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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reissued a Global Travel Health Notice on October 15, 2024, regarding Dengue outbreaks reported in 27 countries in the Americas, Africa/Middle East, and Asia/Pacific Islands.
In the Region of the Americas, over 12,076,930 Dengue cases and 7,171 related deaths have been reported this year.
In the United States, the CDC reported that 50 jurisdictions had reported 6,164 Dengue cases as of October 17, 2024, already exceeding reports from 2023.
For example, the Florida Health Department recently reported over 595 travel-associated and 47 locally acquired Dengue cases throughout the state.
The Texas Department of State Health Services says mosquitoes that transmit Dengue fever are found in Texas, with (78) imported cases reported in 23 counties.
In California, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported eight locally acquired Dengue cases in the San Gabriel Valley this year.
While Dengue is a vaccine-preventable disease, no vaccine is currently available in the U.S.
Varicella zoster virus (VZV), one of 8 herpesviruses known to infect humans, “is a really sneaky virus,” said neurovirologist Maria Nagel, M.D., in an article posted by the JAMA Network on October 18, 2024.
Herpes Zoster, known as shingles, has been a vaccine-preventable disease for several years.
“Our aging population is growing, and it’s really concerning that 1 in 9 people over 65 have Alzheimer’s,” Nagel added. “It’s critical that we figure out what to do about this disease.”
Could the infection increase people's risk for dementia? Conversely, could shingles vaccination protect against dementia? And what about adult vaccines against other infections?
The unedited article - Researchers Are Exploring the Role of Shingles—and a Protective Role of Shingles Vaccine—in Dementia, is posted at this JAMA link.
As of October 19, 2024, various approved shingles vaccines are offered worldwide.
The U.S. Government has begun health screening air travelers who have been to the Republic of Rwanda in the last 21 days. This action is related to the recent Marburg virus outbreak in which 15 people have died.
Virgin Atlantic Airways confirmed that effective October 16, 2024, these Marburg virus-related screenings are a precautionary measure and will take place in Washington Dulles, Chicago O'Hare, and New York JFK.
This means any customer who has recently visited Rwanda will be rerouted through one of these airports to facilitate these mandatory screenings.
The Company says if you have booked directly with Virgin Atlantic and have been to Rwanda, don't hesitate to contact us to discuss your options.
As of October 19, 2024, Marburg vaccine candidates are being evaluated in various clinical trials, but the U.S. FDA has approved no vaccine.
The Federal Republic of Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health has been leading critical malaria control interventions, including introducing the R21/Matrix-M™ malaria vaccine as part of the country’s comprehensive strategy to combat the disease.
“The arrival of (800,000) malaria vaccines is a monumental step in our national efforts to reduce malaria morbidity and mortality,” said Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, in a press release on October 17, 2024.
This announcement is critical to Nigerians.
According to the 2023 World Malaria Report, nearly 200,000 deaths from malaria occurred in Nigeria. In some regions, such as Kebbi State, this malaria prevalence rate is as high as 49%.
The malaria vaccine, which requires four doses, will be administered to children under one year of age as part of Nigeria’s Routine Immunization schedule. The first phase of the rollout will begin in Kebbi and Bayelsa States in November 2024.
On October 2, 2023, the World Health Organization recommended R21/Matrix-M to prevent malaria in children. Since then, it has been offered in various African countries.
The U.S. CDC says malaria vaccines reduce uncomplicated malaria by ~40%, severe malaria by ~30%, and all-cause mortality by 13%.
Neither approved malaria vaccine is available in the United States, but the CDC recommends that travelers going to Nigeria take prescription medicine to prevent malaria.
Additionally, the CDC has issued travel advisories for Nigeria's yellow fever, measles, polio, and diphtheria outbreaks.
When Johnson & Johnson (J&J) announced third-quarter earnings this week, its growth exceeded Wall Street’s expectations.
However, based on J&J's announcement on October 4, 2024, its future results will not include a Dengue product.
J&J confirmed the discontinuance of the Phase 2 field study to evaluate the efficacy of the investigational antiviral candidate mosnodenvir in preventing Dengue virus in adults. The decision to discontinue this study is part of a strategic reprioritization of the Company’s Communicable Diseases research and development portfolio.
This unfortunate news will bring essential focus to second-generation dengue vaccines and innovative vaccine candidates conducting late-stage clinical research in 2024, such as Butantan Institute's Butantan-DV tetravalent dengue vaccine.
As of October 18, 2024, Dengue's global outbreak continues unabated.
As the 2024-2025 flu season ramps up in the United States, new data reaffirms the protections offered by various influenza vaccines.
The results of the first pragmatic randomized study to evaluate the relative vaccine effectiveness of adjuvanted inactivated influenza vaccine (aIIV) compared to high-dose inactivated influenza vaccine (HD-IIV) for influenza prevention were published today.
The first season's results demonstrated that adjuvanted and high-dose influenza vaccines did not differ in effectiveness against Polymerase Chain Reaction-confirmed influenza with relative vaccine effectiveness of aIIV vs. HD-IIV of 1.5% (95% confidence interval: -8.4 to 10.5) among adults 65 years of age and older.
In addition, there was no difference in effectiveness between aIIV and HD-IIV for preventing hospitalization or emergency department visits for confirmed influenza and hospitalization for all-cause community-acquired pneumonia.
The data was presented during an oral presentation this week at the IDWeek 2024 conference.
The second season of the study is ongoing. Results may differ depending on the match between the vaccine and circulating influenza strains and other factors.
This study was funded by CSL Seqirus, which provided all the adjuvanted influenza vaccine doses to members of a large health system.
As of October 18, 2024, over 92 million flu shots have been distributed in the U.S. this season.
A new report describes recent global polio outbreaks using data from the World Health Organization's Polio Information System and the Global Polio Laboratory Network.
On October 17, 2024, the U.S. CDC stated (MMWR 73(41);909–916) that circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPVs) can emerge and cause outbreaks of paralytic polio in communities where there is a high percentage of undervaccinated children.
From January 2023–June 2024, 74 cVDPV outbreaks were detected in 39 countries or areas.
These poliovirus outbreaks caused 672 confirmed polio cases.
Among these 74 cVDPV outbreaks, 47 (64%) were new outbreaks detected in 30 of the 39 countries.
Since 2021, novel oral poliovirus vaccine type 2 (nOPV2), a more genetically stable vaccine with reduced risk for reversion to neurovirulence than Sabin-strain OPV2, has been the recommended vaccine for cVDPV2 outbreak response.
Since then, over 1 billion doses have been administered.
During January 2023–June 2024, cVDPV2 outbreaks were linked to nOPV2 use in 19 countries. These findings highlight that cVDPVs can develop with nOPV2 use when the timing and quality of vaccination responses are suboptimal.
This means prolonged community circulation of the vaccine strain leads to reversion to neurovirulence, seeding new emergences.
The CDC says that despite a slight decline in reported cVDPV2 cases compared with those reported during 2022, the number of countries or areas reporting outbreaks remained high. Stopping all cVDPV transmission requires effectively increasing population immunity by overcoming barriers to reaching children.
The CDC says the IPV, offered in the U.S. since 2000, can reduce the amount of poliovirus people shed but can't stop all virus transmission.
The CDC recommends that international travelers speak with a healthcare provider about vaccine booster doses when visiting poliovirus-endemic countries in 2024.
