvaccinated are risking not only their health but also the well-being of those around them.

Measles is one of the most contagious human viruses more so than the coronavirus and is spread through direct or airborne contact when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes. The virus can hang in the air for up to two hours after an infected person has left an area. It can cause serious complications, including pneumonia, encephalitis and death, especially in unvaccinated people. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one person infected with measles can infect 9 out of 10 unvaccinated individuals with whom they come in close contact.

But measles can be prevented with the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine; two doses are 97 percent effective. When 95 percent or more of a community is vaccinated, herd immunity protects the whole. Unfortunately, vaccination rates are falling. The global vaccine coverage rate of the first dose, at 83 percent, and second dose, at 74 percent, are well under the 95 percent level. Vaccination coverage among U.S. kindergartners has slipped from 95.2 percent during the 2019-2020 school year to 93.1 percent in the 2022-2023 school year, according to the CDC, leaving approximately 250,000 kindergartners at risk each year over the past three years.

The virus is slipping through the gaps. According to the World Health Organization, in 2022, 37 countries experienced large or disruptive measles outbreaks compared with 22 countries in 2021. In the United States, there have been seven outbreaks so far this year, with 121 cases in 18 jurisdictions. Most are children. Many of the outbreaks in the United States appear to have been triggered by international travel or contact with a traveler. Disturbingly, 82 percent of those infected were unvaccinated or their status unknown.

The largest toll has been in Illinois, followed by Florida. But when an outbreak hit the Manatee Bay Elementary School in Broward County in early March, Floridas top public health official, state Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladapo, did not follow the standard recommendation that parents of unvaccinated children keep them home for 21 days to avoid getting the disease. Instead, Dr. Ladapo said, Florida would be deferring to parents or guardians to make decisions about school attendance. This means allowing children without protection to go to school. Dr. Ladapos letter was an unnecessarily reckless act of pandering to an anti-vaccine movement with increasing political influence.

Vaccine hesitancy is being encouraged by activists who warn of government coercion, using social media to amplify irresponsible claims. An article published March 20 on the website of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.s Childrens Health Defense organization is headlined, Be Very Afraid? CDC, Big Media Drum Up Fear of Deadly Measles Outbreaks. The author, Alan Cassels, claims that the news media is advancing a a fear-mongering narrative, and adds, Those of us born before 1970 with personal experience pretty much all agree that measles is a big meh. We all had it ourselves and so did our brothers, sisters and school friends. We also had chicken pox and mumps and typically got a few days off school. The only side effect of those diseases was that my mom sighed heavily and called work to say she had to stay home to look after a kid with spots.

Today, he adds, Big media and government overhyping the nature of an illness, which history has shown us can be a precursor to some very bad public health policies such as mandatory vaccination programs and other coercive measures.

This is just wrong. The CDC reports that, in the decade before the measles vaccine became available in 1963, the disease killed 400 to 500 people, hospitalized 48,000 and gave 1,000 people encephalitis in the United States every year and that was just among reported cases. The elimination of measles in the United States in 2000, driven by a safe and effective vaccine, was a major public health success. Although the elimination status still holds, the U.S. situation has deteriorated. The nation has been below 95 percent two-dose coverage for three consecutive years, and 12 states and the District below 90 percent. At the same time, the rest of the world must also strive to boost childhood vaccination rates, which slid backward during the covid-19 pandemic. According to the WHO, low-income countries with the highest risk of death from measles continue to have the lowest vaccination rates, only 66 percent.

The battle against measles requires a big not a meh effort.

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Opinion | Measles cases are climbing. Get the vaccine. - The Washington Post - The Washington Post

A rising number of measles cases in the U.S. this year is raising concerns over a comeback of a disease that was declared eliminated in this country 24 years ago.

A measles report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week concluded that the spike in cases means more public health efforts are needed to increase routine vaccination coverage.

This year there have been 121 infections reported in 17 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is well above the total of 58 cases documented for the country for all of 2023.

Among the national cases this year were three in Georgia, all of them in unvaccinated people. The latest was confirmed Thursday in a person traveling with an international group of students. Earlier this year, state health officials confirmed two cases of measles in a metro Atlanta family after one of the family members had traveled internationally.

Before this year, the last measles cases in Georgia were reported in 2020.

While the numbers might seem low, measles is a serious illness that can lead to severe complications.

The airborne virus is also highly contagious. If one person has it, up to 90% of the people close to that person who are not immune will also become infected, according to the CDC.

Falling vaccination rates and a rise in cases globally are raising questions for older adults who got a measles vaccine a long time ago, or maybe they arent sure if they ever got vaccinated as a child.

Heres what you need to know about the measles vaccine and what to do if you are unsure about your vaccination status.

People born before 1957 are nearly always immune. The measles vaccine was made available in 1963, but in the decade before that virtually every child got measles by 15, making them immune. The CDC considers people born before 1957 to be protected from measles.

But for those born later, it may not be so simple. Measles vaccines first became available in 1963. Laws requiring a measles vaccine before attending school rolled out slowly and over the years so not all children were automatically vaccinated. Initially, there were two vaccines: a live attenuated version (which is a live form of the virus weakened in medical labs), or a killed vaccine (which contains the dead virus), which was not considered effective and is no longer used.

So some people who received the vaccine between 1963 and 1967 may have gotten a dose of the killed vaccine and they should consider getting an updated vaccine, according to Dr. Jayne Morgan, executive director of health and community education for Piedmont Healthcare.

The CDC said for those born after 1957, one dose of live vaccine is considered adequate unless a person is at high risk of exposure. Those at higher risk such as those working in health care, who are attending college, or who travel internationally should consider having two doses.

If you got the standard two doses of the measles vaccine after 1967, you should be protected against measles for life.

What if I dont know if Im immune?

For those unsure if theyve either had measles or took the vaccine as a child, the CDC said theres no harm in taking another, now known as the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. While healthcare providers can do a blood test to determine immunity, that step is generally not recommended.

Jodie Guest, professor and vice chair of the department of epidemiology at Emory Universitys Rollins School of Public Health, also says if you are not sure of your immunity, go ahead and get vaccinated. Go ahead and get the vaccine and do not worry about getting tested, Guest said.

Should younger adults also consider a measles vaccine?

Measles is a dangerous virus, so anyone of any age unsure of their vaccination status should get one. Guest said more than half of the people sickened with measles this year in the U.S. have required hospitalization, and close to a third of them were adults at least 20 years of age.

We have likely forgotten how dangerous measles is as vaccination rates have been high and kept us safe, said Guest. With vaccination rates falling, we are seeing a rise in a vaccine preventable illness that causes death and long-term, severe complications.

Severe complications from measles include pneumonia and encephalitis (swelling of the brain). Nearly one to three of every 1,000 children who become infected with measles will die from respiratory and neurologic complications, according to the CDC.

How effective is the MMR vaccine?

The measles vaccine is very effective, according to the CDC. Two doses of an MMR vaccine are about 97% effective at preventing measles if exposed to the virus. One dose is about 93% effective.

Very few people about three out of 100 who get two doses of measles vaccine will still get measles if exposed to the virus, according to the CDC.

Experts arent sure why. It could be that their immune systems didnt respond as well as they should have to the vaccine. But the good news is, fully vaccinated people who get measles seem more likely to have a milder illness.

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Do you need another measles vaccine? Some adults do - The Atlanta Journal Constitution

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Protecting men who have sex with men against gonorrhea with the 4CMenB meningococcal B vaccine is cost-effective; Imperial College London study finds

Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted disease which is caused by infection with the Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacterium. Previous studies showed that the 4CMenB meningococcal vaccine (also called Bexsero) partially protects against gonorrhea.

This mathematical modeling study by Imperial College London, published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, combines data on disease transmission and economics to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of vaccinating men who have sex with men (MSM) with 4CMenB to protect against future gonorrhea infection.

To be cost-effective, vaccination has to be offered to those who are particularly at risk of gonorrhea. Offering vaccination to patients diagnosed with gonorrhea to reduce their risk of getting another infection can prevent 57,000 cases over 10 years and is cost-effective.

Expanding the eligible group to include not only those with current infection but also uninfected individuals attending sexual health clinics who report more than five sexual partners per year is even more cost-effective. This approach could prevent 140,000 gonorrhea cases over 10 years.

This study also examined the importance of variation in the population regarding how people feel about vaccination because this affects how many people ultimately get protected. In an "optimistic" scenario, the number of gonorrhea cases prevented is 30%-60% more than in a "pessimistic" scenario.

The authors demonstrate that a vaccination program using 4CMenB does not need to achieve a minimum level of uptake to be cost-effective, although promoting vaccine uptake can increase the impact and value of the program.

The UK's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has advised using the 4CMenB vaccine to protect men who have sex with men against gonorrhea, and the UK government is currently considering this advice.

Prof Peter White, MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Imperial College London, said, "We have examined for the first time how variation in the way people feel about vaccination in the community of men who have sex with men would affect the impact and cost-effectiveness of using 4CMenB to protect against gonorrhea and it amounts to tens of thousands of cases and millions of pounds over a decade."

"Currently, we don't have information, so we recommend community engagement activities and studies to understand the range of views so that we can make vaccination as effective as possible."

Dariya Nikitin, MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Imperial College London, said, "We have a gonorrhea epidemic at present, and offering the 4CMenB vaccine to at-risk men who have sex with men could greatly reduce the number of cases. Vaccination would be cost-saving because reduced costs of managing gonorrhea cases outweigh the costs of the vaccination program."

More information: Peter J. White et al, Cost-effectiveness of 4CMenB vaccination against gonorrhea: importance of dosing schedule, vaccine sentiment, targeting strategy, and duration of protection, The Journal of Infectious Diseases (2024). DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jiae123

Journal information: Journal of Infectious Diseases

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Meningococcal vaccine found to be cost-effective at protecting men against gonorrhea - Medical Xpress

The parallel economy anti-vaccine activists and the far right want to create : The Indicator from Planet Money Anti-vaccine activists, far-right groups and some religious conservatives convened in Las Vegas this spring to discuss the creation of a parallel economy. These are groups who believe their speech is threatened by big banks and big tech. On today's show, what is a "freedom economy," and how would it work?

Related episodes: A Supreme Court case that could reshape social media (Apple / Spotify)

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.

Attendees visit booths at the RePlatform conference in Las Vegas in March. The conference crowd was a hybrid of anti-vaccine activists, supporters of former President Donald Trump and Christian conservatives. Krystal Ramirez for NPR hide caption

Attendees visit booths at the RePlatform conference in Las Vegas in March. The conference crowd was a hybrid of anti-vaccine activists, supporters of former President Donald Trump and Christian conservatives.

Anti-vaccine activists, far-right groups and some religious conservatives convened in Las Vegas this spring to discuss the creation of a parallel economy. These are groups who believe their speech is threatened by big banks and big tech. On today's show, what is a "freedom economy" and how would it work?

Related episodes: A Supreme Court case that could reshape social media (Apple / Spotify)

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.

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The parallel economy anti-vaccine activists and the far right want to create : The Indicator from Planet Money - NPR

Whooping cough outbreaks in Europe, Asia and parts of the U.S. should be a reminder to get vaccinated, experts say.

Since January, cases of whooping cough have risen sharply in the U.K. and Europe, the largest surge since 2012.

China logged more than 15,000 cases in January of this year, a 15-fold increase over the same time period last year. This month there have been small clusters of reported cases among high school students in the San Francisco Bay Area and several isolated cases in Hawaii. From October through earlier this year, New York City went through an outbreak, with more than 200 cases of mostly young children.

Whooping cough, or Bordetella pertussis the bacteria that causes the illness is a very contagious respiratory illness spread through small respiratory droplets. Due to widespread vaccination, whooping cough is largely under control in the U.S., but breakthrough cases, which are usually mild, do happen in people who are vaccinated.

Some U.S. health departments have informed us of local outbreaks, which we expect to see every year, Jasmine Reed, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesperson, told NBC News. So we are not seeing anything unusual.

Cases of whooping cough in the U.S. in 2024 are still lower than normal pre-pandemic levels. The U.S. usually logs around 20,000 cases of whooping cough every year. There were nearly 50,000 cases during a 2012 outbreak, CDC data shows.

Annual cases dropped steeply during the first two years of the pandemic, to 6,100 in 2020 and just 2,100 in 2021. Masking and physical distancing disrupted the normal cycles of many respiratory illnesses, including common colds, RSV and flu.

Where the pandemic may have interrupted the normal cycle of pertussis is people were not getting vaccinated on schedule because families werent seeing their physicians as frequently as we would like, said Dr. Thomas Murray, a professor of pediatric infectious disease at the Yale School of Medicine.

Whooping cough causes cough seizures, a series of coughs that make it hard for a person to take a breath.

When it finally stops, you take a breath in and it sounds like a whoop, said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

In adults and kids, whooping cough can look very much like a cold, prompting a runny nose and cough. But in young babies, an infection can be much more serious.

Pertussis inflames young babies bronchial tubes, or airways, making it difficult to breathe. The most common complication of an infection is pneumonia, which can be fatal. According to the CDC, there were 307 reported deaths from pertussis from 2000 to 2017. Nearly 85% were infants younger than 2 months.

The disease is typically called whooping cough, but the very young babies dont necessarily cough, they stop breathing, Murray said, adding that the first thing parents should be aware of is anyone who is sick trying to come visit their newborn. For babies themselves, any fever over 100.4 degrees is something their pediatrician needs to know about.

If a babys lips are turning blue or they appear not to be breathing how they normally would, that is something to be worried about, especially if they have been around someone who is sick, Murray said.

The CDC recommends babies start their DTaP vaccine series which can prevent diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis starting at 2 months old. The series includes four more shots, at 4 and 6 months, 15 to 18 months, and 4 to 6 years old.

The concern is that during the Covid period, a lot of kids were withheld from regular vaccination, Schaffner said. Now practitioners are trying to catch up.

DTaP, which is formulated to elicit an immune response in babies, who have a less-developed immune system than kids, is about 98% effective at preventing pertussis in the first year following a five-dose series, according to the CDC.

The Tdap vaccine is recommended for kids 11 and older as well as adults who may need a booster. DTaP cannot be given to kids older than 7, but the Tdap booster can be given even to people who never had their initial DTaP series, the CDC advises.

Its important for all adults to have received a dose of Tdap. Following that, they should get either a Td or Tdap vaccine every 10 years, Reed, of the CDC, said, noting that vaccination wanes over time.

Adult vaccination protects kids from whooping cough, and lessens the disease if the vaccinated person does get sick. However, our compliance with that is less than optimal, which provides an opportunity for older people to get whooping cough, Schaffner said.

While whooping cough can be dangerous for older adults, the primary concern is an adult passing the bacteria to an unvaccinated newborn baby.

Anyone who comes to see the new baby should have had a recent inoculation with Tdap vaccine, to provide a cocoon of protection around that baby, Schaffner said.

The CDC advises women to get a booster with every pregnancy. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends pregnant mothers get vaccinated with Tdap during their third trimester, which the CDC says prevents around 78% of pertussis cases and 90% of pertussis hospitalizations in babies younger than 2 months.

In 2019, researchers at the CDC found the bacteria that causes pertussis bacterium Bordetella pertussis has changed over time, which could make the current vaccines less protective than they once were.

Its not clear what effect, if any, those changes have on vaccine effectiveness, Reed said.

Schaffner said the vaccines do still offer significant protection and are currently the best method for protection.

Its not like the flu. It mutates very slowly and these strains are sufficiently related to each other, so the vaccine still works, he said.

The influenza virus mutates rapidly, as does coronavirus, which is why vaccines for those illnesses need to be updated every year. DTaP and Tdap vaccines are not reformulated.

The current outbreaks arent cause for alarm, but parents of new babies should be aware of the best ways to protect their newborns.

It wont turn into a pandemic because we have a highly vaccinated population, Schaffner said. However, lets make sure that pregnant people get vaccinated, that babies are vaccinated on schedule, and the rest of us take the Tdap vaccine every 10 years.

Kaitlin Sullivan

Kaitlin Sullivan is a contributor for NBCNews.com who has worked with NBC News Investigations.She reports on health, science and the environment andis a graduate of theCraig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at City University of New York.

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Whooping cough surging in some countries. Why you may need a booster. - NBC News

More than 1,000 people have succumbed to cholera, while tens of thousands across Africa have been infected in a series of deadly cholera outbreaks since the beginning of 2024.

The hardest hit nations are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, Zimbabwe,Zambia in southern Africa, and Ethiopia furthernorth.

Zambia is being battered by its worst outbreak ever, with more than 740 cholera deaths recorded since the onset of seasonal rains in October 2023.

The highly contagious bacterial disease can cause severe diarrhea and dehydration within hours of infection. When people are quickly treated, less than 1% die. But the death rate in Zambia, one of the world's poorest countries, is more than 3%.

Cholera outbreaks often occur in disaster-hit areas or poorer communities lacking safe drinking water and proper sanitation. Those who depend on untreated water from rivers and ponds or live in slums and refugee camps are at particular risk.

Thisis because the Vibrio cholerae bacteria that causes cholera is shed in the fecesof theinfected host, with the bacteriaspreadingrapidly if it gets into food or water supplies.

"Just imagine one household where the toilet is pretty close to the place where people fetch their water, so there is a transmission of contamination between the toilets and the water that people drink," explained epidemiologist Yap Boum, the head of the Pasteur Institute of Bangui, a non-profit research foundation in the Central African Republic.

"And then in settings like refugee camps, where you have a concentration of people, the water that is being used is highly contaminated."

There are a host ofreasons forthe rash of simultaneous cholera outbreaks across somany southern African countries, saidepidemiologist Boum.

"Cholera is a marker of inequality, mostly affecting countries that are exposed to conflict, insecurity and poverty," he said.Those factorsare all present in each of the African nations currently battling cholera outbreaks.

Another factor is climate change.

"Increasingly frequent and more severe flooding linked to climate change has an impact [on cholera outbreaks] too," wrote water management expert Anja du Plessis, an associate professor at the University of South Africa, in response to DW questions. "Cholera occurs more in the rainy season, which the region is currently experiencing."

"Flooding results in more run-off containing more pathogens, increasing the risk of contamination."

To make matters worse, stockpiles of the only available cholera vaccine are empty as demand soars.

Only one manufacturer,based in South Korea, currently makes an oral cholera vaccine. It is churning out 700,000 doses a week, but demand is four times greater than it can supply, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Thisdespite an October 2022 International Coordinating Group (ICG) on Vaccine Provision recommendation to replacethe long-standing two-dose regimen witha single dose of the cholera vaccinein an effortto preserve stocks.

Unlike routine childhood vaccinations, cholera vaccines are produced on a "needs basis," said Edina Amponsah-Dacosta, a vaccine expert with the Vaccines for Africa Initiative based at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

"We tend to use cholera vaccines for mass vaccination programs whenever we have outbreaks to control the outbreak of the disease. Thatmeanswe tend to produce a limited amount for a limited number of countries."

The past decade has seen a massive increase in cholera vaccines produced,jumping from roughly 2 million doses in 2013 when the cholera stockpile was set up to 36 million in 2022.

But thatstill isn't enough to keep up with the current unprecedented surge in global cholera cases.

"If cholera were similarly affecting Western countries, I believe we wouldhave the highest amount of vaccine available, but that is not the case," said Boum, who previously headed MSF's researcharm, Epicentre.

At the same time, every expertinterviewed for this article warned that vaccines wouldnever be thesilver bullet that will stem the spread of cholerain southern Africa.

Rather, a vaccine is just one of many tools to help fight disease. Others include improving community health messaging about boiling water and good hygiene practices, like washing one's hands, providing safe and reliable water sources, and increasing water quality testing and monitoring.

In 2022, the South African-based company Biovac signed a licensing contract to manufacture oral cholera vaccines in a deal heralded by international health experts. But Biovac's vaccines can't be used to curbcurrent outbreaks becauseproduction isn't slated to startuntil2026.

Having a regional manufacturer is an important step in the right direction though, say both Yap Boum and Edina Amponsah-Dacosta.

"Diseases are not prioritized the same way in all parts of the world," vaccinologist Amponsah-Dacosta told DW. "With cholera, we have just one manufacturer with limited global interest in a disease such as this one. It creates the situation that we're seeing now in terms of the dwindling stockpile."

"If you increasemanufacturing capacity in parts of the world that experience the disease the worst, it just means that they are able to take ownership and rely on their own resources and better support their health programs. "Thatis critical."

Edited by: Chrispin Mwakideu

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Deadly cholera outbreak hits southern Africa - DW (English)

PENN YAN, N.Y. People who ate at the Main Deck restaurant in Penn Yan between March 27 and April 12 may have been exposed to the hepatitis A virus, according to a release from Yates County Public Health.

Yates County Public Health is advising anyone who ate food from the restaurant, at 301 Lake St., between April 4 and April 12 to receive a free hepatitis A vaccine on April 18 from 1 to 7 p.m. at the Yates county Office Building, 417 Liberty St., Penn Yan. To register for an appointment, go to http://www.yatescountypublichealth.org. If unable to attend the clinic, or if you need help with scheduling an appointment, call (315) 536-5160.

Anyone who ate between March 27 and April 3 may have been exposed, but receiving the vaccine now will not prevent infection, according to Public Health, which encourages them to monitor themselves and their families for symptoms for 50 days since eating the food. Symptoms may include fever, fatigue, appetite loss, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, dark-colored urine, clay-colored stools, joint pain, or jaundice. If you have symptoms, contact your healthcare provider.

The owner and staff at the restaurant have been very cooperative and have complied with all recommendations from state and local health departments, according to Public Health which added that the state Health Department has conducted a thorough inspection and has cleared the restaurant to open.

While most people do not get sick when an employee at a restaurant has hepatitis A, a risk remains, Public Health said.

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Potential hepatitis A exposure reported at Penn Yan restaurant; free vaccine offered April 18 - News10NBC

Whooping cough is caused by the bacteria Bordetella pertussis, which is transmitted through respiratory droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

The common cold: how to treat it and how to know when youre not infectious

The bacteria attach to the cilia tiny hairlike extensions that line part of the upper respiratory system, where they release toxins that damage the cilia and cause airways to swell, says Dr Andrew Kong, a general practitioner in private practice in Hong Kong.

The illness is hard to definitively diagnose, says Dr Sarah Borwein, also a general practitioner in private practice in Hong Kong.

You can use PCR [polymerase chain reaction] testing of a nasopharyngeal specimen, like with the early Covid tests, but only during the first four weeks of infection, and in practice, doctors rarely consider the diagnosis of whooping cough until the cough has gone on longer than that, Borwein says.

After that, you have to rely on serology [antibody testing], which has relatively low sensitivity and can be complicated by antibodies from previous vaccination.

Whooping cough is associated with a number of symptoms, many of which are flu-like.

It is an intense cough that may last for up to 12 weeks, and between bouts of coughing you can be perfectly well, says Dr Lily Wong, a general practitioner in Hong Kong. This is different from most normal coughs, which clear up within three weeks.

There is a high-pitched whoop sound when youre finally able to inhale at the end of a coughing fit. This is the main difference between whooping cough and a regular cough.

You may also experience a runny nose, fever, vomiting and exhaustion after a coughing fit.

Borwein says that whooping cough is persistent and resistant to treatment, and is sometimes called the 100-day cough because no matter what you do, it can last more than three months.

Whooping cough in young infants can also cause life-threatening pauses in breathing (apnoea spells), seizures and brain damage.

About one-third of infants younger than one year old with whooping cough need hospital care to clear their airways of mucus using suction. They may also need oxygen support, says Wong.

Watch out for complications such as pneumonia, which can be more severe, and ensure that an ill child is adequately nourished and hydrated, she adds, stressing that the most effective way to prevent whooping cough is through vaccination.

Wong adds that elderly patients have the second-highest hospitalisation rate from whooping cough, probably due to fading immunity.

Whooping cough can cause complications in adolescents and healthy adults too, but is far less serious, especially in those who have been vaccinated, Borwein says.

Complications can include broken ribs from coughing, loss of bladder control and fainting.

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There is an effective vaccine for whooping cough. In adults, it is about 80 per cent effective at preventing whooping cough; however, this wanes relatively quickly and is probably only about 50 per cent effective five years after vaccination, Borwein says.

Infants are given the pertussis vaccine as part of their routine immunisation programme. They need three doses, however, and are not well protected until six months of age, Borwein says. This leaves them poorly protected at the time they are most vulnerable to severe complications.

For this reason, the vaccine is now administered routinely to pregnant women in every pregnancy. This has been shown to give passive immunity to their babies in the first few months of life and has been a major advance in reducing the toll of whooping cough in infants, she adds.

In adolescents and adults, the vaccine is included as part of a tetanus-diphtheria vaccine (Tdap, or tetanus-diphtheria-pertussis vaccine). The recommendation is to have one dose every 10 years.

According to Borwein, some experts think this period should be shortened because efficacy wanes significantly after about five years. Even after natural infection, immunity wanes over the years and there is a possibility of reinfection.

The bacteria that cause whooping cough can be eliminated with antibiotics that are typically prescribed if the diagnosis is made within the first three weeks of the illness.

Specific antibiotics, such as azithromycin, can reduce the likelihood of infected individuals transmitting the illness to others but they do not alleviate symptoms.

Unfortunately, there are limited effective medicines to control the cough itself, although some medications can alleviate fever and runny nose.

There is no quick fix for the coughing fits; Kong says to be patient as the symptoms tend to resolve with time.

Avoid exposure to other respiratory infections, get plenty of rest, stay hydrated, and avoid contact with irritants like smoke, dust and chemical fumes, he says.

A cool-mist humidifier may help to loosen mucus and soothe the cough.

Most people try all kinds of things, including cough medicines and inhalers, but no medications have been shown to help significantly, Borwein says.

Youre best advised to stay up to date with vaccination to prevent or mitigate whooping cough in the first place.

Original post:

Whooping cough: what it is, whos most at risk, how to prevent it - South China Morning Post