Category: Vaccine

The world has yet to catch up from a major drop in childhood immunisations during the COVID pandemic, according to new data.

Fewer children are getting vaccinated today than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new data that shows the world is not on track to meet global vaccination goals by 2030.

The pandemic disrupted immunisation campaigns around the world, and while vaccination rates rebounded in some countries in 2022, progress stalled in 2023.

Lower-income and conflict-ridden countries in particular are being left behind, according to the new data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, which covers immunisation across 195 countries.

In 2023, 21 million children were unvaccinated or undervaccinated for DTP, which covers diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis and serves as a benchmark of overall immunisation coverage. Thats up from 18.3 million in 2019, the report found.

"We've never seen backsliding of that magnitude or of that scale, meaning the number of countries, in probably 20 or 30 years," Dr Katherine O'Brien, director of the WHOs department of immunisation, vaccines, and biologicals, said of the pandemic period during a press briefing.

The WHO is now trying to identify kids who missed shots during the pandemic and get them up-to-speed on routine vaccinations, in what the group calls "the big catch-up".

"It is important that the next pandemic wouldnt really affect delivery of regular services, not only immunisation, but also other primary health care services," Dr Ephrem T Lemango, associate director for health and global chief of immunisation at UNICEF, told reporters.

In Europe, half a million children missed one or more of their DTP innoculations in their first year, according to WHO data.

Globally, there were 14.5 million "zero dose children" who missed all routine vaccinations in 2023.

Ten countries account for 59 per cent of these children: Nigeria, India, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Indonesia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Angola, and Pakistan.

These countries are characterised by having weak health systems, many babies born each year, or a combination of both factors, the report said.

The lower immunisation rates relative to previous years have led to outbreaks of preventable diseases that divert healthcare workers from regular vaccinations and other health services as they tried to tamp down infections, O'Brien said.

For example, among the 103 countries with measles outbreaks in recent years, the vaccination rate is about 10 percentage points lower than the countries without recent outbreaks, the report found.

"It's kind of a negative cycle that we really need to break out of," O'Brien said, highlighting "the importance of rapidly responding to outbreaks so that they can be shut down as quickly as possible to prevent serious disease and death".

Regional conflicts have also made it harder for healthcare workers to vaccinate children.

In 2023, 55 per cent of unvaccinated children lived in countries experiencing conflict or other vulnerabilities, a disproportionate share given just 28 per cent of babies were born there, the report found.

Sudan has seen a particularly steep drop in DTP immunisation between 2019 and 2023, for example, while levels have also dropped in the occupied Palestinian territories, Yemen, Lebanon, and elsewhere.

Ukraine bucked that trend, with a much higher DTP immunisation level in 2023 than in 2019.

"The reason thats important is those children who are living in those settings also lack security, they lack nutrition, they lack healthcare, and are most likely, as a result of those things, to die from a vaccine-preventable disease if they get it," OBrien said.

There were also some bright spots in the report. The Americas and Africa saw improvements in some vaccinations in 2023, particularly in Brazil, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Cameroon.

Meanwhile, 27 per cent of girls around the world received the first dose of the HPV vaccine, up from 20 per cent from the year before. Thats due in part to countries switching from a two-dose to a single-dose schedule.

The HPV vaccine has been shown to significantly curb the risk of cervical cancer, though it still isnt widely accessible in large countries like China and India, which have a high burden of the disease, according to the report.

Going forward, health officials are trying to address vaccine misinformation and hesitancy, which increased during the pandemic.

They also want to increase the number of children who get all of their vaccines, as many kids in lower-income countries drop out of immunisation programs after receiving their first or second shots.

In 2023, for example, 13 per cent of children in low-income countries who got their first DTP shot didnt go on to get the measles vaccine, the report found.

"Countries must strengthen immunisation programs at this time," Lemango said.

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Fewer children are being vaccinated than pre-COVID, WHO finds - Euronews

SHAFTER, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX)

The Shafter Police Department announced that they will host a low-cost pet vaccine clinic to only Shafer residents on Saturday, August 3.

The clinic will be held from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. at Shafter Animal Control, located at 18849 South Shafter Avenue. Residents are asked to pay with cash only and to make appointments.

The following vaccines will be available, at $15 each:

The vaccines come with a free 1-year licensing.

To schedule an appointment, scan the QR code in the flyer above or CLICK HERE.

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Low-cost pet vaccine clinic available to Shafter residents only on August 3 - Bakersfield Now

Overview

Ensuring quality of the health product ensures its safety and efficacy. Manufacturers in lowand middle-income countries (LMICs) face challenges to achieve quality in local production, such as the lack of an available manufacturing workforce trained in quality and understanding regulatory quality standards and difficulties in implementing a quality culture in the manufacturing facility.

The Local Production and Assistance (LPA) Unit in the Regulation and Prequalification Department (RPQ), Access to Medicines and Health Products Division (MHP), WHO, supports Member States (MS), particularly low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), to strengthen sustainable local production and technology transfer to improve timely, equitable access to quality, safe and effective essential medical products. The LPA Unit provides assistance and support to MS with an ecosystem-wide and holistic approach, such as conducting ecosystem assessments for sustainable, quality local production, developing & implementing strategies/roadmaps and tools, providing comprehensive capacity building and technical assistance, including for WHO Prequalification (PQ)/Emergency Use Listing (EUL), and facilitating technology transfer (TT).

To support MS to overcome challenges to locally produce quality-assured vaccines, medicines and in vitro diagnostics (IVDs), the LPA Unit organized a new global training event Week of Quality to complement the annual Virtual cGMP Training Marathons organized by the LPA Unit. The first Week of Quality was organized from 16 to 20 June 2023 and focused on establishing quality specifications of vaccines, medicines and IVDs based on WHO and other international guidelines, one of the stepping stones to achieve quality. More than 1700 vaccine and biopharmaceutical manufacturers and regulators attended the sessions on vaccine quality specifications. More than 1400 pharmaceutical manufacturers and regulators strengthened their foundations in establishing quality specifications for medicines. And for the first time, over 1000 IVD manufacturers and regulators, built capacity in narrowing the gap between quality specifications of IVDs and design validation.

Questions raised by manufacturers and regulators in the Week of Quality have been assembled in this training material with questions-and-answers (Q&A) with answers prepared and peer-reviewed by experts with long and rich experience in the vaccine, medicine or IVD industry, national regulatory authority (NRA), and other organizations. This document has been developed to provide manufacturers and other relevant stakeholders with a continuous learning resource and reference document to acquire new and fortify existing, knowledge and capacities to strengthen the local production of quality vaccines, medicines and IVDs.

See the article here:

Establishing quality specifications for medicines, vaccines and in vitro diagnostics - World Health Organization (WHO)

Though federal health officials are moving ahead with a plan to produce 4.8 million doses of H5N1 avian influenza vaccine that targets the clade (strain) circulating globally and infecting US dairy herds and some farm workers, older H5N1 vaccines in the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) might be useful in a pinch.

A team led by researchers from the US Food and Drug Administration looked at the ability of three H5N1 vaccines targeting three earlier H5N1 clades from Indonesia and Vietnam that circulated in the early 2000s to neutralize antibodies against the current 2.3.4.4b clade. All three are already licensed and are in the SNS. Two are adjuvanted, meaning they contain an immune-boosting substance.

The group published its unedited findings yesterday in Nature Communications to provide early access to the new information.

At a media briefing this week, federal health officials said H5N1 vaccination isn't yet recommended for farm workers exposed to animals that carry the virus, but discussions remain ongoing. Their rationale is that infections are mild, and they have seen no changes to suggest the virus is more transmissible or is poised to cause more severe disease.

An official from the Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response said the fill-and-finish of a vaccine specific to the current clade from bulk candidate vaccine is still on track, with the first doses to be delivered in July. However, once produced, the vaccine would still need to go through regulatory approval before doses are used in people.

In conducting the study, the team used blood samples from 68 adults who had participated in earlier H5N1 vaccine trials. The hemagglutinin (HA) sequence of the 2.3.4.4b H5N1 clade has several mutations compared to the HA of the three H5N1 viruses targeted by the earlier vaccines.

The researchers found that the two adjuvanted licensed H5N1 vaccines generated cross-reactive binding antibodies and cross-neutralization titers against the 2.3.4.4b clade.

"These findings suggest that the stockpiled U.S. licensed adjuvanted H5N1 vaccines generate cross-neutralizing antibodies against circulating HPAI H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b in humans and may be useful as bridging vaccines until updated H5N1 vaccines become available," they wrote.

In other H5N1 developments, the US Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) added three more confirmations, all from Colorado, to its list of H5N1 outbreaks in dairy farms. The nation's total is now 161 outbreaks across 13 states.

APHIS also reported one more H5N1 detection in poultry, which involves a backyard flock of 30 birds in Idaho's Twin Falls County. It also reported 21 more detections in wild birds, several of which were agency-harvested birds in Sioux County, Iowa, where the virus has been detected in dairy herds. Other detections involved waterfowl and raptors found dead in other states, including California, Florida, and New York.

Meanwhile, APHIS reported H5N1 in samples from 11 more mammals, mostly house mice in New Mexico's Roosevelt County. They also included a red fox in New York's Tomkins County and a raccoon in Iowa's Sioux County.

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Study suggests earlier US-licensed H5N1 vaccines prompt antibodies to current strain - University of Minnesota Twin Cities

For scientists and medical professionals well versed in the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, it is often too easy to write off the concerns of people who fear them, or feel they have been injured by them. But vaccine expert Kizzmekia S. Corbett-Helaire argues that professionals should be more empathetic when it comes to listening to these concerns, and that understanding them may help developers make better vaccines.

Corbett-Helaire, an assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston and a Freeman Hrabowski Scholar at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, joins The First Opinion Podcast this week to discuss her experience helping roll out the first Covid-19 vaccines in the midst of the pandemic. She also addresses her desire to close the gap between public health experts trying to end disease and people who genuinely fear harm from vaccines.

Experts must listen carefully and respond with empathy. Vaccine development goes beyond the clinic and it goes toward trust and actually getting people taking these very lifesaving vaccines,she said.

You can read more of Corbett-Helaires thoughts in her first opinion essay Empathy should guide responses to reported vaccine injuries.

Be sure to sign up for the weekly First Opinion Podcast onApple Podcasts,Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And dont forget to sign up for the First Opinion newsletterto learn about each weeks First Opinion essays.

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Listen: Empathy should be the first response to people with vaccine injury, fears - STAT

Key facts

While immunization is one of the most successful public health interventions, coverage plateaued in the decade prior to COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic, associated disruptions, and vaccination efforts strained health systems in 2020 and 2021, resulting in dramatic setbacks. Data from 2023 show that performance has not yet returned to 2019 levels.

During 2023, about 84% of infants worldwide (108million) received 3 doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP3) vaccine, protecting them against infectious diseases that can cause serious illness and disability or be fatal. However, these global figures hide significant disparity among countries of different income strata, with low-income countries lagging behind.

Measles, because of its high transmissibility, acts as an early warning system, quickly exposing immunity gaps in the population. Still, 22.2million children missed their routine first dose of measles, far from the 2019 level of 19.3million.

A summary of global vaccination coverage in 2023 follows.

Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) causes meningitis and pneumonia. The Hib vaccine had been introduced in 193 Member States by the end of 2023. Global coverage with 3 doses of Hib vaccine is estimated at 77%. There is great variation between regions. The WHO European Region is estimated to have 94% coverage, while it is only 33% in the WHO Western Pacific Region.

Hepatitis B is a viral infection that attacks the liver. Hepatitis B vaccine for infants had been introduced nationwide in 190 Member States by the end of 2023. Global coverage with 3 doses of hepatitis B vaccine is estimated at 83%. In addition, 117 Member States introduced 1 dose of hepatitis B vaccine nationwide to newborns within the first 24 hours of life. Global coverage is 45% and is as high as 79% in the WHO Western Pacific Region, while it is estimated at only 17% in the WHO African Region.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common viral infection of the reproductive tract and can cause cervical cancer in women, other types of cancer, and genital warts in both men and women. One hundred forty-three Member States provided the HPV vaccine in their national immunization schedule and services by the end of 2023, including 13 new introductions.In 2023, 37 countries representing more than 45% of girls aged 914 years old vaccinated in that year used a 1-dose schedule. Global coverage with the first dose of HPV among girls is now estimated at 27%. While far from the 90% target by 2030, it represents a large increase from 20% in 2022 and was driven by new introductions in several large countries and further improvements in existing programmes, including in countries using the 1-dose schedule.

Bacterial meningitis is an infection that is often deadly and leaves 1 in 5 individuals with long-term devastating sequelae after the acute infection. Before the introduction of MenAfriVac in 2010 a revolutionary vaccine Neisseria meningitidis serogroup A (NmA) accounted for 8085% of meningitis epidemics in the African meningitis belt. By the end of 2023, more than 350million people in 24 out of the 26 countries in the meningitis belt had been vaccinated with MenAfriVac through campaigns and 15 countries had included MenAfriVac in their routine immunization schedule. In the 26 countries of the meningitis belt, coverage is estimated at 29% in 2023. No case of NmA meningitis has been confirmed since 2017 in the meningitis belt.

Measles is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus, which usually results in a high fever and rash, and can lead to blindness, encephalitis or death. By the end of 2023, 83% of children had received 1 dose of measles-containing vaccine by their second birthday, and 74% of children received 2 doses of measles vaccine. By the end of 2023, 190 Member States had included a second dose of measles vaccine in their national immunization schedules.

Mumps is a highly contagious virus that causes painful swelling at the side of the face under the ears (the parotid glands), fever, headache and muscle aches. It can lead to viral meningitis. Mumps vaccine had been introduced nationwide in 124 Member States by the end of 2023.

Pneumococcal diseases include pneumonia, meningitis and febrile bacteraemia, as well as otitis media, sinusitis and bronchitis. Pneumococcal vaccine had been introduced in 159 Member States by the end of 2023 and global third dose coverage was estimated at 65%. There is great variation between regions. The WHO European Region is estimated to have 86% coverage, while it is only 26% in the WHO Western Pacific Region.

Polio is a highly infectious viral disease that can cause irreversible paralysis. In 2023, 83% of infants around the world received 3 doses of polio vaccine. In 2023, the coverage of infants receiving their first dose of inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) in countries that are still using oral polio vaccine (OPV) is estimated at 83% as well. In these same countries, the coverage of infants receiving their second dose of IPV is estimated at 42%. There is great variation between regions. The WHO European Region is estimated to have 89% coverage, while it is only 6% in the WHO South-East Asia Region. Targeted for global eradication, polio has been stopped in all countries except for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Until poliovirus transmission is interrupted in these countries, all countries remain at risk of importation of polio, especially vulnerable countries with weak public health and immunization services and travel or trade links to endemic countries.

Rotaviruses are the most common cause of severe diarrhoeal disease in young children throughout the world. Rotavirus vaccine was introduced in 123 countries by the end of 2023. Global coverage was estimated at 55%.

Rubella is a viral disease which is usually mild in children, but infection during early pregnancy may cause fetal death or congenital rubella syndrome, which can lead to defects of the brain, heart, eyes and ears. Rubella vaccine was introduced nationwide in 175 Member States by the end of 2023, and global coverage was estimated at 71%.

Tetanus is caused by a bacterium which grows in the absence of oxygen, for example in dirty wounds or the umbilical cord if it is not kept clean. The spores ofC. tetaniare present in the environment irrespective of geographical location. It produces a toxin which can cause serious complications or death. Maternal and neonatal tetanus persist as public health problems in 10 countries, mainly in Africa and Asia.

Yellow fever is an acute viral haemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes. As of 2023, yellow fever vaccine had been introduced in routine infant immunization programmes in 37 of the 42 countries and territories at risk for yellow fever in Africa and the Americas. In these 42 countries and territories, coverage is estimated at 50%.

In 2023, 14.5million infants did not receive an initial dose of DTP vaccine, pointing to a lack of access to immunization and other health services, and an additional 6.5million are partially vaccinated. Of the 21million, just under 60% of these children live in 10 countries: Afghanistan, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan and Yemen.

Monitoring data at subnational levels is critical to helping countries prioritize and tailor vaccination strategies and operational plans to address immunization gaps and reach every person with life-saving vaccines.

WHO is working with countries and partners to improve global vaccination coverage, including through these initiatives adopted by the World Health Assembly in August 2020.

IA2030 sets an ambitious, overarching global vision and strategy for vaccines and immunization for the decade 20212030. It was co-created with thousands of contributions from countries and organizations around the world. It draws on lessons from the past decade and acknowledges continuing and new challenges posed by infectious diseases (e.g. Ebola, COVID-19).

The strategy has been designed to respond to the interests of every country and intends to inspire and align the activities of community, national, regional and global stakeholders towards achieving a world where everyone, everywhere fully benefits from vaccines for good health and well-being. IA2030 is operationalized through regional and national strategies and mechanisms to ensure ownership and accountability and a monitoring and evaluation framework to guide country implementation.

In 2020, the World Health Assembly adopted the global strategy towards eliminating cervical cancer. In this strategy, the first of the 3 pillars require the introduction of the HPV vaccine in all countries and has set a target of reaching 90% coverage. With introduction currently in 74% of Member States, large investments towards introduction in low- and middle-income countries will be required in the next 10 years as well as programme improvements to reach the 90% coverage targets in low- and high-income settings alike will be required to reach the 2030 targets.

See the article here:

Immunization coverage - World Health Organization (WHO)

Former president Donald Trump removes his mask after being hospitalized with severe COVID-19. Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images News.

On Sunday, a day after surviving an assassination attempt and the day before formally winning the Republican presidential nomination, former President Donald Trump put in a call to one of the other candidates in the race, and it wasnt President Joe Biden. Instead, Trump called Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., an independent presidential candidate who has for months consistently registered some 10 percent support in polls. Kennedy Jr. is also Americas most famous opponent of vaccines, a subject Trump chose to talk about in a video recording of the phone call that Kennedy Jr.s son subsequently posted on the internet.

According to NBC reporter Brandy Zadrozny, Robert Kennedy III posted and then deleted the video of his father talking to Trump on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.Im a firm believer that these conversations should be had in public. Heres Trump giving his real opinion about vaccinating kidsthis was the day after the assassination attempt, Kennedy III wrote.

Kennedy Jr. later apologized to Trump, saying he was mortified by the posting of the video.

The video shows Kennedy Jr.who has a long history of vaccine skepticismtaking the call in a room that contains an American flag. Although the conversation is not always audible in the video, Trump clearly expressed his skepticism about childhood vaccinations. When you feed a baby, Bobby, a vaccination that is like 38 different vaccines, and it looks like its meant for a horse not a 10-pound or 20-pound baby. It looks like you should be giving a horse this [inaudible word], Trump told Kennedy. And did you ever see the size of this? You know its this massiveand then you see the baby all of a sudden begin to change radically. Ive seen it too many times. And then you hear that it doesnt have an impact, right?

Kennedy Jr.s candidacy has been a thorn in the side for both Trump and Biden.

Kennedy Jr. is the nephew of John F. Kennedy, the charismatic Democratic president who in 1963 was killed by an assassins bullet in Dallas. Kennedy Jr.s father, Robert F. Kennedy, attracted widespread support during a 1968 run for the presidency before being assassinated in a hotel kitchen after a Los Angles campaign event. Other members of the Kennedy family have been so worried that Kennedy Jr.s association with the famous political dynasty might draw from Bidens support that over a dozen members of the family gathered to endorse the president in April.

Yet Kennedy Jr. has also given Republicans reason for concern, with some polling showing he garners more support from Republican-leaning voters than Democratic-leaning ones. Even though they run counter to scientific evidence, Kennedy Jr.s criticisms of vaccines closely align with the attitudes of the many Republicans who turned against vaccine and masking mandates implemented at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, at one point a top contender for the Republican presidential nomination, said he might put Kennedy Jr. in a position at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), both of which have a role in vaccine policy. As president-elect before his first term officially began, Trump reportedly flirted with creating a position in which Kennedy Jr. would review vaccine policy. Kennedy Jr. claimed Trump at one point offered to put him on the ticket as a candidate for vice president. On Monday, Trump reportedly met with Kennedy to discuss Kennedy dropping his presidential bid and endorsing Trump.

As he campaigns for president as an independent, Kennedy Jr. is on leave from his anti-vaccine nonprofit, Childrens Health Defense. The group posts content that links vaccines to health problems, including autism, even though such links are unsupported by scientific evidence. The theory connecting vaccine use to autism in children has its origins in an article by discredited UK doctor Andrew Wakefield in The Lancet, a prestigious scientific journal. In 2010, Britains General Medical Council, a regulatory body, found that Wakefield had been paid by lawyers working on vaccine injury claims and said that the study involved children who had been carefully selected. The Lancet retracted the article after the findings.

A variety of studies have found no connection between vaccines and autism. Even so, Kennedy Jr.s views have persisted even as he runs for president. Last July, Kennedy Jr. told a podcast that [t]heres no vaccine that is safe and effective, according to theAssociated Press.

As he runs for president for a third time, Trump has worked to court vaccine-skeptical audiences. His message to them could be tough to sell. Trump, after all, oversaw the Operation Warp Speed project that rapidly produced and distributed COVID-19 vaccines. He took the vaccine, even though it was much maligned by many Republicans, and encouraged Americans to get it themselves. That history represents a political problem for Trump amid growing resistance to vaccinesnot just to COVID-19 vaccines, but even to the routine childhood vaccines currently required by every state for every child attending public school.

Still, Trump has tried recently to distance himself from his prior support for vaccination, saying on the campaign trail that if he is elected this year, he would not allow mandates requiring COVID vaccine or masks at school. At the same time, he has claimed that he is not opposed to routine childhood vaccinations.

But the conversation between Trump and Kennedy Jr. calls into question Trumps level of support for any vaccine. In the leaked video, the former president used language about vaccines that hed used in a 2007 newspaper interview. Autism, Trump told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel then, wasnt really a factor, when he was young but had subsequently become a crisis. My theory is the shots, Trump reportedly said. Were giving these massive injections at one time, and I really think it does something to the children.

Read more from the original source:

Did Trump share his real opinion on childhood vaccines with anti-vaccine crusader Robert F. Kennedy Jr.? - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

ACIP, the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, met for 3 days in June. New vaccines and new recommendations for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), flu, COVID, and a new pneumococcal vaccine were revealed.

We'll begin with RSV vaccines for adults aged 60 or older. For this group, shared clinical decision-making is out; it no longer applies. New, more specific recommendations from ACIP for RSV vaccines are both age based and risk based. The age-based recommendation applies to those aged 75 or older, who should receive a single RSV vaccine dose. If they have already received a dose under the old recommendation, they don't need another one, at least for now.

The risk-based recommendation applies to adults from age 60 up to 75, but only for those with risk factors for severe RSV. These risk factors include lung disease, heart disease, immunocompromise, diabetes, obesity with a BMI of 40 or more, neurologic conditions, neuromuscular conditions, chronic kidney disease, liver disorders, hematologic disorders, frailty, and living in a nursing home or other long-term care facility. Those aged 60-75 with these risk factors should receive the RSV vaccine, and those without them should not receive it. The best time to get the RSV vaccine is late summer, but early fall administration with other adult vaccines is allowed and is acceptable.

Vaccine safety concerns were top of mind as ACIP members began their deliberations. Possible safety concerns for RSV vaccines have been detected for Guillain-Barr syndrome, atrial fibrillation, and idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura. Safety surveillance updates are still interim and inconclusive. These signals still need further study and clarification.

Two RSV vaccines have been on the market: one by Pfizer, called Abrysvo, which does not contain an adjuvant; and another one by GSK, called Arexvy, which does contain an adjuvant. With the recent FDA approval of Moderna's new mRNA RSV vaccine, mRESVIA, there are now three RSV vaccines licensed for those 60 or older. Arexvy is now FDA approved for adults in their 50s. That just happened in early June, but ACIP doesn't currently recommend it for this fiftysomething age group, even for those at high risk for severe RSV disease. This may change with greater clarification of potential vaccine safety concerns.

There is also news about protecting babies from RSV. RSV is the most common cause of hospitalization for infants in the United States, and most hospitalizations for RSV are in healthy, full-term infants. We now have two ways to protect babies: a dose of RSV vaccine given to mom, or a dose of the long-acting monoclonal antibody nirsevimab given to the baby. ACIP clarified that those who received a dose of maternal RSV vaccine during a previous pregnancy are not recommended to receive additional doses during future pregnancies, but infants born to those who were vaccinated for RSV during a prior pregnancy can receive nirsevimab, which is recommended for infants up to 8 months of age during their first RSV season, and for high-risk infants and toddlers aged 8-19 months during their second RSV season.

Last RSV season, supplies of nirsevimab were limited and doses had to be prioritized. No supply problems are anticipated for the upcoming season. A study published in March showed that nirsevimab was 90% effective at preventing RSV-associated hospitalization for infants in their first RSV season.

Here's what's new for COVID vaccines. A new-formula COVID vaccine will be ready for fall. ACIP voted unanimously to recommend a dose of the updated 2024-2025 COVID vaccine for everyone aged 6 months or older. This is a universal recommendation, just like the one we have for flu. But understand that even though COVID has waned, it's still more deadly than flu. Most Americans now have some immunity against COVID, but this immunity wanes with time, and it also wanes as the virus keeps changing. These updated vaccines provide an incremental boost to our immunity for the new formula for fall. FDA has directed manufacturers to use a monovalent JN.1 lineage formula, with a preference for the KP.2 strain.

Older adults (aged 75 or older) and children under 6 months old are hit hardest by COVID. The littlest ones are too young to be vaccinated, but they can get protection from maternal vaccination. The uptake for last year's COVID vaccine has been disappointing. Only 22.5% of adults and 14% of children received a dose of the updated shot. Focus-group discussions highlight the importance of a physician recommendation. Adults and children who receive a healthcare provider's recommendation to get the COVID vaccine are more likely to get vaccinated.

On June 17, 2024, a new pneumococcal vaccine, PCV21, was FDA approved for those aged 18 or older under an accelerated-approval pathway. ACIP voted to keep it simple and recommends PCV21 as an option for adults aged 19 or older who currently have an indication to receive a dose of PCV. This new PCV21 vaccine is indicated for prevention of both invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) and pneumococcal pneumonia. Its brand name is Capvaxive and it's made by Merck. IPD includes bacteremia, pneumonia, pneumococcal bacteremia, and meningitis.

There are two basic types of pneumococcal vaccines: polysaccharide vaccines (PPSV), which do not produce memory B cells; and PCV conjugate vaccines, which do trigger memory B-cell production and therefore induce greater long-term immunity. PCV21 covers 11 unique serotypes not in PCV20. This is important because many cases of adult disease are caused by subtypes not covered by other FDA-approved pneumococcal vaccines. PCV21 has greater coverage of the serotypes that cause invasive disease in adults as compared with PCV20. PCV20 covers up to 58% of those strains, while PCV21 covers up to 84% of strains responsible for invasive disease in adults. But there's one serotype missing in PCV21, which may limit the groups who receive it. PCV21 does not cover serotype 4, a major cause of IPD in certain populations. Adults experiencing homelessness are 100-300 times more likely to develop IPD due to serotype 4. So are adults in Alaska, especially Alaska Natives. They have an 88-fold increase in serotype 4 invasive disease. Serotype 4 is covered by other pneumococcal vaccines, so for these patients, PCV20 is likely a better high-valent conjugate vaccine option than PCV21.

What's new for flu? Everyone aged 6 months or older needs a seasonal flu vaccination every year. That's not new, but there are two new things coming this fall: (1)The seasonal flu vaccine is going trivalent. FDA has removed the Yamagata flu B strain because it no longer appears to be circulating. (2) ACIP made a special off-label recommendation to boost flu protection for solid organ transplant recipients age 18 through 64 who are on immunosuppressive medications. These high-risk patients now have the off-label option of receiving one of the higher-dose flu vaccines, including high-dose and adjuvanted flu vaccines, which are FDA approved only for those 65 or older.

Read more from the original source:

New Mid-Year Vaccine Recommendations From ACIP - Medscape

Health officials want you to keep an eye out for symptoms of measles if you were at one of three locations in Arlington and D.C. in early July.

A person with a now-confirmed case of measles, visiting from outside the D.C. area, stopped at all three of those locations on July 1 and July 2. That means other people at those locations may have been exposed to measles while that person was contagious.

Here are the locations, dates and times where people may have been exposed to measles, according to Arlington County Public Health and D.C. Department of Health officials:

If you or someone you know was at any of those locations at those times, here's what to know.

As the school year gets closer, it's important to make sure kids are up to date on all their vaccinations. News4's Jummy Olabanji takes a look at what exactly is required to make sure your children are safe when they return to the classroom. Heres more info on childhood vaccines and school requirements in your area. D.C.: http://nbc4dc.com/6OaU4pQ Maryland: http://nbc4dc.com/lNvbfrB Virginia: http://nbc4dc.com/821GIM3

Those who are vaccinated against measles are protected.

Two doses of the MMR vaccine, which vaccinates against measles, mumps and rubella, provides full protection against the disease. (There are also measles-only vaccines given in other countries that provide the same level of protection as the U.S.'s MMR vaccine.)

The two-dose MMR vaccine gives lifelong protection.

If you only received one dose of the MMR vaccine, you are very likely to be protected even if you were exposed to measles. However, even though your risk of infection is low, health officials recommend contacting your doctor or another healthcare provider about getting that second vaccine dose.

People born before 1957 have what's called presumptive immunity to measles, because they likely caught the highly contagious disease while attending school before the first vaccine was available, Bloomberg reports.

But those born after 1957 who never got vaccinated against measles, those under 12 months old who are too young to be vaccinated, and those who are immunocompromised should keep an eye out for any possible symptoms.

Measles is very, very contagious. It spreads when someone infected with the virus breathes, coughs or sneezes, and symptoms appear in two stages, according to D.C. health officials.

The first stage gives most infected people a fever of 101 degrees or higher, along with a runny nose, watery red eyes, and a cough -- the same way a cold, COVID, or the flu might look and feel.

That first stage can begin anywhere between seven and 14 days after a person is exposed to measles. For people exposed in Arlington or D.C., that means symptoms may appear anytime before July 15 or 16.

The second stage of measles brings a rash that starts on the face and spreads to the rest of the body. The rash may appear anywhere between three and five days after the first stage of symptoms.

The contagious window of measles begins four days before the rash appears, and continues until four days after the rash starts.

Because of that window when measles is contagious, health officials are asking anyone who might have been exposed to the virus in Arlington or D.C. to keep an eye out for symptoms until July 22.

You do not need to automatically isolate yourself if you were exposed to measles.

However, if you notice any symptoms of measles, health officials ask that you immediately isolate yourself at that point. Stay at home, and stay away from others who live in the same home as you.

It is especially important that anyone who might have measles stay away from infants under 12 months old, or other people who are not vaccinated against the virus. Those unvaccinated individuals are very susceptible to the disease if they're exposed.

Contact your healthcare provider right away if you start to show symptoms that could be measles. Call your doctor's office or clinic before you visit in person to notify them, so they can protect staff and the other patients from the virus.

Continued here:

Contagious case of measles may have exposed people in Arlington and DC on July 1 and 2. Here's what to know - NBC Washington

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Link:

Reassortment incompetent live attenuated and replicon influenza vaccines provide improved protection against influenza in piglets - Nature.com