Coronavirus Breaking News

The U.S. Department of State today announced it had issued a Level 3: Reconsider Travel for the Republic of Uganda.

As of June 12, 2023, the State Department suggested reconsidering visiting Uganda due to civil unrest and anti-LGBTQI+ legislation.

Violent crime, such as armed robbery, home invasion, and sexual assault, presents a serious, random threat to those visiting and residing in Uganda, especially in larger cities, including Kampala and Entebbe, in the Karamoja region, and along Uganda’s western and northern borders.

And the May 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act raises the risk that LGBTQI+ persons, and those perceived to be LGBTQI+, could be prosecuted and subjected to life imprisonment or death based on provisions in the law and may be subject to mandatory reporting to the police if they are suspected of committing or intending to commit acts in violation of the law, and could face harassment or attacks by vigilantes.

From a health perspective, the U.S. CDC suggests various travel vaccines before visiting Uganda. Furthermore, proof of a yellow fever vaccination is required for most people visiting Uganda in 2023.

Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection today confirmed another H9N2 avian influenza virus (AIV) infection from Jiangxi province.

On June 13, 2023, VOLUME 19, NUMBER 23, reported a 7-month-old boy with the onset of bird flu on May 1, 2023.

Earlier in 2023, two other H9N2 cases were confirmed, one in Jiangxi Province and another in Hunan Province.

Differing from highly pathogenic H5 and H7 subtype AIV, H9N2 viruses have not been a priority for the disease control agencies in many countries.

Although H9N2 viruses are of low pathogenicity to birds and have only sporadically infected humans.

During influenza surveillance in poultry farms and live poultry markets of mainland China from 2019 to 2020, 22 H9N2 viruses were isolated from chicken populations in seven provinces of China, reported a Correspondence published by The Lancet Microbe in 2022.

Other bird flu outbreak news is posted by Precision Vaccinations.

CancerVAX, Inc. announced today that it recently launched a funding round of up to $10 million to empower the Utah-based Company to continue working on its breakthrough cancer treatments.

CancerVax CEO Ryan Davies said in a June 14, 2023, press release, “We’re working with a research team at UCLA to help us develop these treatments. We’ve raised $2 million of seed funding thus far and are using the StartEngine platform to raise an additional $10 million to further the development of these novel cancer therapies.”

CancerVAX recently announced that its UCLA research team had made positive progress towards developing a treatment for Ewing sarcoma, a deadly form of cancer.

Ewing sarcoma is an aggressive bone and soft-tissue cancer with limited chances of cure, more prevalent in adolescents and young adults.

Current therapies for Ewing sarcoma have reached a plateau over the last several decades, and there is an urgent need for improved outcomes.

Approaches that target chemotherapy-resistant tumors, especially in metastatic and/or microscopic residual disease, would be revolutionary, wrote CancerVAX on June 12, 2023.

 Valneva SE today announces that the Company’s pivotal Phase 3 data for its single-shot chikungunya vaccine candidate, VLA1553, have been published in The Lancet.

This article says the strong immune response and the generation of seroprotective titres in almost all vaccinated participants suggests that VLA1553 is an excellent candidate for preventing disease caused by the chikungunya virus.

VLA1553 demonstrated a very high seroresponse rate of 98.9% in participants 28 days after receiving the single administration, and 96% of participants maintained seroresponse six months after vaccination.

VLA1553 is currently the only chikungunya vaccine candidate worldwide for which regulatory review processes are underway. It has been designed by deleting a part of the chikungunya virus genome.

Juan Carlos Jaramillo, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Valneva, commented in a press release on June 13, 2023, “We are pleased that more detailed results on our single-shot chikungunya vaccine candidate are now available to the scientific and broader public health communities.”

Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne viral disease caused by the chikungunya virus (CHIKV), a Togaviridae virus transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. The infection leads to symptomatic disease in 72-92% of humans after four to seven days following the mosquito bite.

While mortality with CHIKV is low, morbidity is high. Clinical symptoms include acute onset of fever, debilitating joint and muscle pain, headache, nausea, rash, and chronic arthralgia.

The high-risk areas of infection for travelers are places where chikungunya virus-carrying mosquitos are endemic, including the Americas, parts of Africa, and Southeast Asia, and the virus has spread to more than 110 countries.

The Pan American Health Organization recently confirmed chikungunya cases in the Americas region reached over 210,000 in the first months of 2023. And there were about 51 related fatalities, representing a four-fold increase compared to 2022. 

The U.S. Department of State today reissued its Level 1, Exercise Normal Precautions when visiting the Argentine Republic in 2023.

Published on June 12, 2023, this travel advisory is the highest rank issued by the State Department, indicating Argentina is a safe country to visit.

Prior to the recent pandemic, Argentina, which borders five different countries, and the Atlantic Ocean recorded a total of seven million tourists in 2019, ranking this scenic country 28th in the world.

To honor 200 years of diplomatic relations between the United States and Argentina, aircrew members from the Georgia Air National Guard and the Argentine Air Force made history when they jointly flew a C-130 Hercules aircraft to Argentina for use by the Argentine Air Force.

The Argentine Air Force said it plans to use the aircraft for disaster relief efforts and to support missions to Antarctica.

“This is the latest example of how our military cooperation has been an integral part of our strong friendship across 200 years of relations,” U.S. Ambassador Marc R. Stanley said in a press release on June 5, 2023.

If you decide to travel to Argentina, enroll in the Smart Traveler Program to receive alerts in case of an emergency.

The authorities in Argentina set and enforce entry rules. If you’re unsure how these requirements apply to you, contact the local embassy or consulate.

The U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires is located at Av. Colombia 4300, (C1425GMN) Buenos Aires. U.S. citizens with emergencies while visiting Argentina can call: +(54-11) 5777-4354.

From a health perspective, the U.S. CDC included Argentina in its April 2023 advisory regarding dengue fever outbreaks in the region.

Argentina recently authorized the QDENGA® dengue vaccine for use.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today published a Briefing Document regarding the selection of strain(s) to be included in the Periodic Updated COVID-19 Vaccines for the 2023-2024 vaccination campaign.

The FDA confirmed that the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) will meet in an open session on June 15, 2023, to discuss and recommend COVID-19 vaccine selection.

As noted in section 3.2, XBB sublineages accounted for about 95% of the circulating virus variants in the U.S. by early June 2023.

The FDA wrote the totality of available evidence suggests that a monovalent XBB-lineage vaccine is warranted.

And given the current state of naturally acquired, vaccine-induced, and hybrid (combined natural infection in the setting of at least one COVID-19 vaccination) immunity in the U.S. population, FDA suggested that each of the authorized bivalent vaccines moves to a single dose for most individuals, with additional doses for the very young, those 65 years and older, and individuals with certain kinds of immunocompromise.