Vaccine News

Cuba's Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, recently announced over 400 Oropouche virus disease cases have been confirmed on the island since late May 2024.

According to Cuba Headlines reporting, Cuba ranks second in the Region of the Americas for the number of infections behind Brazil (7,284).

Infected biting midges and some mosquitoes are spreading the virus.

Currently, there are no efficient vector control measures for the Culicoides paranesis.

As of August 23, 2024, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says there is no evidence of local transmission of Oropouche virus disease in the United States. However, various states, such as Florida (12), report travel-related cases.

The virus was first detected in 1955 in Trinidad and Tobago near the Oropouche River. Since then, outbreaks of the Oropouche virus have been reported in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Panama, and Peru.

The incubation period for Oropouche virus disease is 3–10 days, says the U.S. CDC. Typically, the disease starts with the abrupt onset of fever (38-40°C), followed by a headache, chills, myalgia, and arthralgia.

People typically recover without long-term sequelae. However, there have been a few deaths reported and vertical transmission of Oropouche virus causing fetal deaths and congenital abnormalities.

The best way to protect themselves from Oropouche is to prevent bites from biting midges and mosquitoes.

According to the CDC's Level 2 Travel Health Advisory, updated on August 15, 2024, travelers to Cuba should prevent bug bites during visits to protect themselves from infection, as there are no vaccines to prevent Oropouche virus disease.

Note - Headlines was edited on Aug, 24, 2024,

Takeda Canada Inc. today annonced a new report, Enhancing Diagnosis, Access, Care, and Treatment, highlighting the urgent need for innovative funding models and collaboration to help accelerate Canada’s National Strategy for Drugs for Rare Diseases.

Nearly 200 novel drugs for rare diseases are being developed and are expected to launch in Canada within the next ten years. It’s estimated only 5% of rare diseases have an approved treatment.

A “rare” disease is any disease that affects a minimal number of individuals. It is often genetic, chronic throughout a patient’s life, and life-threatening. With rare diseases affecting relatively limited patients, innovative treatments are often unavailable.

The impact of rare diseases is significant, with approximately one in 12 Canadians, two-thirds of whom are children.

“Canadians living with rare diseases have every reason to be optimistic,” says Durhane Wong-Rieger, President & CEO of the Canadian Organization for Rare Disorders, in a press release on August 22, 2024.

“Hundreds of new therapies are being developed, many targeting the 95% of rare diseases with no known treatment! We must leverage the $1.5 billion Rare Disease Drug Strategy,

The journey toward appropriately managing a rare disease is long and challenging. On average, it takes 6 to 8 years before a patient receives a correct diagnosis; this time, they will see an average of eight physicians and receive two to three misdiagnoses.

Takeda also produces innovative products, such as QDENGA®, an approved two-dose vaccine that prevents dengue fever and/or severe dengue in adults caused by any of the four serotypes of the dengue virus.

This dengue vaccine is authorized in about 40 countries and does not require pre-admission testing.

According to real-world evidence published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases today, this analysis is the first to provide estimates of Merck's Ervebo® (rVSV-ZEBOV) vaccine against Zaire Ebolavirus disease amid the widespread use of the vaccine during a large outbreak.

Announced on August 20, 2024, these findings confirm that Ervebo is highly protective against 84% (95% credible interval, 70% to 92%) of Ebolavirus disease and supports its use during outbreaks, even in challenging contexts such as in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

This finding is essential since Ebolaviruses are endemic in the DRC.

In a related Editorial, the authors wrote the 2018–20 Ebola virus disease epidemic in the DRC resulted in 3,470 reported cases and remains the second-largest Ebolavirus outbreak in recorded history worldwide. The initial Ebola outbreak was in 1976. 

In November 2019, the World Health Organization prequalified the Ervebo vaccine. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved it on December 19, 2019.

Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) funded this study.

The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) has reported four new measles cases in 2024, bringing the total to 30 across three counties. Marion County has the most cases, followed by Clackamas County and Multnomah County.

As of August 21, 2024, all measles patients were unvaccinated, and twelve were younger than ten.

These counties and OHA have been sharing information with the public so “we can let members of the public know they may have been exposed to measles,” Clackamas County Health Officer Sarah Present, M.D. said in a recent press release.

Dr. Present noted that since measles is so contagious, an estimated 96% of the population needs to have received two doses of measles vaccine to protect the community's most vulnerable members via community or “herd” immunity.

In Oregon, measles vaccines are available at health clinics and local pharmacies.

As of August 15, 2024, the U.S. CDC confirmed that 27 U.S. jurisdictions reported 219 measles cases this year. In 2023, 20 jurisdictions reported 59 measles cases for the entire year.

A recent study found that the Fluad® MF59-adjuvanted influenza vaccine (aTIV) was more effective than the high-dose flu vaccine (HD-TIV) at preventing severe respiratory complications in older adults with risk factors.

Published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases on August 16, 2024, the study included 1,115,725 aTIV and 2,561,718 HD-TIV recipients. For the primary outcome, the analysis found comparable effectiveness between aTIV and HD-TIV (rVE [95% CI]: 5.2% [-5.9–15.1]) among those with 0 risk factors, whereas aTIV was more effective than HD-TIV among patients with ≥1, 1–2, or ≥3 risk factors (12.5% (10.0–15.0), 18.4% (13.7–22.9), and 10.4% (7.4–13.3), respectively).

The same trends were observed for the secondary outcomes.

Previous studies have found the two vaccines to be similar in effectiveness in older adults.

The Fluad vaccine has an extensive clinical legacy and has been licensed in 30 countries since its first approval in 1997. Fluad is available at most pharmacies in the U.S. for the 2024-2025 flu season.

The World Health Organization (WHO) today announced temporary (one-year) recommendations for States Parties experiencing the upsurge of monkeypox virus (MPXV) clade 1 detections, including, but not limited to, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda.

The upsurge of mpox cases in the DRC in 2024 and its neighboring countries is driven by outbreaks associated with two sub-clades of clade I MPXV: clade Ia and clade Ib.

These WHO recommendations include establishing or strengthening cross-border collaboration arrangements for surveillance and management of suspect mpox cases and providing information to travelers and conveyance operators without resorting to general travel and trade restrictions unnecessarily impacting local, regional, or national economies.

As of August 19, 2024, the WHO Committee considered the event “extraordinary” because of the increase in mpox clade I disease occurrence in the DRC and the emergence of the new MPXV clade Ib.

Clade I mpox was classically described in studies conducted by WHO in the 1980s to have a mortality rate of approximately 10%, with most deaths occurring in children.

MPXV clade Ia is endemic in the DRC. The disease primarily affects children. Data available for 2024 show an aggregated case fatality rate of 3.6%, and the spread is likely sustained through multiple modes of transmission, including person-to-person transmission following zoonotic introduction in a community.

MPXV clade Ib is a new strain of MPXV that emerged in the DRC. It is transmitted between people, presumed via sexual contact, which has been spreading in the eastern part of the country.

Although first characterized in 2024, estimates suggest it emerged around September 2023.

The outbreak associated with clade Ib in the DRC primarily affects adults and is spreading rapidly, sustained largely, but not exclusively, through transmission linked to sexual contact and amplified in networks associated with commercial sex and sex workers.

Furthermore, these African countries are to initiate plans to advance mpox vaccination activities targeting people at high risk of infection. As of August 19, 2024, various reports indicate that (10 million) mpox vaccines are being produced to meet potential outbreak demand.

In early August 2024, the U.S. CDC issued a Level 2 - Practice Enhanced Precautions, Travel Health Advice, recommending various mpox protection tactics, including (JYNNEOS) vaccination. 

These new WHO recommendations are intended to be implemented by those States Parties in addition to the current standing recommendations for mpox, which will be extended until August 20, 2025.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently reported that measles outbreaks continue in various countries in 2024, such as India.

To alert international travelers, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) republished a global Watch-Level 1, Practice Usual Precautions, Travel Health Notice on August 14, 2024, identifying measles outbreaks in 56 countries.

Within the United States, the CDC has reported 219 measles cases in 27 jurisdictions this year, led by the states of Illinois and Oregon. Most of these cases are related to unvaccinated travelers.

The CDC writes that 'all international travelers should be fully vaccinated against measles with two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, including an early dose for infants 6–11 months.

However, the CDC does not recommend a third dose of MMR vaccination during or when visiting measles outbreaks.

In the U.S., MMR vaccines are available at most clinics and community pharmacies.