Vaccine News

According to the European CDC, Italy and Spain each reported three confirmed cases of Oropouche virus disease in travelers returning from Cuba.

The ECDC stated on July 12, 2024, that the likelihood of secondary transmission of the Oropouche virus within continental Europe is considered very low due to the absence of known competent vectors, midges (small flies), and mosquitoes, commonly found in the Region of the Americas.

To alert international travelers, the U.S. CDC issued a Level 1 Travel Health Advisory in June 2024. This advisory stated that people should seek medical care if they develop high fever, headache, muscle aches, stiff joints, nausea, vomiting, chills, or sensitivity to light during or after travel.

As of July 23, 2024, no U.S. FDA-approved vaccines for Oropouche virus disease exist.

In the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, dengue outbreaks continue to be reported in 2024. The Ae. aegypti and some Ae. albopictus dengue virus-carrying mosquitoes have been identified in most of the countries in this region.

On July 17, 2024, the WHO Disease Outbreak News reported 12 autochthonous (local) cases of dengue documented in Iran, all of which were reported in Bandar-Lengheh, Hormozgan Province. 

Additionally, there have been 137 travel-related dengue cases in 2024.

Iran reported an average of 20 imported dengue cases annually between 2017 and 2023.

Furthermore, WHO does not recommend any general travel or trade restrictions in Iran based on the available information.

The WHO recommends that vaccination against dengue be part of an integrated strategy to control the disease, including vector control, proper case management, community education, and community engagement.

WHO recommends that countries consider introducing the second-generation QDENGA® (TAK-003) vaccine into their routine immunization programs in locations where high transmission intensity of dengue poses a significant public health problem.

WHO does not currently recommend the programmatic use of TAK-003 in young children.

As of July 22, 2024, the QDENGA vaccine is not authorized for use in the United States.

With over 24,600 Zika virus cases already confirmed in the Region of the Americas in 2024, a new study published by the journal eBioMedicine, part of The Lancet, disclosed new, unsettling insights.

The Cleveland Clinic announced that this study revealed that maternal Zika virus infections can reprogram fetal immune development, leading to long-term consequences in children's immunity.

On July 18, 2024, the Clinic stated that these changes may occur in children born without the physical characteristics associated with congenital Zika syndrome, such as microcephaly.

This finding suggests that 95% of babies born from Zika-infected pregnancies who did not exhibit symptoms may have been affected by the virus with long-term immunological repercussions.

Additionally, heightened inflammation was observed in Zika-exposed infants with abnormalities at birth, while children exposed to Zika later maintained a chronic Th1-biased immune profile. The impaired response to Th2-biased vaccines raises concerns about the lasting effects of Zika virus exposure on immune responses.

Suan-Sin (Jolin) Foo, PhD, an expert in maternal-fetal virology and the Zika virus, says babies without symptoms are deemed healthy and do not receive any follow-up medical care or attention. 

“Studies have only really focused on what’s happening with the children who were born with visible physical conditions like microcephaly or neurological complications,” Dr. Foo commented in a press release.

“The rest of these kids may not even have a note on their chart mentioning that their mother was infected during pregnancy. Unless they’re part of our study, they’re essentially lost to the medical field.”

Dr. Foo added, “Our study clearly shows there’s much more to this condition than meets the eye. We need to expand diagnostic criteria and conduct more research to ensure these immunologically vulnerable children get the necessary care.” 

From a prevention perspective, no Zika vaccine candidate has been approved by the U.S. FDA as of July 2024.

According to a post on X, the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Belarus recently joined Bosnia and Herzegovina by authorizing a lung cancer vaccine.

On July 12, 2024, the Prensa Latina news agency reported that the CimaVax-EGF vaccine was the first patented and registered therapeutic vaccine against non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC).

CimaVax-EGF is a recombinant human EGF-rP64K/montanide ISA 51 vaccine that completed a phase 4 clinical trial for NSCLC in 2017 and is approved as a "maintenance treatment for patients with stage IIIB/IV NSCLC.

Developed by Cuba's Center of Molecular Immunology in 2011, the CimaVax-EGF vaccine has been deployed in Cuba and the South American countries of Colombia, Peru, and Paraguay.

This vaccine is not U.S. FDA-approved nor available to U.S. citizens.

However, a Phase 1/2 clinical trial sponsored by Roswell Park Cancer Institute is ongoing. This study says CIMAvax, combined with nivolumab or pembrolizumab, may better treat patients with NSCLC or squamous head and neck cancer.

The U.S. National Cancer Institute says each type of non-small cell lung cancer has different kinds of cancer cells. The cancer cells of each type grow and spread in various ways. The types of non-small cell lung cancer are named for the kinds of cells found in the cancer and how the cells look under a microscope.

As the global Chikungunya outbreak continues in July 2024, a second vaccine may soon become available.

This is essential news since the World Health Organization recently confirmed the mosquito-borne viral Chikungunya virus was identified in nearly 115 countries in 2024, primarily in the Region of the Americas.

Bavarian Nordic A/S today announced that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has validated the marketing authorization application (MAA) submitted in June 2024 for CHIKV VLP, the Company’s vaccine candidate for immunization to prevent disease caused by chikungunya virus infection in individuals 12 years of age and older.

Validation of the MAA begins the EMA’s centralized review procedure under accelerated assessment.

The accelerated assessment, granted by EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use in February 2024, aims to reduce the timeframe for the CHMP to review an MAA. This could support the European Commission's vaccine approval in the first half of 2025.

Bavarian Nordic also completed the submission of a Biologics License Application for the CHIKV VLP vaccine to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in June 2024, potentially also supporting the approval of the vaccine in the first half of 2025.

CHIKV VLP is an adjuvanted VLP-based vaccine candidate for active immunization to prevent disease caused by CHIKV infection.

“The MAA submission and review marks a pivotal milestone for Bavarian Nordic in 2024....,” said Paul Chaplin, President and CEO of Bavarian Nordic, in a press release on July 18, 2024.

In November 2023, the U.S. FDA approved Valneva SE's monovalent, single-dose, live-attenuated IXCHIQ® Chikungunya vaccine. It has been available in the U.S. since the beginning of 2024.

Anixa Biosciences, Inc. today announced that its collaborator, Cleveland Clinic, has received a “Decision to Grant” notice from the Japan Patent Office for the patent application titled “Vaccine Adjuvants and Formulations.”

"This new Japanese patent extends the claims for this novel breast cancer vaccine technology to an additional geographic region, beyond the U.S. and European patents previously awarded," stated Anixa Chairman and CEO Dr. Amit Kumar in a press release on July 17, 2024.

Cleveland Clinic exclusively licensed this technology to Anixa Biosciences.

Cleveland Clinic researchers have identified a protein called alpha-lactalbumin that is present in healthy breast tissue only when a woman is lactating and disappears when she stops nursing her child.

Alpha-lactalbumin is never present on any other cell in the body. However, it does show up in many types of breast cancer, including an aggressive and deadly form of the disease known as Triple Negative Breast Cancer.

In addition, Cleveland Clinic researchers have identified that the extracellular domain of anti-Mullerian hormone receptor II (AMHR2-ED) is expressed in normal ovaries and nowhere else in the body, ceasing after menopause. However, this protein is also expressed in cancerous ovary cells.

By developing vaccines targeting alpha-lactalbumin and AMHR2-ED, the immune system can destroy breast and ovarian cancer cells, respectively, as they arise and ultimately prevent tumors from forming.

Following the positive clinical data seen in the breast cancer vaccine Phase 1 clinical trial, in collaboration with Cleveland Clinic, a cancer vaccine discovery program utilizing the same mechanism as breast and ovarian cancer vaccines to develop additional cancer vaccines to address many intractable cancers, including high-incidence malignancies in lung, colon, and prostate.

During today's U.C. CDC Clinician Outreach and Communication Activity call, the presentation offered insights regarding the multi-year Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) (H5N1) virus outbreak in the United States.

As of July 16, 2024, the HAPI virus is widespread among wild birds and continues to cause outbreaks in poultry and spillover to mammals, including dairy cattle.

To date, three human cases of HPAI A(H5N1) virus infection have been identified in dairy farm workers in the U.S.

The CDC team wrote, 'The risk to the public from HPAI A(H5N1) viruses is low. However, people with job-related or recreational exposure to infected birds or animals, including dairy cattle, are at greater risk of HPAI A(H5N1) virus infection.

As of July 2024, the U.S. government has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in funding avian influenza vaccines and clinical candidates that could be deployed during a pandemic.