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Bangladesh Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque recently confirmed to local media eight people were infected with the Nipah virus in 2023. Of them, five people died.
".... drinking raw date juice, contaminated by bats carrying Nipah virus. And some Nipah virus-infected people can transmit the disease.
The minister said people should avoid eating fruits that are half eaten by birds and urged people not to drink raw date juice.
In 2022, Bangladesh reported three Nipah virus cases.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says Nipah virus infection is a zoonotic illness transmitted to people from animals and can also be transmitted through contaminated food or directly from person-to-person.
In infected people, it causes a range of illnesses.
During the first recognized outbreak in Malaysia and Singapore in 1999, most human infections resulted from direct contact with sick pigs or their contaminated tissues.
This outbreak resulted in nearly 300 human cases and more than 100 related fatalities.
In subsequent outbreaks in Bangladesh and India, consuming fruits or fruit products (such as raw date palm juice) contaminated with urine or saliva from infected fruit bats was the most likely source of infection.
As of January 31, 2023, no Nipah virus vaccines are available, says the U.S. CDC.
The CDC does recommend several vaccinations, such as dengue, before visiting Bangladesh in 2023.
Pfizer Inc. today announced its 2022 year-end financial results reflecting the COVID-19 pandemic's diminishing impact on society. Excluding COVID-19 products, the Company continues to expect 7% to 9% operational revenue growth in 2023.
While 2022 revenues for the Comirnaty vaccine exceeded the previous year by 3% at $37.81 billion, the company expects this amount to decrease to $13.5 billion this year.
Today's data indicates a projected demand reduction of just 65 million vaccines, compared to 92 million in 2022.
And from its COVID-19 antiviral treatment known as Paxlovid, Pfizer expects a 58% reduction in 2023.
Dr. Albert Bourla, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, stated in a related press release on January 31, 2023, "2022 was a record-breaking year for Pfizer, not only in terms of revenue and earnings per share, which were the highest in our long history, but more importantly, in terms of the percentage of patients who have a positive perception of Pfizer and the work we do."
"As proud as we are about what we have accomplished, our focus is always on what is next."
"As we turn to 2023, we expect to once again set records, with potentially the largest number of new product and indication launches that we've ever had in such a short period."
"We believe that the combination of these expected near-term launches, additional pipeline products that could potentially come to market in the medium-term, and anticipated contributions from business development, has the potential to set the company up for continued robust growth through the rest of this decade and beyond."
The newest ship in the Mercy Ships fleet will soon lower her gangway in Dakar, Senegal, and welcome patients on board to receive life-changing surgery.
In 2023, Mercy Ships will serve patients in two countries – Senegal and The Gambia – from one port, with six operating rooms and 199 beds.
Since the new ship's construction was completed in mid-2021, she's been preparing to serve her first patients.
The Global Mercy hospital will bring new technology and larger spaces to the field service.
The new hospital has several advantages.
Many off-ship facilities, like the dockside medical tents, have been moved on board. This saves weeks of setup and tear-down, allowing more time for surgeries.
Built-in cameras will allow trainees to watch surgeries remotely, exponentially expanding training opportunities.
The first randomized, placebo-controlled, single-blind clinical study of Ondine Biomedical Inc.'s Steriwave™ nasal photodisinfection was published in Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology.
This limited study, announced on January 31, 2023, met its primary endpoint, with a highly significant decrease in viral infectivity recorded as early as two days after treatment (p<0.0001).
Steriwave therapy also significantly improved the immune-protective status of treated patients, as measured by PCR testing one week after treatment (over six times fewer PCR-positive patients compared to controls).
The study was conducted at the Clínica Universidad de Navarra in Spain during the sixth Omicron outbreak in late 2021 and early 2022. Over 90% of the patients recruited into the study were fully vaccinated.
Ondine is seeking to offer a therapeutic approach to those patients who test positive but are not yet symptomatic or to those individuals who have had known exposure to a COVID-19 patient.
Currently, there are no U.S. FDA-approved approaches for killing the coronavirus while it is still located in the nose and throat.
Ondine Biomedical Inc. is a Canadian life sciences company innovating in the field of photodisinfection therapies.
The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) today announced its perspective regarding the recent news that some pharmacies are reducing operating hours.
'Like other health care professionals, pharmacy teams across the country have been stressed and stretched delivering patient care that they are educated and trained to provide while being inadequately staffed or supported in some cases.
During the pandemic, the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program for COVID-19 Vaccination, a collaboration between the federal government, states, and territories, and 21 national pharmacy partners and independent pharmacies, increased access to COVID-19 vaccines for millions of people.
Appropriate staffing and workplace conditions are essential for a pharmacy to deliver quality patient care safely.
Time will tell how reduced operating hours will impact patients and pharmacy teams.
For patients, reducing pharmacy operating hours will impact when they can pick-up prescriptions, get vaccines, and receive other pharmacist services.
For pharmacists, because prescribers must continue to write prescriptions, the workload remains unchanged ... while pharmacy personnel will now have less time to do the work.
Many pharmacists already work after closing to keep up with prescription volume.
It is essential that appropriate pharmacy staffing is addressed, and employers and the public recognize pharmacy personnel's well-being as an essential component for safe and effective patient care.
"Some are blaming reduced hours on a pharmacist shortage. It is incorrect that there is a shortage of pharmacists or pharmacy technicians. More accurately, there is a shortage of pharmacists and technicians willing to work under the current conditions. Pharmacy is a rewarding profession, and pharmacists are experts in medication use."
"Therefore, we need to stop conflating and blaming the current conditions on pharmacist or technician shortages when it's due to short-staffing and health care system faults," said Ilisa BG Bernstein, PharmD, JD, FAPhA, interim executive vice president and CEO of APhA, in a press release on January 30, 2023.
"APhA has been on the frontlines of this issue and is driving the urgent and critical change that is needed in the current pharmacy workplace model," she said.
"For pharmacy teams, APhA offers resources and tools to support pharmacy personnel and provide data to improve pharmacy team well-being across the country."
"APhA and NASPA's PWWR tool is first of its kind; it allows pharmacists and pharmacy personnel to anonymously and confidentially share positive and negative workplace and well-being issues as we work to make necessary changes."
For example, Texas-based pharmacies affiliated with the Texas Department of State Health Services are actively administering COVID-19 boosters and oral therapeutics. Use Vaccines.gov to search for vaccination sites by zip code.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently confirmed COVID-19 vaccination remains the most effective way to prevent SARS-CoV-2–associated serious illness, hospitalization, and death.
And everyone, including those who are immunocompromised and their household members and close contacts, should stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccination.
Although moderately to severely immunocompromised persons might not mount a strong vaccine-mediated immune response, staying up to date with COVID-19 vaccinations does provide some protection.
A recent CDC study of preliminary data showed that a bivalent booster dose provided additional protection against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection among immunocompetent persons who had previously received 2, 3, or 4 monovalent vaccine doses.
Among persons with immunocompromise and their household members and close contacts, prevention measures, including wearing a high-quality and well-fitting mask, maintaining physical distance from others, improving indoor ventilation, practicing frequent handwashing, and developing a care plan, should be considered in addition to receipt of a bivalent booster dose.
Furthermore, early outpatient treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 with a recommended first-line therapy, Paxlovid or Veklury, has been shown to reduce the risk for severe COVID-19.
These medications are expected to retain activity against the currently circulating Omicron sublineages.
Available COVID-19 treatment does not supplant the need for persons to stay current on their COVID-19 vaccinations, which are highly effective at preventing COVID-19–related morbidity and mortality, stated the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on January 27, 2023.
Scientists are harnessing a new way to turn cancer cells into potent, anti-cancer agents. Researchers recently published data in Science Translational Medicine. that showed they had developed a new cell therapy approach to eliminate established tumors and induce long-term immunity, training the immune system to prevent glioblastoma, with promising results.
Cancer vaccines are an active area of research for many labs, but this innovative approach is distinct.
Instead of using inactivated tumor cells, the team repurposes living tumor cells, which possess an unusual feature.
Like homing pigeons returning to roost, living tumor cells will travel long distances across the brain to return to the site of their fellow tumor cells.
Taking advantage of this unique property, the team engineered living tumor cells using the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 and repurposed them to release tumor cell-killing agents.
In addition, the engineered tumor cells were designed to express factors that would make them easy for the immune system to spot, tag, and remember, priming the immune system for a long-term anti-tumor response.
“Our team has pursued a simple idea: to take cancer cells and transform them into cancer killers and vaccines,” said corresponding author Khalid Shah, MS, Ph.D., director of the Center for Stem Cell and Translational Immunotherapy and the vice chair of research in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Brigham and faculty at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Stem Cell Institute, in a related press release.
“Using gene engineering, we are repurposing cancer cells to develop a therapeutic that kills tumor cells and stimulates the immune system to destroy primary tumors and prevent cancer.”
“Our goal is to take an innovative but translatable approach so that we can develop a therapeutic, cancer-killing vaccine that ultimately will have a lasting impact in medicine.”
Shah and colleagues noted that this therapeutic strategy applies to a broader range of solid tumors and that further investigations of its applications are warranted.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Weekly Influenza Surveillance Report, a total of 91 influenza-associated pediatric deaths have occurred during the 2022-2023 flu season.
During week #3, six influenza-associated pediatric deaths were reported to CDC.
All six pediatric deaths were associated with influenza A viruses.
Four of the influenza A viruses had subtyping performed; one was an A(H1N1) virus, and three were A(H3) viruses.
As of January 27, 2023, the CDC stated the cumulative hospitalization rate was 1.4 times higher than the highest cumulative in-season hospitalization rate observed for week #3 during previous seasons going back to 2010-2011.
However, this in-season rate is still lower than end-of-season hospitalization rates for all but four pre-COVID-19-pandemic seasons going back to 2010-2011.
Most influenza viruses tested are in the same genetic subclade as and antigenically similar to the influenza viruses included in this season’s influenza vaccine.
As of January 14, 2023, about 171 million influenza vaccines had been distributed in the U.S.
All flu shots this flu season are quadrivalent and remain available at clinics and pharmacies. According to the CDC, these vaccines are authorized for most people over six months.
