Vaccine News

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has scheduled for today at 2 pm ET a Clinician Outreach and Communication Activity (COCA) call with updated recommendations for COVID-19 vaccine use.

During this COCA Call on May 11, 2023, presenters will discuss updated COVID-19 vaccine recommendations by age group and for those with immunocompromise.

Sara Oliver, MD, MSPH, and Evelyn Twentyman, MD, MPH, will also highlight optional COVID-19 vaccine doses for specific populations.

With a simplified schedule, the CDC recommends that everyone stay up to date with recommended COVID-19 vaccines to better protect themselves from severe illness.

Most people in the United States have not yet received an updated (bivalent) mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, with less than 17% uptake.

The Webinar Link: https://www.zoomgov.com/j/1619378091; ID: 161 937 8091; Passcode: 499465.

The Kingdom of Lesotho recently confirmed a measles outbreak in the capital city of Maseru, which has a population of over 300,000.

In response, through the Maseru District Health Management Team, the Ministry of Health launched a measles vaccination campaign in mid-April 2023. 

Measles is a severe disease that can be prevented with safe and effective vaccines.

Lesotho is located in the country of South Africa, which has been reporting measles outbreaks in 2023.

South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases reported in April the percentage of samples testing positive for measles remained at 27%.

Unfortunately, the Mountain Kingdom's 2022 measles vaccination campaign turnout was about 33% in 2022.

Before 2019, Lesotho had gone about ten years without a measles outbreak.

Measles outbreak news and alerts are posted by Vax-Before-Travel.

Sinovac Biotech Ltd. today announced it would provide its CoronaVac® vaccine to self-paying groups in Hong Kong and confirmed a donation plan.

Additionally, the company will collaborate with local charity groups to provide donations, giving more children in Hong Kong access to free its inactivated original strains COVID-19 vaccine.

On March 31, 2023, the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region announced that beginning April 20, 2023, high-risk groups would be able to receive free doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

Whereas low-risk groups, including children, can only receive their vaccines via the private market through self-pay.

"SINOVAC's ongoing fight against COVID-19 is based on our mission to 'supply vaccines to eliminate human diseases,'" said Yin Weidong, Chairman, President, and CEO of SINOVAC, in a press release on May 10, 2023.

"From developing the COVID-19 vaccine to obtaining market approvals, from the first CoronaVac® shipment landing in Hong Kong 800 days ago to the rollout of a massive public vaccination program, SINOVAC and Hong Kong have taken steps together to emerge from the shadows of the pandemic."

CoronaVac® is the first COVID-19 vaccine to be used in children from as young as three years old, under the World Health Organization's Emergency Use List.

As of March 2023, CoronaVac® has been authorized for use in more than 60 countries, regions, and international organizations. But not in the U.S.

The cumulative global vaccine supply exceeds 2.9 billion doses.

Novavax, Inc. today announced that its COVID-Influenza Combination (CIC), stand-alone influenza, and high-dose COVID vaccine candidates all showed a reassuring preliminary safety profile and comparable reactogenicity to individual Novavax influenza and COVID vaccine candidates or authorized influenza vaccine comparators.

Additionally, all three vaccines demonstrated preliminary robust immune responses.

In all groups, no adverse events (AE) of special interest, no potentially immune-mediated medical conditions, and no treatment-related serious AEs.

"The reactogenicity results support our previous observations that this technology is well suited for combination vaccines because large amounts of antigen can be incorporated without impacting tolerability," said Filip Dubovsky, President, Research and Development, Novavax, in a press release on May 9, 2023.

"The immune responses we observed were robust, and the data we have shared today significantly increase the probability of Phase 3 success."

Furthermore, the highest dose stand-alone COVID vaccine candidate achieved statistically significant anti-S IgG and neutralization responses, approximately 30% higher than Novavax's prototype COVID vaccine while maintaining comparable safety and reactogenicity to the currently authorized dose level of Nuvaxovid™.

Various CIC vaccine candidates are in late-stage development as of May 9, 2023.

A recent Research Letter published by the JAMA Network found that local adverse event rates were highest following intradermal administration of the Mpox vaccine.

During the early stages of the Mpox outbreak in 2022, many countries adopted a dose-sparing schedule with 0.1-mL intradermal MVA-BN (JYNNEOS®) vaccine recommended for the preexposure and 0.5-mL subcutaneous vaccine for postexposure prophylaxis, two doses given four weeks apart.

As reported on May 4, 2023, the adverse event rate was highest following dose one of intradermal vaccination (53%) and lowest following dose two of subcutaneous vaccination (31%).

The most common adverse events were local redness, itching, and swelling following intradermal vaccination and local pain, swelling, and redness following subcutaneous vaccination.

During May 2023, the JYNNEOS vaccine is readily available in most countries. Furthermore, there has been a resurgence of Mpox cases in various cities, such as Chicago, Paris, and Seoul.

UNICEF recently announced it would supply 52 countries with human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines. In 2023 alone, UNICEF will provide one in four countries worldwide with this life-saving vaccine.

And seven countries, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Eswatini, Kiribati, Mongolia, Nigeria, and Togo, intend to introduce HPV vaccines to their routine immunization programs in 2023. 

On April 28, 2023, UNICEF confirmed just one in eight girls are vaccinated against HPV, the leading cause of cervical cancer.

And since 2019, HPV vaccination coverage has decreased by 15%, representing one of the largest backslides of any vaccine during the pandemic.

Oluwaseun Ayanniyi, a Contracts Specialist in the Vaccine Centre of UNICEF’s Supply Division in Copenhagen, commented that she is optimistic that significant ground can be regained to prevent cervical cancer.

HPV vaccination can help prevent certain cancers for boys and girls, says the U.S. CDC. These vaccines are generally available at health clinics and pharmacies in the U.S.

As of May 8, 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved various vaccines that can prevent certain sexually transmitted diseases such as Mpox.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently published Influenza Update N° 444, indicating that some Southern Hemisphere countries reported increased influenza detections.

On May 3, 2023, the WHO reported in the Caribbean and Central American countries, influenza activity of mainly influenza B/Victoria lineage viruses was low or below baseline in most countries.

Moreover, increases in influenza activity were reported in a few countries, and activity was moderate in Jamaica.

In tropical Africa, influenza detections were low in reporting countries. Influenza A virus detections outnumbered B virus detections.

In Southern Asia, influenza activity remained low, with influenza A(H3N2) predominant, followed by B/Victoria lineage viruses. However, increased activity was reported in Bhutan and Sri Lanka.

In South-East Asia, influenza activity remained elevated mainly due to detections in Malaysia and Singapore.

However, in Malaysia, activity decreased.

But there was an increased proportion of influenza A viruses over the past several weeks, and influenza A viruses predominated during this period.

On the other hand, influenza A(H3N2) viruses remained predominant in Singapore.

In the temperate zones of the southern hemisphere, influenza activity remained low.

And influenza activity increased slightly in Australia and Chile, and pneumonia surveillance in South Africa. 

As of May 7, 2023, the WHO continues endorsing flu shots for the summer holiday season, wherever influenza outbreaks occur.

In the U.S., various influenza vaccines remain available at health clinics and community pharmacies. 

As of early March 2023, about 173 million flu shots had been distributed during the 2022-2023 flu season.