Category: Vaccine

The 5-year-old looked nervously at her older brothers, scanning their faces for any sign of distress as needles were swiftly stuck into their upper arms, the syringe plungers pushed in and the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine administered. Whether it was for her benefit or not, they barely flinched.

Then it was her turn. The girl, Oma Nnagbo, looked wide-eyed at the cheerful nurse, who a moment later declared, All done, very brave!

Michael Nnagbo, 40, had brought his three children to this pop-up vaccine clinic in Wolverhampton in Englands West Midlands after receiving a notice from their school about a measles outbreak in the nearby Birmingham area.

Its what we have to do, and its important to do, Mr. Nnagbo said. I just want them to be safe. And it was easy, you could just walk in.

Cases of measles, a highly contagious but easily preventable disease, have begun to crop up in clusters as the number of children getting the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine has declined globally. The trend worsened after the coronavirus pandemic because of a lack of access and hesitancy among some groups. The measles virus can cause serious illness and, in the most extreme cases, death.

Across Europe, measles cases rose more than 40-fold in 2023 compared with a year earlier to more than 40,000 from less than 1,000 according to the World Health Organization. And while much of that increase was concentrated in lower-income nations like Kazakhstan, more prosperous nations, where higher vaccination rates had long made cases of measles rare, are also experiencing worrying outbreaks.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit andlog intoyour Times account, orsubscribefor all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?Log in.

Want all of The Times?Subscribe.

Read this article:

Vaccination Rates Dipped for Years. Now, There's a Measles Outbreak in Britain. - The New York Times

CLAIM

Whooping cough vaccine was never necessary, DTaP vaccine is linked to sudden infant death syndrome

DETAILS

Misleading: Looking at deaths alone doesnt provide us the full picture of a vaccines impact. The impact of whooping cough vaccination can be seen in whooping cough incidence, which fell dramatically after the vaccine was introduced in the 1940s. While whooping cough deaths had fallen before that, this doesnt make the vaccine unnecessary. The disease produces potentially serious complications even if the patient survives. Factually inaccurate: Studies have found no association between the DTaP vaccine and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Childhood vaccination isnt a risk factor for SIDS.

KEY TAKE AWAY

Whooping cough causes the body to produce very thick mucus that can block the airways, which induces violent coughing. This coughing, also called paroxysmal coughing, can be strong enough to break ribs, burst blood vessels, and produce hernias. Other complications associated with whooping cough are bacterial pneumonia, seizures, and brain inflammation. Childhood vaccination helps to prevent diseases that are associated with potentially serious complications leading to disability and death.

The reels caption concluded by advocating for people to let their immune systems do its job, naturally, in effect, implying people would be better off taking their chances with disease than if they got vaccinated.

The reel, which was posted by the Instagram account @you.dont.know.jac, was viewed more than 17,900 times. The account has more than 83,000 followers and is run by an individual named Jaclyn Simone, who also claims vaccines cause encephalitis and autism (they dont) and promotes an oil that allegedly detoxes and treats autism (theres no evidence this works).

The DTaP vaccine targets three diseases: diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (whooping cough). All three diseases are caused by toxin-producing bacteria. Unlike other vaccines which target the harmful microorganism, the DTaP vaccine targets the toxins that the microorganisms produce, as it is the toxins that produce the disease.

As we will explain below, the claims made in the reel misrepresent published articles in journals and potentially place people at risk of serious complications from vaccine-preventable diseases.

To support her suggestion that the whooping cough vaccine is unnecessary, Simone pointed to a graph of pertussis mortality in the U.S. It showed that deaths from whooping cough had declined before the 1940s, when the whooping cough vaccine became available.

Using reverse image search, we were able to identify a similar-looking graph published on this website, bearing the URL healthsentinel.com in a corner. The website healthsentinel.com is a now-defunct, anonymous website that pushed claims similar to those made in the reel, as can be seen in this archive.

The graph indicated that the data was sourced from the reports Vital Statistics Rate in the United States 1940-1960 and the Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1957, published in 1968 and 1975, respectively.

Now, the issue with the claim isnt that the data comes from unreliable sources or that its necessarily inaccurate, but that it provides a limited perspective of the vaccines impact on public health.

As David Gorski, a surgical oncologist and editor of Science-Based Medicine, explained in this 2010 article, deaths from various vaccine-preventable diseases did decline as a result of improvements in supportive care. For instance, the development of the iron lung meant that fewer children died from polio-associated paralysis of the breathing muscles.

However, looking only at deaths doesnt give us the whole picture. We get a more complete understanding of the impact that vaccines had on infectious diseases when we look at the incidence rate as well as the mortality rate.

As we can see from the graph below, cases of whooping cough fell after the first combination diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccine was made available (Figure 1). In the 1940s, when the vaccine was first made available, the number of whooping cough cases frequently exceeded 100,000 cases per year. By 1965, reports fell to fewer than 10,000.

Figure 1 Pertussis cases reported to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) in the United States. The DTP vaccine was the first combination vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. This vaccine contained killed Bordetella pertussis, the causative agent of pertussis, in addition to the inactivated pertussis toxin. Its successor, the DTaP vaccine, contains only the pertussis toxin. The Tdap vaccine is given to those older than seven years old and is generally used as a booster for teenagers and adults. Source: NNDSS. Retrieved on 5 March 2024.

Moreover, focusing only on deaths means neglecting the diseases harmful impact on those who survive, as we will show below.

As explained earlier, the three diseases that the DTaP vaccine targets are diseases caused by toxins from bacteria, namely Corynebacterium diphtheriae, Clostridium tetani, and Bordetella pertussis. This is why, unlike many other vaccines, the DTaP vaccine targets the toxins released by the bacteria rather than the bacteria themselves.

The Instagram reel advocated for people to allow nature to take its course, implicitly encouraging infection in lieu of vaccination. However, all three diseases can produce great distress and potentially serious complications, even if they dont ultimately kill.

Whooping cough causes the body to produce very thick mucus that can block the airways, which induces violent coughing. This coughing, also called paroxysmal coughing, can be strong enough to break ribs, burst blood vessels, and produce hernias. Other complications associated with whooping cough are bacterial pneumonia, seizures, and brain inflammation.

Diphtheria can occur in two forms, respiratory and non-respiratory. The respiratory form, which is more common, manifests in fever, sore throat, and notably membranes forming in the airways that may lead to respiratory obstruction. The toxin produced by the bacterium can also cause myocarditis and neuritis.

Tetanus, also known as lockjaw, leads to difficulty in swallowing, muscle spasms (involuntary muscle contraction), and seizures. The spasms can be strong enough to break bones.

Unlike many infectious diseases, getting tetanus doesnt confer immunity to the disease. This is because tetanus toxin is highly potent and so only a small amount is needed to produce disease. This means that during infection, the body isnt exposed to a level of toxin high enough to generate a protective immune response. At the moment, the only way of acquiring immunity to tetanus is through vaccination.

Many people do survive these diseases, and in many cases, infection can produce protective immunity. Yet the risk associated with simply letting our immune systems handle them, as the reel advocates, is that infection carries significant risks of disability and death. For instance, an unvaccinated boy in Oregon contracted tetanus through a cut. He spent 57 days in hospitalmore than 40 of those days in intensive careand had to undergo rehabilitation to walk again.

The reel cited a report from 1946, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, documenting the deaths of twin boys shortly after receiving the diphtheria and pertussis vaccine[1]. The reel then went on to talk about sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), claiming that SIDS spikes after well visits, a reference to well-child visits.

Well-child visits are scheduled screenings and assessments for healthy children. They are also when childhood vaccines are normally given. The juxtaposition of the case report and the problem of SIDS, implicitly suggested that the DTaP vaccine causes SIDS.

SIDS is the sudden death of a baby before one year of age that doesnt have a known cause, despite a full investigation. However, scientific studies have found no association between SIDS and the DTaP vaccine[2-4]. There are various risk factors for SIDS, such as an underlying but undetected medical condition and placing a baby to sleep on their stomach. But childhood vaccination isnt one of them.

The Vaccine Education Center at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia explains:

[S]ince immunizations are given to about 90 percent of children less than 1 year of age, and about 1,600 cases of SIDS occur every year, it would be expected, statistically, that every year about 50 cases of SIDS will occur within 24 hours of receipt of a vaccine. However, because the incidence of SIDS is the same in children who do or do not receive vaccines, we know that SIDS is not caused by vaccines.

Moreover, the 1946 report that the reel cited stated that the twins had died from anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction, hours after the second DTaP dose. A review by the U.S. Institute of Medicine, also citing the same report, discussed the deaths in the context of anaphylaxis[5]. This isnt compatible with the reels implication that the deaths were due to SIDS.

The reel also cited a 1948 article in the journal Pediatrics, which it claimed discusses brain damage from the vaccine and concluded that the vaccine risk was just far too great to continue.

But these statements grossly misrepresent the article.

The article reported that Childrens Hospital records showed 15 cases of acute cerebral symptoms occurring in children after pertussis vaccination in the past ten years. But it didnt establish that these cases were caused by the vaccine, contrary to Simones assertion. The sole fact that an adverse event occurred after vaccination isnt sufficient evidence that the vaccine caused the event.

And the authors came to the opposite conclusion, as shown in their abstract[6]:

In view of the impressive evidence of the effectiveness of prophylactic pertussis vaccine now accumulating, it seems likely that babies are safer vaccinated than not.

The DTaP vaccine helps to prevent diseases caused by toxin-producing bacteria, which can have devastating consequences for children, even if they survive. While infection can confer immunity against a future infection in many cases, it doesnt always do soas in the case of tetanusand carries the risk of disability and death.

Ultimately, as the saying goes, prevention is worth a pound of cure. Getting vaccinated enables us to acquire protective immunity to potentially dangerous diseases without having to run the risks associated with infection.

Read the original:

DTaP vaccine isnt associated with sudden infant death syndrome, whooping cough vaccine led to historic decline in ... - Health Feedback

NEW YORK Health officials are investigating whether there's a link between two new RSV vaccines and cases of a rare nervous system disorder in older U.S. adults.

The inquiry is based on fewer than two dozen cases seen among more than 9.5 million vaccine recipients, health officials said Thursday. And the available information is too limited to establish whether the shots caused the illnesses, they added.

But the numbers are higher than expected and officials are gathering more information to determine if the vaccines are causing the problem. The data was presented at a meeting of an expert panel that provides vaccine policy advice to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Officials said they were investigating more than 20 cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare illness in which a persons immune system damages nerve cells, causing muscle weakness and paralysis. An estimated 3,000 to 6,000 people develop GBS in the U.S. each year, and it's more commonly seen in older people, according to the CDC.

Most people fully recover from the syndrome, but some have permanent nerve damage. Guillain-Barre can occur in people after they are infected with a virus, but in some instances cases have been linked to vaccinations.

RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, is a common cause of cold-like symptoms but it can be dangerous for infants and the elderly.

Last year, the CDC signed off on a recommendation made by the advisory panel, aimed at Americans age 60 and older. It was for a single dose of RSV vaccine. There were two options, one made by Pfizer and the other by GSK.

The CDC said that patients should talk to their doctors about the vaccines and then decide whether to get it.

Officials were aware that instances of Guillain-Barre had been identified in clinical trials done before the shots were approved for sale, and that different systems were watching for signs of problems.

At a meeting of the expert panel on Thursday, CDC officials presented an analysis of the reports taken in by those systems.

About two-thirds of the cases occurred in people who got a version of the vaccine made by Pfizer, called Abrysvo. But officials are also doing follow-up tracking in people who got Arexvy, made by GSK.

About two cases of Guillain-Barre might be seen in every 1 million people who receive a vaccine, health officials estimate. A CDC analysis found the the GSK rate was lower than that, but 4.6 cases per million were reported in recipients of the Pfizer shot.

Data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration also showed an above-expected number of Guillain-Barre cases being reported in RSV vaccine recipients, with more among Pfizer shot recipients.

Taken together, these data suggest a potential increased risk in RSV vaccine recipients 60 and older that must be explored, said Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, a CDC vaccine safety monitoring official.

Officials from GSK and Pfizer made brief statements during the meeting, noting that sorting out a safety signal is complicated.

Pfizer is committed to the continuous monitoring and evaluation of the safety of Abrysvo and is conducting four safety studies to look into the possibility of vaccine-related GBS, said Reema Mehta, a Pfizer vice president.

CDC officials also presented estimates that the vaccines have prevented thousands of hospitalizations and hundreds of deaths from RSV, and that current data indicates the benefits of vaccination outweigh the possible risks.

More:

RSV Vaccine May Be Linked to a Slightly Higher Risk of Guillain-Barre Syndrome - TIME

Vaccines don't save lives. Vaccinations save lives.

A vaccine in an arm, on the other hand, can save the world. Childhood vaccination prevents about 4 million deaths each year, and the World Health Organization estimates that the measles vaccination saved 56 million lives between 2000 and 2021.

Yet far too many measles vaccines still remain in their vials, with global immunization coverage at only 74 per cent in 2021, far from the 95 per cent required to prevent outbreaks.

As a result, measles cases worldwide increased by 79 per cent in 2023, with the WHO European Region of particular concern: Last year, 41 of its 53 member states tallied 58,000 cases, a dramatic rise from just 941 cases in 2022.

Canada has so far been spared that catastrophic increase, but were seeing worrying signs this year. Seventeen cases were confirmed as of Monday, with infections in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec.

Quebec public health director Luc Boileau reported 10 cases in that province alone, including seven in Montreal. And while some infections were likely acquired through international travel, community spread now seems evident.

That spread could continue since only 78.5 per cent of Montreal elementary school children are vaccinated. And according to Mylene Drouin, the citys public health director, vaccination rates have fallen below 50 per cent in some areas.

Montreal is therefore at significant risk of a major outbreak, but its not alone. According to the 2021 National Immunization Coverage Survey, just 79.2 per cent of seven-year-old children across the country are fully vaccinated, meaning theyve received two doses of the vaccine.

Even worse, the percentage of fully vaccinated seven-year-olds has been dropping steadily, from 87 per cent in 2017, and 83.3 per cent in 2019. Vaccination rates among two-year-olds -- who receive only one dose -- are substantially higher, but the decline in the percentage of fully immunized elementary school age children remains troubling.

The rise of anti-vaccination sentiments during the COVID-19 pandemic might be playing a role in this decline, though according to the immunization survey, only 2.5 per cent of parents said the pandemic made them less inclined to vaccinate their kids.

That said, the survey did find that nearly half of parents fear vaccine side effects, and an increasing percentage believe that alternative medicine and healthy lifestyles can replace the need for vaccination.

A February Angus Reid poll echoed those findings, with one in three respondents saying theres a real risk of serious side effects from vaccines, and 22 per cent insisting that the human body doesnt need vaccines to build immunity.

These beliefs, along with related ones such as a general lack of trust in vaccines, led one in six Angus Reid respondents to say that they were really against vaccinating their kids -- a fourfold increase since 2019.

Reversing this trend is imperative if were to avoid major outbreaks in the future, and fortunately, most Canadians are open to receiving new information and changing their minds.

In fact, a by the Canadian Vaccination Evidence Resource and Exchange Centre (CANVax) found that parents wanted more information than they were getting (mainly balanced information about benefits and harms), presented clearly and simply, and provided in good time.

Health care providers are, of course, key to disseminating such info. But beyond that, the CANVax and other reviews found positive effects from both mass vaccination campaigns and smaller efforts aimed at addressing the concerns -- such as side effects -- of specific communities and individuals.

Local campaigns can also benefit from the support of community, faith and industry leaders, who often enjoy significant trust in their communities. And novel approaches to conveying information, including the use of narratives instead of merely presenting statistics, can bolster efforts to overcome vaccine hesitancy.

To reverse declining vaccination rates, then, we need to engage in a thorough, multi-faceted effort, and to act like vaccinations can save our lives. Because they can.

Original post:

Vaccinations save lives. Measles outbreaks tells us that some people aren't getting the message - Toronto Star

Those who had COVID-19 and received the latest vaccine can have a reduced risk of severe outcomes, according to recent research from the Cleveland Clinic, published in Lancet Infectious Diseases.

In addition, the study found the updated Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Novavax COVID-19 vaccines, when combined with antiviral treatments like nirmatrelvir and molnupiravir, can significantly decrease the chances of hospitalization and death from current COVID-19 variants.

The FDA approved Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Novavax COVID-19 vaccines around fall of 2023 with the XBB.1.5 variant for enhanced protection against severe outcomes, without specific clinical evidence.

As for ritonavir-boosted nirmatrelvir over molnupiravir, the National Institutes of Health Guidelines suggest this method for high-risk outpatient COVID-19 treatment.

In the study, researchers examined the effectiveness of the three XBB.1.5 vaccines and the two oral antiviral drugs, as well as their combined impact, in preventing hospital admission and death from current COVID variants.

The study included more than 27,000 patients 12 years and older who tested positive for COVID-19 between September and December 2023.

Researchers found that the updated vaccines and antiviral drugs reduced the risk of severe COVID-19 by 31% and 42%, particularly in older individuals and those who are immunocompromised.

The study also observed consistent efficacy across various COVID subvariants.

Using a Cox proportional hazards model, the XBB.1.5 vaccination and antiviral treatment showed hazard ratios (HR) of 0.69 and 0.58. Nirmatrelvir and molnupiravir separately had HRs of 0.61 and 0.50.

XBB.1.5 vaccination had a decreased HR to 0.47 in those receiving treatment and 0.59 in untreated individuals.

For the endpoint of COVID infection to death, HRs were 0.59 for XBB.1.5 vaccination and 0.13 for antiviral treatment.

This study demonstrated that both XBB.1.5 vaccines and antiviral drugs reduced the risk of serious consequences of infection with COVID omicron subvariants.

Authors suggest XBB.1.5 vaccines should be considered by all, especially those who are 65 years or older or are immunocompromised.

Additionally, molnupiravir or nirmatrelvir can be prescribed to patients with COVID who are at high risk of progressing to severe disease, regardless of their XBB.1.5 vaccination status.

This study was limited by confounding bias, but researchers adjusted for important factors such as age and other health conditions.

While the study included many participants from different U.S. states, authors suggest to examine data from other health systems and countries, as well.

Read more:

Latest Vaccines and Antiviral Treatments Show Promising Results in Reducing Severe COVID Outcomes - Managed Healthcare Executive

Friday, March 8, 2024

Promising initial research could lead to more effective seasonal flu shots and ward against future pandemics

Dry cough. Runny nose. Sore throat. Muscle aches. These symptoms are all familiar to anyone whos contracted the common flu, a respiratory illness that affects one billion people each year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend most people receive yearly flu shots because the seasonal influenza virus mutates constantly, creating new strains that circulate from person-to-person leading to seasonal flu epidemics. These yearly vaccines are formulated to protect against the specific virus strains expected to spread and cause illness during that flu season, typically October through May.

A flu pandemic, such as the 1918 pandemic that infected around one-third of the worlds population and caused an estimated 50 million deaths, occurs when a global outbreak of a new strain of influenza A virus emerges that is radically different from the currently circulating strains. Because seasonal flu shots are specifically formatted to combat certain strains of influenza including the virus type that causes the flu in birds and some mammals, including humans current vaccine formulations offer no protection against a novel strain. At present, it takes about six months to formulate and produce large quantities of flu vaccine, during which time widespread infection can cause severe illness and even death.

Led by Dr. Suresh Mittal, Distinguished Professor of Virology in the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine, researchers are working on the development of a universal vaccine, one that would offer protection against all forms of influenza A that infect humans, regardless of the strain. Such a vaccine could eliminate the need to reformulate seasonal flu vaccines and provide the health care system with a jumpstart in combatting the next flu pandemic.

Every year, the flu vaccine gets updated because its components are strain specific, Dr. Mittal said. A universal vaccine would strengthen the efficacy of seasonal flu vaccines. In the case of an influenza pandemic, the universal vaccine could be used to help control a global outbreak until a variant-specific vaccine is developed.

The current seasonal influenza vaccines predominately stimulate the production of influenza-specific antibodies, the proteins produced by an immune system to protect the body from infectious agents, such as viral infections. Antibodies attach to the outside of viruses, facilitating their neutralization and removing them from the body. The influenza viruss major surface protein, called hemagglutinin from the Greek word for blood and the Latin word for glue binds to the mucosal lining of the upper respiratory tract and initiates viral infection. Hemagglutinins also mutate frequently, creating new strains of influenza virus.

Dr. Mittals research team is investigating a novel approach to fight influenza. Rather than boosting the antibody specific to the virus surface proteins, the teams work targets an internal nucleoprotein that is conserved in multiple strains of influenza A viruses. Because the nucleoprotein doesnt mutate the way hemagglutinins do, attacking it stands a better chance of fighting off the flu, regardless of the strain. The method relies on generating a T cell response, rather than an antibody response.

Our cells go through a natural cellular recycling process called autophagy that removes unnecessary or dysfunctional components, Dr. Mittal said. By attaching an autophagy-inducing peptide to the nucleoprotein, it forces the antigen to go through autophagy. This triggered an enhanced T cell response which was shown to be effective in inducing protection against several influenza viruses having different hemagglutinin subtypes.

The study, published in the February 2024 journal Vaccines, tested the immunization response against the five subtypes of influenza A viruses known to cause human infections (H1, H3, H5, H7, and H9). In laboratory testing, nucleoprotein-targeted vaccines administered through the nose provided immunity against all five strains.

We were initially surprised by the results, Dr. Mittal said. To ensure we had not made any mistakes during immunization, we ran the experiment a second time. The results were the same. This study indicates that development of a universal influenza vaccine could be possible. It also suggests intranasal delivery of the vaccine, rather than intramuscular injections, may be a better method of administration for vaccines designed to protect against contagious respiratory illnesses.

Dr. Mittal served as principal investigator for the study. The co-author, Dr. Suryaprakash Sambhara, chief of immunology section, influenza division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is also Dr. Mittals longtime research collaborator. Dr. Ekramy Sayedahmed, a research scientist on Dr. Mittals research team, led the laboratory testing. The research was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases within the National Institutes of Health.

In the next phase of testing, the researchers plan to conduct a durability study to determine the length of time immunization with the universal flu vaccine is effective. Current seasonal flu vaccines provide immunity for about six months. If that study proves successful, the hope is to move to human clinical trials.

As a veterinarian, I believe in the concept of one health, Dr. Mittal said. Human health is closely linked to the health of domestic and wild animals and the wider environment. Migratory birds are the main culprit for the spread of influenza viruses to humans, poultry, pigs and other animals. Everything is interdependent.

After more than two decades of research in the field of virology, Dr. Mittal remains optimistic that a universal flu vaccine will one day be available to the public. And the technology and methodology introduced through this groundbreaking study will have significant impact on the improvement of global health.

Our team has been working toward a universal influenza vaccine for 20 years, Dr. Mittal said. As scientists, we cant work for those breakthrough moments of discovery because they may not happen. When they do happen, its very satisfying to know we were heading in the right direction.

Writer(s): Kat Braz | pvmnews@purdue.edu

Read more from the original source:

Cracking the Code on a Universal Flu Vaccine - Purdue University

When the world needed a COVID vaccine, leading HIV investigators answered the call to intervene in the coronavirus pandemic. Now, efforts to discover the world's first HIV vaccine are revitalized.

"The body is capable of making antibodies to protect us from HIV," says Yunda Huang, PhD, from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, Washington, who sat down with me before her talk today at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) 2024 Annual Meeting.

Huang spoke about the path forward for neutralizing antibody protection after the last attempt in a generation of HIV vaccine development ended in disappointment.

The past two decades marked the rise in HIV broadly neutralizing antibodies, with vaccine strategies to induce them. Promising advances include germline approaches, mRNA, and nanoparticle technologies.

The PrEP vaccine trial testing two experimental prevention regimens in Africa was stopped after investigators reported there is "little to no chance" the trial will show the vaccines are effective.

A Shape-Shifting Virus

HIV has been called the shape-shifting virus because it disguises itself so that even when people are able to make antibodies to it, the virus changes to escape.

But Huang and others are optimistic that an effective vaccine is still possible.

"We cannot and will not lose hope that the world will have an effective HIV vaccine that is accessible by all who need it, anywhere," International AIDS Society (IAS) Executive Director Birgit Poniatowski said in a statement in December, when the trial was stopped.

HIV is a still persistent problem in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that reports it has affected an estimated 1.2 million people.

With new people infected every day around the globe, Dr Huang says she feels a sense of urgency to help. "I think about all the people around the globe and the large number of young girls being hurt and I know our big pool of talent can intervene to change what we see happening."

Huang says the clinical trial failures we've seen so far will help guide next steps in HIV research as much as successes typically do.

Advances in the Field

With significant advances in protein nanoparticle science, mRNA technology, adjuvant development, and B-cell and antibody analyses, a new wave of clinical trials are on the way.

And with so many new approaches in the works, the HIV Vaccine Trials Network is retooling how it operates to navigate a burgeoning field and identify the most promising regimens.

A new Discovery Medicine Program will help the network assess new vaccine candidates. It will also aim to rule out others earlier on.

For COVID-19 and the flu, multimeric nanoparticles are an important alternative under investigation that could also be adapted for HIV.

Huang says she is particularly excited to watch the progress in cocktails of combination monoclonals. "I've been working in this field for 20 years now and there is a misconception that with pre-exposure prophylaxis, our job is done, but HIV is so far from away from being solved."

But you just never know, Huang says. With new research, "we could bump on something at any point that changes everything."

Read the original:

What's Next for the World's First HIV Vaccine? - Medscape

{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}

Older adults in the U.S. should get another COVID-19 booster even if they received one in the fall, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The guidance was released on Wednesday from Mandy Cohen, CDC director, and the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).

The agency recommended that adults ages 65 years and older receive "an additional updated 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccine dose" due to an "increased risk of severe disease from COVID-19 in older adults," as stated in the announcement.

LONG COVID IMPACTS 10% OF PREGNANT WOMEN, STUDY FINDS: TAKE PRECAUTIONS

Those who are immunocompromised are also eligible for an additional booster, as announced in October 2023.

"Todays recommendation allows older adults to receive an additional dose of this seasons COVID-19 vaccine to provide added protection," said Cohen in a press release.

Older adults in the U.S. should get another COVID-19 booster shot even if they received one in the fall, according to guidance from the CDC. (iStock)

"Most COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations last year were among people 65 years and older," she added.

"An additional vaccine dose can provide added protection that may have decreased over time for those at highest risk."

LARGEST-EVER COVID VACCINE STUDY LINKS SHOT TO SMALL INCREASE IN HEART AND BRAIN CONDITIONS

Dr. Marc Siegel, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center and a Fox News medical contributor, said the decision about whether to get an additional dose depends on the patient and the prevalence of the virus.

"I am certainly keeping an eye on my older patients in high-risk groups, especially those with chronic illnesses like diabetes, cancer, COPD and obesity but this is not one size fits all," he told Fox News Digital.

"Most COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations last year were among people 65 years and older," said the CDC director in a statement. (iStock)

"The vaccine is a useful tool and it appears to be effective against the prevailing strains," he added.

"I would not be giving it routinely to all unless new evidence emerges that it is wearing off."

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER

Dr. Jacob Glanville, a virology expert and founder of Centivax, a San Francisco pharmaceutical company, said the CDCs advice is based on the much higher risk of death by COVID-19 in this age category, combined with the relatively low 51% efficacy of the vaccines against current mismatched circulating strains.

As of Feb. 23, the share of adults 65 and over that have received the updated COVID vaccine was 41.8%, according to CDC data. (iStock)

"A boost can serve to increase the proportion of antibodies and T-cells that can still respond to a mismatch strain, and thus provide additional protection," Glanville told Fox News Digital.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

As of Feb. 23, the share of adults 65 and over that have received the updated COVID vaccine was 41.8%, according to CDC data.

The compliance rate was 22.3% for adults 18 and over and 13.1% for children.

For more Health articles, visit http://www.foxnews.com/health.

Read the rest here:

CDC recommends additional COVID vaccine for adults 65 and over - Fox News

Wallace is an epidemiologist.

The largest COVID-19 safety study to date was published online earlier this month in the journal Vaccine. The study, which was spearheaded by the Global Vaccine Data Network and funded by the CDC, included data on over 99 million vaccinated individuals across 10 sites in eight countries.

Sensational headlines immediately began cropping up across news sites:

At first glance, these stories appear to be reporting something new and different about the COVID vaccines. But when we step back, we realize this information is not new at all. The study is simply confirming what we've known for years now: there is a small risk of adverse events from the COVID vaccines but the benefits still far outweigh any risks.

Monitoring the Safety of the COVID-19 Vaccines

The COVID-19 vaccines were introduced globally in 2020, accompanied by the most intensive vaccine safety monitoring program the world has ever seen. After 3 years of administration, data show that for the vast majority of the 13.6 billion doses administered globally, recipients experienced either no vaccine reactions or reactions that were mild and self-limiting (fever, chills, tiredness, headache, etc.).

Anytime a medicine or a vaccine is approved and introduced into wider use, rare adverse events are found in the population that would be impossible to find in clinical trials. The U.S. government constantly monitors different databases like the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) for rare adverse events and potential safety signals that may arise, and then analyzes whether the number of events among vaccinated individuals is greater than what would be seen normally in the population. While some rare side effects of the COVID-19 vaccines have been shown to occur more frequently than in the background rate of the population, the number of these events represents a tiny percentage of the billions of people overall who received the vaccines.

Before this new study was published, healthcare professionals like yourself and the public were already aware of safety signals of a few very rare adverse events detected in databases (i.e. rare allergic reactions, myocarditis and pericarditis mostly detected in young men after mRNA and Novavax vaccines, or rare but serious cases of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome [TTS] after the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines). Even though TTS cases linked to the J&J vaccine were extremely rare, use of this product was quickly paused and eventually deprioritized as a result, proof that the safety surveillance system is very sensitive to detect the rarest events, and that the system does work to make vaccines safer.

Digging Deeper Into the Vaccine Safety Study

The purpose of the study was to get more precise estimates of the risk of adverse events following COVID-19 across several countries. Three vaccines were examined in the study: two were mRNA vaccines (Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna) and the other was AstraZeneca's viral vector vaccine, which was never authorized in the U.S. but is the same vaccine type as the J&J shot.

It is important to note that the results of this study are not odds ratios or relative risks (which would be comparing vaccinated to unvaccinated people), but instead the study methodology examined the observed versus expected (OE) ratios: observed post-vaccination rates from a pre-specified list of adverse events to the expected rates, or the historical, background rate of the same events calculated from the same populations during 2015-2019, before the vaccines were available. Any event where the lowest end of the observed rate range was estimated to be at least more than 1.5 times the expected/background rate (using the lower bound of the confidence interval) was flagged as a potential safety signal. Because there is no direct comparison, studies like these are not used for causality assessment, but only for detecting potential safety signals.

So, what did the study find?

Despite headlines that may have suggested there was some kind of bombshell finding in this study, the main, statistically significant findings from this study really only served to confirm safety signals that already had been found in other databases around the world. The following are the events that were identified as safety signals:

All of the other findings of lower magnitude from the study were deemed to be "hypothesis generating" and should be followed-up on with more rigorous designs.

This was the conclusion from the authors: "This multi-country analysis confirmed pre-established safety signals for myocarditis, pericarditis, Guillain-Barr syndrome, and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. Other potential safety signals that require further investigation were identified."

Don't Let the Headlines Halt Prevention Efforts

The bottom line is that no medication or vaccine is 100% effective or 100% safe, and everything has risks and benefits. But any risks from medications and vaccines need to be balanced against the risks of the disease you are trying to prevent. For example, the risk of myocarditis/pericarditis from COVID-19 is six to 11 times higher and is associated with a more severe clinical presentation than the risk from the COVID-19 vaccine.

COVID-19 has killed over a million people in the U.S. and has led to permanent disability in many others. The vaccines are very safe overall, and the benefit of the vaccine still definitely outweighs the risks. Fear mongering headlines serve only to harm, not help, public health.

Katrine Wallace, PhD, is an epidemiologist and adjunct assistant professor in the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics & Division of Community Health Sciences in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Link:

Opinion | The Misleading Headlines Behind the New COVID Vaccine Safety Study - Medpage Today

Loading Video

This browser does not support the Video element.

Doctors say some vaccinated adults may not have measles protection, as what they previously got might have worn off.

TAMPA, Fla. - If you thought you were vaccinated for measles, you may want to double-check.

Doctors say the shot some people got who were born in the 70s and the 80s actually wore off after about 20 years, putting them at risk of contracting the virus.

Loading Video

This browser does not support the Video element.

Unless you work in the healthcare field or attended college in the 90s where it was required, you may not have been informed about. It's not clear how many people may fall in the category, but USF College of Public Health Associate Professor Jill Roberts is one of them and says if you are in the category and want to be protected now, you should get re-vaccinated especially with the outbreak continuing to spread.

READ: Florida's 9th case of measles confirmed in Polk County: Health officials

As measles cases reach the double digits in Florida, doctors are reminding adults who were vaccinated as kids to make sure their shot is still effective.

"There are people who are vaccinated with the previous version who may actually have the immunity waning," Dr. Roberts said.

That's because some babies born in the 1970s and 1980s received a single shot that was made differently and only protected against measles. As opposed to the current MMR vaccine which USF Professor Dr. Jill Roberts says started being widely available in the 1980s and protects against measles, mumps and rubella.

"What we found is there's this age group that actually was between the two vaccines and sometimes those people either were missing one dose or they got a dose of one and then the dose of the other, and they're just not covered quite with the highest amount of immunity," Dr. Roberts said.

Dr. Roberts was actually one of them but didn't learn about it until years later, when she enrolled in college.

"We started seeing some measles outbreaks so universities were one of the first to say, all right, if we have people coming in, and they're around this particular age, they've got to have another MMR vaccine before we'll actually let them in," Dr. Roberts said.

As Roberts explains, if you weren't at a college that required it or don't work in the medical field with patients you may have never been informed. It's why she says if you think you may be in that group and want to be protected, take action now.

READ: British mom who lost 6-year-old son urges vaccinations as measles outbreak spreads to Tampa Bay Area

"Check in with your health care provider and see whether they have records. We always know records come, records go. We change providers. There's absolutely no risk in getting another MMR so if you don't know, just go get another shot. They're inexpensive and widely available," Roberts shared.

Roberts says this mainly effects people who are now in their 40s and 50s. Like we've mentioned, measles is extremely contagious. If you're unvaccinated and exposed to the virus, you have about a 90 percent chance of getting the virus.

SIGN UP: Click here to sign up for the FOX 13 daily newsletter

Read the original here:

If you were vaccinated for measles in the 1970s and 80s you may not be protected: Doctors - FOX 13 Tampa