Coronavirus Breaking News

News18 recently reported the U.K.'s Science, Innovation, and Technology Committee was informed the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is highly likely heading in its direction, thanks to climate change.

We don't know what will arrive until it does, was a comment shared during the meeting on June 14, 2023.

Last year, the U.K. Health Security Agency confirmed a case of CCHF in England in a woman who had recently traveled to Central Asia. This was only the third case of CCHF imported to the U.K.

Outbreaks have been confirmed in Iraq, Namibia, and Pakistani in 2023. In Iraq, there were 219 confirmed cases of CCHF from January 2022 to late June 2022. 

First described in the Crimean Peninsula in 1944, CCHF is endemic in all of Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East, and Asia, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO says CCHF is a viral disease spread via ticks with a fatality rate of between 10 and 40%.

Human-to-human transmission of CCHF has been reported following close contact with blood, secretions, or other bodily fluids of infected persons. And cases have been reported among health workers caring for infected people.

Regarding preventive vaccines, the WHO published an overview of CCHF vaccine candidates.

And in March 2023, eBioMedicine published a study that supported further development of the ChAd platform expressing the CCHFV GPC to seek an effective vaccine against CCHFV.

In the U.K., no licensed human vaccine or approved medication targeting CCHF is available as of June 20, 2023.

The U.S. CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is scheduled to conduct an in-person and digital meeting beginning on June 21, 2023.

This three-day ACIP meeting will debate and vote on various vaccine recommendations, such as Respiratory Syncytial Virus vaccines for older adults.

Please see the agenda for the time and day.

Anyone can attend the digital meeting for free to listen and learn how the U.S. government makes vaccine recommendations.

The ACIP comprises medical and public health experts who develop recommendations on the use of vaccines in the civilian population of the U.S. The recommendations are public health guidance for safe use of vaccines and related biological products.

The Committee's recommendations are forwarded to CDC's Director for approval. Once approved, they are published in CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

And ACIP's recommendations result in the official U.S. adult and childhood immunization schedules.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) recently confirmed sporadic human cases of avian influenza A (H9N2) have been observed in 2023, mainly in young children.

As of June 12, 2023, one new human infection with H9N2 was reported in Sichuan province, China.

And since 1998, a total of 125 laboratory-confirmed cases, including two deaths, of human infection with H9N2 viruses have been reported in eight countries: China (112), Egypt (4), Bangladesh (3), Cambodia (2), Oman (1), Pakistan (1), India (1), and Senegal (1).

Over the past year, various humans have been infected with different avian influenza viruses.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Avian influenza or bird flu is caused by infection with avian (bird) influenza (flu) Type A viruses.

And the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) strain of the H5N avian flu is currently spreading in the U.S.

In the U.S., the government has already authorized one bird-flu vaccine and invested in developing other vaccine candidates.

SK bioscience today announced the company has received the WHO Emergency Use Listing (EUL) of its COVID-19 vaccine, SKYCovione™ (SKYCovion™, GBP510).

This COVID-19 vaccine was developed with the Institute for Protein Design (IPD) at the University of Washington SCHOOL OF MEDICINE and uses GSK's pandemic adjuvant.

SKYCovione is also the world's first medicine developed using computational protein design, an approach that uses Rosetta software to engineer protein structures with enough precision to place individual atoms exactly where desired.

Jaeyong Ahn, CEO of SK bioscience, commented in a press release on June 19, 2023, "Based on the immunogenicity and safety profile, SKYCovione has become the first Korean vaccine to be granted to the WHO EUL."

"We will be committed to developing more vaccines not just to strengthen Korea's vaccine sovereignty but also to enable equitable access to the vaccine."

The development of SKYCovione has been supported by funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations with support from the European Horizon 2020 Programme.

SKYCovione (known as SKYCovion in the UK) was approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency for adults in May 2023.

SKYCovione is a self-assembled nanoparticle vaccine targeting the receptor binding domain of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein for SARS-CoV-2. 

The vaccine can be stored between 2-8 °C, making it suitable for use in countries where ultra-low cold chain storage facilities are unavailable. The ease of distribution helps to achieve greater access to vaccines in low-income countries.

Other COVID-19 vaccine news is posted by Precision Vaccinations.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Weekly U.S. Influenza Surveillance Report indicated minimal flu activity in the U.S.

Based on the National Center for Health Statistics Mortality Surveillance data available on June 15, 2023, 6.3% of the deaths during week #23 were due to pneumonia, influenza, and/or COVID-19 (PIC).

Among the 1,295 PIC deaths reported for last week, ten listed influenza.

Furthermore, in the southern hemisphere, Australia's Department of Health and Aged Care published report No. 4, which stated there is not enough information to assess the potential severity of the 2023 influenza season.

Since seasonal surveillance commenced in Australia in April 2023, there have been only 518 sentinel hospital admissions with confirmed influenza as of June 2, 2023.

As of June 18, 2023, various flu shots are available worldwide.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently published Influenza Update N° 447, which presented data on the current respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) seasonality.

In the U.S., the 2022–23 RSV season it started later than during 2021–2022 but earlier than the prepandemic seasons, suggesting a return toward prepandemic seasonality. 

Across both prepandemic and pandemic years, RSV circulation in the U.S. began in Florida.

Globally, RSV activity was generally low except in Australia, and a few countries in the Region of the Americas reported the WHO on June 12, 2023.

RSV activity decreased to low levels in Central America and the Caribbeans while increasing in a few countries in tropical and temperate South America.

In South Africa, the RSV detection rate among children under five years of age in pneumonia surveillance remained at a low level.

As of June 17, 2023, RSV vaccines for adults and antibody therapy for infants are authorized in various countries.

UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced today London had reported 11 new mpox cases within the past few weeks.

Most of these cases were in unvaccinated individuals. However, three were in those who had only received one dose of Bavarian Nordic's JYNNEOS® (MVA-BN) vaccine.

In response to London's mpox outbreak, the UKHSA vaccinations would be offer in London to qualifying men beyond July 2023.

After the end of July, people who regularly travel to London or abroad to have sex and are eligible for the JYNNEOS vaccine are empowered to schedule a London-based appointment using the vaccine finder.

Dr. Claire Dewsnap, President of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV, commented in a related press release, "We strongly encourage all those eligible to book an appointment to receive a mpox vaccination, especially given the worrying recent spike in cases."

"One dose of the vaccine protects against the virus, and the second dose can further prevent severe symptoms and transmission."

"This is particularly important as we move into the summer months, during which festivals and events are more common, increasing the likelihood for people to have multiple sexual partners."

As of June 16, 2023, 21 mpox cases have been reported in the UK.

Other mpox outbreaks are posted by Vax-Before-Travel.