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When searching for a winter holiday destination in 2024, Bermuda may top the healthy destination list, as no vaccination requirements are currently in effect.
This good news helped boost Bermuda's tourism industry in 2023 when arrivals (air, cruise, and yacht) increased by 29.1% year over year.
As of November 18, 2024, this British Overseas Territory, home to about 63,000 people and in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, has the lowest travel advisory status with the U.S. and U.K. governments.
The U.K. Travel Health Pro suggests visitors be up to date with routine vaccination courses and boosters, as recommended in the U.K. These vaccinations include the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine.
And the U.S. CDC's Travel Health Advisory recommends most travelers, especially those staying with friends or relatives or visiting smaller cities or rural areas, are up to date with typhoid vaccination.
Furthermore, from a security perspective, the U.S. Department of State reissued Bermuda's Level 1 travel advisory status on November 12, 2024. Visitors should exercise standard precautions and enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program to receive Alerts, making locating you in an emergency while in Bermuda easier.
The U.S. Consulate General Hamilton is located at 16 Middle Road, Devonshire, DV 03, and can assist U.S. citizens in Bermuda.
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) today announced it had identified the first known case of clade I mpox in the United States. This case was confirmed in an individual who recently traveled from Africa and is related to the ongoing outbreak of clade I mpox in Central and Eastern Africa. Historically, clade I has caused more severe illness than clade II.
The clade II outbreak began worldwide in May 2022, reaching Boston in late May.
As of November 9, 2024, 2,410 clade II cases have been confirmed in the U.S. this year. This is a significant increase compared with last year, when 1,267 mpox cases were reported.
The CDPH stated on November 16, 2024, the affected individual received health care in San Mateo County. The individual is isolating at home and recovering. Public health workers are contacting people who had close contact with this individual.
According to the U.S. CDC, there is no concern or evidence that mpox clade I is spreading between individuals in California or other states.
However, the World Health Organization declared the increasing number of mpox cases reported in the African Region, notably the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on August 14, 2024.
Bavarian Nordic's JYNNEOS® (MVA-BN®) mpox/smallpox vaccine has been effective against clade II and is commercially available at clinics and pharmacies in the U.S.
Hookworms infect about half a billion people worldwide and cause more than two billion disability-adjusted life years to be lost. In a recent review, researchers wrote that mass drug administration is the most popular preventive approach but does not prevent reinfection.
The U.S. CDC says people get hookworm infection by walking barefoot on or consuming contaminated soil and passing the parasitic worm's eggs in their feces. And zoonotic hookworms are parasites generally found in animals like dogs or cats. Furthermore, they can also spread to humans through the skin.
This review, published by Talor and Francis online, highlights recent human studies in which vaccination with irradiated larvae and repeated rounds of infection treatment have induced partial protection.
On November 15, 2024, these researchers stated, 'An effective vaccine would be a major public health tool in hookworm-endemic areas.'
'These studies have emphasized the importance of targeting the infective larvae to generate immunity and prevent adult worms from maturing in the gut.'
In summary, these researchers wrote 'that significant recent advances in human challenge vaccine studies should accelerate the process.'
While the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), influenza activity remains low nationally, healthcare providers and pharmacies are well stocked with various flu shots to meet consumer demand.
Physicians, nurses, and pharmacists can offer patients up to nine influenza vaccines for the 2024-2025 flu season.
As of November 15, 2024, the CDC reported that 92.35 million influenza vaccine enhanced for the 2024-2025 flu season had already been distributed in the U.S. According to pharmaceutical manufacturers, they are prepared to deliver tens of millions more as needed this season.
About 158 million flu vaccines were distributed during the 2023-2024 flu season.
The CDC recommends that everyone ages 6 months and older get an annual flu shot; some people may get a second dose later in the season.
Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp. today announced the publication of a paper entitled, “Recombinant Chimeric Horsepox Virus (TNX-801) is Attenuated Relative to Vaccinia Virus Strains in Both In Vitro and In Vivo Models.”
Data published in the peer-reviewed journal mSphere demonstrate that TNX‐801 is less virulent than 20th-century vaccinia vaccines in immune-compromised mice.
The publication describes data in which TNX-801 was compared with older vaccinia vaccine strains used to eradicate smallpox for tolerability in both in vitro and in vivo models.
Together, TNX-801 was shown to be more than 10—to 1,000-fold more attenuated (or less virulent) than the older vaccinia smallpox vaccines.
Combined with the ability of TNX-801 to protect animals against lethal challenge with Clade Ia mpox virus, the Company believes that the new tolerability data support the idea that TNX-801 is a candidate vaccine to control the ongoing mpox Clade Ib and mpox Clade IIb outbreaks.
Previously, single-dose vaccination with TNX-801 was shown to protect animals from a lethal challenge with Clade Ia mpox.
The new Clade Ib mpox is spreading among children in Africa and, so far, has been carried by adult travelers from Africa into non-African countries.
The global mpox outbreak from Clade IIb, which commenced in May 2022, continues in various countries, including the United States.
“Addressing the new Clade Ib mpox outbreak and the ongoing spread of Clade IIb mpox may require a single dose mpox vaccine that provides durable protection,” said Seth Lederman, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Tonix Pharmaceuticals, in a press release on November 13, 2024.
The current standard of prevention focuses on Bavarian Nordic's JYNNEOS® (MVA-BN®, IMVAMUNE®, IMVANEX®) two-dose vaccine, which is commercially available in the United States.
AC Immune SA today announced positive interim safety and immunogenicity data from the Phase 2 VacSYn clinical trial evaluating ACI-7104.056, its anti-alpha-synuclein (a-syn) active immunotherapy candidate, for the treatment of patients with early Parkinson's disease (PD).
ACI-7104.056 is an optimized formulation of its clinically validated anti-a-syn predecessor active immunotherapy. It generated a target-specific antibody response against pathological oligomeric a-syn to inhibit spreading and downstream neurodegeneration in early PD.
The accumulation of alpha-synuclein protein aggregates has been shown to cause inflammatory stress in cells and contribute to the degeneration of neurons in the brain.
Dr. Andrea Pfeifer, CEO of AC Immune SA, commented in a press release on November 14, 2024, "We are encouraged by these initial Phase 2 safety and immunogenicity data on our ACI-7104.056 active immunotherapy being studied in early PD.'
"The level of immunogenicity after only 3 months of treatment, as well as the continued positive safety profile, reinforces the best-in-class characteristics of our clinically validated anti-a-syn active immunotherapy for treating PD."
"We look forward to sharing further updates in H1 2025, including the decision to expand into Part 2 of the VacSYn study."
The U.S. NIH says Parkinson's is a progressive movement disorder of the nervous system. It causes nerve cells (neurons) in parts of the brain to weaken, become damaged, and die, leading to symptoms that include problems with movement, tremors, stiffness, and impaired balance. People with PD may have difficulty walking, talking, or completing other simple tasks as symptoms progress.
