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New Zealand's pending Prime Minister recently reconfirmed that the local vaccination policy requiring everyone to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 will continue in 2023.
Chris "Chippy" Hipkins, the current minister of education, police, and Public Service, stated in an earlier video, '... if you haven't been vaccinated, you will be identified.'
According to a Bloomberg report on January 21, 2023, the former COVID minister will soon become New Zealand's prime minister.
This vaccination philosophy is synergistic with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) November 2022 statement that all eligible travelers to New Zealand should be up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines.
Furthermore, the CDC suggests international travelers should ensure they are up-to-date on all routine vaccines before every trip abroad in 2023.
This suggestion includes measles vaccinations.
New Zealand's 2019–2020 measles outbreak was an epidemic that primarily impacted the Auckland region.
To alert travelers, the CDC published a Watch-Level 1, Practice Usual Precautions notice regarding measles as an ongoing risk worldwide on December 1, 2022.
Furthermore, New Zealand's northern neighbor of India is confronting an ongoing measles outbreak in 2023, with over 12,000 cases impacting various areas last year.
The U.S. Department of State recently updated it's Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution for when visiting the southernmost continent of Antarctica.
As of January 19, 2023, the State Department announced travelers should be aware of environmental hazards posed by extreme and unpredictable weather and limited emergency services.
For travelers to Antarctica, severe low temperatures and high winds are the primary health hazards.
Temperature patterns vary widely because Antarctica is covered in continuous darkness during the winter and constant sunlight during the summer.
The sun's effects in Antarctica can damage the eyes and skin, and protective measures should be taken.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests various travel vaccinations, such as measles, before visiting Antarctica.
And if you travel to Antarctica, obtain comprehensive travel, medical, and medical evacuation insurance; see our webpage for more information on insurance providers for overseas coverage, says the State Department.
The U.S. government does not maintain an embassy or consulate in Antarctica.
If you need U.S. consular services when in Antarctica, contact the closest U.S Embassies/Consulates in Argentina, Australia, Chile, New Zealand, and South Africa.
From outside the U.S., call 1-202-501-4444 to speak with a U.S. representative.
Furthermore, government resources in the Antarctic Region are committed to the Antarctic Program (USAP).
Private expeditions should be self-sufficient and are encouraged to carry adequate insurance coverage against the risk of incurring financial charges or material losses while in the Antarctic.
The National Science Foundation, as manager of the USAP, reserves the right to seek, in accordance with international and domestic law, recovery of all direct and indirect costs of any such emergency search and rescue.
The Antarctic also includes island territories within the Antarctic Convergence, says the National Geographic Society.
Most of the islands and archipelagos of Lesser Antarctica are volcanic and heavily glaciated.
The islands of the Antarctic region are the South Orkney Islands, South Shetland Islands, South Georgia, and the South Sandwich Islands, all claimed by the United Kingdom.
Peter I Island and Bouvet Island, claimed by Norway.
Heard and McDonald islands, claimed by Australia.
And Scott Island and the Balleny Islands, claimed by New Zealand.
In western Kentucky, the Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) began conducting measles vaccination clinics for about 10,000 students this week.
Students at Iroquois High School were offered the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine and the COVID-19 and Flu vaccines.
On January 18, 2023, local media reported additional on-campus measles clinics at Marion C. Moore School on January 25, Newcomer Academy on January 31, and Fern Creek High School on February 7, 2023.
JCPS Health practitioner Angela Hayes informed WLKY, "The U.S. CDC has named Kentucky an at-risk state."
"At this point, we are not excluding students from classes if they are not up to date for their vaccinations," said Hayes.
"However, if there is an outbreak, those 10,000-plus students may have to be excluded from the school for a certain amount of time to help protect them and others."
Measles is an acute viral respiratory illness. It is characterized by a prodrome of fever (as high as 105°F), malaise, cough, coryza, and conjunctivitis, as reported by the Kentucky Board of Health.
Measles is one of the most contagious infectious diseases.
The virus is transmitted by direct contact with infectious droplets or by airborne spread when an infected person breathes, coughs, or sneezes.
The measles virus can remain in the air for up to two hours after an infected person leaves.
The Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government publishes local measles information.
The JCPS's actions relate to the recent measles outbreak in the Columbus, Ohio, area, where about 85 children/students have contracted measles, with over 30 hospitalized.
Both Kentucky and Ohio require most students to be protected against measles before attending classes.
Nationwide, there were a total of 118 measles cases reported by six jurisdictions in 2022. This total increased from 2021 when only 49 measles cases were reported to the U.S. CDC.
Since the Mpox outbreak began in May 2022, over 1.1 million doses of the Jynneos® vaccine have been administered in the United States (U.S.).
The city of Boston began offering Jynneos vaccinations to healthcare staff on May 24, 2022, followed by New York City (NYC).
In September 2022, NYC Health began offering second doses of Jynneos to qualifying people.
As of January 17, 2023, 57 U.S. Jurisdictions have offered first and second doses to men and women at no charge.
From an effectiveness perspective, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) posted data on December 8, 2022, suggesting the effectiveness of a single dose of Jyennos was 87% protective.
Overall, the CDC has confirmed 30,026 Mpox cases and 23 related fatalities, a case-fatality rate of less than 1%.
Demetre Daskalakis, M.D., deputy coordinator of the CDC's pox response efforts in the U.S., recently posted on Twitter, 'Supply is there! We need to keep the drumbeat going for demand even as cases go down.'
'Getting vaccinated for #mpox now means protection in the future! Oh… that means two doses of the vaccine!
Find out where to obtain the Jynneos vaccine at http://mpoxvaxmap.org or your local/state health department.
ImmunityBio, Inc. today announced positive results in its fully-enrolled metastatic pancreatic cancer study in third-line or greater subjects (QUILT 88), showing that the overall survival (OS) rate for patients continues to be double compared to historical survival rates after two or more prior lines of therapy.
The median OS in this highly advanced group of patients, up to seven lines (N=83) of treatment, was 5.8 months (95% CI: 4.9, 6.4 months), exceeding the approximately 2- to 3-month historical median OS.
In the third-line setting (N=41), the median OS in this group was 6.3 months (95% CI: 5.0, 7.2 months), more than doubling the historical OS.
The baseline median CA 19-9 level (a marker of metastatic pancreatic disease) of the enrolled subjects (N=83) was very high at 4120 IU/ml, a significant increase from normal levels of 40 IU/ml.
In subjects with CA 19-9 levels less than 4120 IU/ml (N=40), the median OS was 6.9 months (95% CI: 5.7,10.9).
"We are encouraged by the positive results in these patients with 3rd, 4th, 5th, and even 7th line advanced pancreatic cancer and the considered and helpful feedback from the FDA," said Patrick Soon-Shiong, M.D., Executive Chairman, and Global Chief Scientific and Medical Officer at ImmunityBio, in a press release on January 19, 2023.
"Treatments for pancreatic cancer in the advanced setting remain an unmet need."
"We are committed to confirming our hypothesis that orchestrating the innate and adaptive immune system will advance the care of these patients."
This therapy is essential since pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death in the U.S. and has one of the highest mortality rates of all major cancers, taking nearly 50,000 lives in the U.S. annually.
The QUILT 88 study results were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Gastrointestinal conference on January 19-21, 2023.
ImmunityBio also announced that it held two productive Type B meetings with the U.S. FDA in December 2022.
