Coronavirus Breaking News

Across the African Region, efforts continue to be intensified to reduce polio outbreaks, wrote the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). 

As of June 7, 2023, Africa's largest polio vaccination drive since 2020 was launched, aiming to reach more than 21 million children. 

Simutantioly, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) launched a campaign using the novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) with children. The nOPV2 vaccine has been deployed over 620 million times since 2021.

There were 14 polio cases in the DRC in 2023, and 146 patients were confirmed in 2022.

The GPEI also posted a summary of new polioviruses this week:

• Afghanistan: one WPV1 case and five WPV1 positive environmental samples
• Pakistan: two WPV1-positive environmental samples
• Chad: two cVDPV2 cases
• DRC: five cVDPV2 cases
• Zambia: one cVDPV2 positive environmental sample

As of June 9, 2023, the U.S. CDC maintains it's Alert - Level 2, Practice Enhanced Precautions global polio travel alert.

The CDC says before any international travel, ensure you are up to date on your polio vaccines. Furthermore, the nOPV2 polio vaccine is not available in the U.S.

Filomeno Fortes, the Director of Portugal's Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, recently gave an interview on the importance of Takeda's QDENGA® vaccine against dengue, made available in Portugal in May 2023.

"The vaccine brings some innovation to the prevention of a disease that is considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the ten global threats to world health," commented Fortes.

Initially authorized in Indonesia in August 2022, QDENGA had been authorized as of June 9, 2023, in Argentina, Brazil, Europe, and the U.K.

In the U.S., the FDA is considering the authorization of QDENGA.

Since most dengue cases in the U.S. are travel-related, additional QDENGA authorization should reduce the incidence of this disease.

About 4 billion people live in areas with a risk of dengue.

For example, the Florida Health Department recently reported three additional travel-associated dengue cases, which increases the 2023 total to 80 patients.

In 2022, 903 travel-associated and 68 locally-acquired dengue cases were reported in Florida.

Dengue viruses are spread to people through the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito, says the U.S. CDC. Dengue is often a leading cause of illness in at-risk areas.

WestVac Biopharma and West China Medical Center, Sichuan University, today announced Coviccine® Trivalent XBB.1.5-Recombinant COVID-19 Trivalent (XBB.1.5+BA.5+Delta) Protein Vaccine (Sf9 cell) was authorized by relevant authorities in China.

As of June 8, 2023, this is the first COVID-19 vaccine in the world authorized against XBB descendent lineages of the beta coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. 

WestVac leveraged the rapid response of the insect cell expression platform in constructing the vector for Coviccine, which is of high purity and high quality for human use.

The subunit vaccine antigen is designed based on the structure of the targeting S-RBD and HR proteins of the COVID-19 subvariants XBB.1.5 and BA.5 and self-assembled into stable trimeric protein particles with squalene-based oil-in-water emulsion adjuvant added after purification and mixing.

This novel adjuvant significantly raises the titer of neutralizing antibodies, enabling the trimeric protein vaccine to induce a higher T-cell immune response.

Recent studies have shown that Coviccine induced a high titer of neutralizing antibodies against multiple subvariants.

Previously, the WHO Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 Vaccine Composition advised on May 18, 2023, that new formulations of COVID-19 vaccines should aim to induce antibody responses that neutralize XBB descendent lineages.

As of the end of May 2023, the XBB family of variants accounted for about 90% of infections in China.

And in the U.S., over 90% of all variants are from the XBB family.

The U.S. CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published today indicates about 66% of mpox vaccine–eligible persons remained unvaccinated.

From May 2022–April 2023, a total of 748,329 first JYNNEOS® (MVA-BN) vaccine doses (of the two recommended) were administered in the United States.

During the initial months of the outbreak, lower vaccination coverage rates among racial and ethnic minority groups were reported.

Focusing on the racial and ethnic groups with more significant mpox vaccination shortfalls, prioritizing resources, and improving access to vaccination for these groups can reduce the overall shortfall in mpox vaccination while promoting health equity.

However, after the implementation of initiatives developed to expand access to mpox vaccination, coverage among racial and ethnic minority groups increased, stated the CDC on June 9, 2023.

The outbreak of Marburg Virus Disease in Equatorial Guinea ended today with no new cases reported over the past 42 days after the last patient was discharged from treatment.

The outbreak, declared on February 13, was the first in Equatorial Guinea.

A total of 17 laboratory-confirmed cases and 12 deaths were recorded.

Five districts in four of Equatorial Guinea’s eight provinces were affected.

The western Litoral province Bata district was worst-hit, with 11 laboratory-confirmed cases reported. Among the reported cases, many were closely linked either through social gatherings and networks or geographically.

“While outbreak-prone diseases continue to pose a major health threat in Africa, we can bank on the region’s growing expertise in health emergency response to act quickly and decisively to safeguard the health and avert widespread loss of life,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, in a press release on June 8, 2023.

“The hard work by Equatorial Guinea’s health workers and support by partner organizations has been crucial in ending this outbreak. WHO continues to work with countries to improve measures to detect and respond effectively to disease outbreaks,” Dr Moeti added.

To support Equatorial Guinea’s response to the just-ended outbreak, WHO deployed experts in epidemiology, clinical management, health operations, logistics, risk communications, and infection prevention and control.

The Organization worked with the health authorities to set up a treatment center, provided medical supplies, including antivirals, and trained health workers in the critical aspects of outbreak control.

The WHO also supported the efforts by the authorities in neighboring Cameroon and Gabon to ramp up outbreak readiness and response.

Although the outbreak has ended, WHO continues to work with Equatorial Guinea to maintain measures such as surveillance and testing to enable prompt action should flare-ups of the virus occur, with the training provided during the outbreak helping to strengthen readiness capacity.

Marburg is in the same family as the virus that causes Ebola Virus Disease.

The Marburg virus is transmitted to people from fruit bats and spreads among humans through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, surfaces, and materials.

In Africa, the first outbreak of Marburg was recorded in South Africa in 1975, followed by two others in Kenya in the 1980s. Since then, outbreaks have been reported in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Uganda, and most recently, Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania.

The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) recently announced it added Gabon, Guinea, and Moldova to the list of regions considered to be affected by highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), known as bird flu.

Bird flu outbreaks are mainly located in areas of the Pacific Flyway. 

The HAPI updates were confirmed on May 23, 2023.

On May 23, 2022, after confirming that the HPAI occurred in commercial birds or poultry, APHIS added Gabon to the regions where HPAI exists.

On June 3, 2022, the veterinary authorities of Guinea reported to WOAH an HPAI occurrence in that country.

On January 24, 2022, the veterinary authorities of Moldova reported to WOAH an HPAI occurrence in that country.

In the U.S., the Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service reported the Eurasian (H5 clade 2.3.4.4b.) appeared in North America in January 2022 and has impacted over 58 million birds in 47 states as of June 2023.

Bird flu infections have also been detected in various mammals, such as bears, cats, dogs, dolphins, ferrets, foxes, minks, sea lions, and skunks.

As of June 7, 2023, bird flu vaccines are available for people, and vaccine candidates are being tested for birds.