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EU Drugs Watchdog Backs Bavarian Nordic’s Mpox Vaccine for Adolescents
The European Commission has greenlit Bavarian Nordic’s mpox and smallpox vaccine for approval for kids aged 12 to 17.
The European Medicines Agency carried out an expedited and positive review of the data in this patient group, the company said, with the Commission accepting the regulator’s opinion.
Bavarian Nordic’s mpox shot is the first approved in Europe for anyone under the age of 18.
The decision comes a week after the World Health Organization approved the vaccine for adults.
A clinical study, in 211 adults and 312 adolescents aged 12 to 17, found a “similar safety profile” and “non-inferiority of the immune responses” in both age groups after two doses of the vaccine.
Florida Woman Suffers Severe Reaction After Receiving 3 Vaccines at Once, Videos Go Viral
Disturbing videos shared by Florida resident Alexis Lorenze have gone viral on social media, showing the severe adverse reactions she experienced after allegedly receiving multiple vaccinations at once.
The viral video showed her bruised, swollen face, and she was barely able to speak.
Alexis suffered these side effects after she was given three vaccines for meningitis, pneumonia, and tetanus “all at once” at the UCI Medical Center in Orange, California.
“The hospital gave me something that is making my face react like this,” Alexis said as she lay in the hospital bed.
“It’s on my neck. It’s on my face, on my forehead. I am here trying to spread awareness of what is happening to me. I’m really scared, and everything in my body hurts. Please, TikTok. Please, help me, give me advice, spread this video in case this gets worse. The medical world needs to see this, please,” she added.
Mpox Is Not Under Control in Africa, Warns Africa CDC
The mpox outbreak in Africa is still not under control, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) warned on Thursday, adding that cases were still increasing in several countries.
The World Health Organization declared the recent outbreak of the disease a public health emergency of international concern after the new variant was identified.
Countries in the continent are struggling to respond to another major outbreak coming at the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic that exposed weak health systems that were unprepared to deal with a major public health crisis.
The number of mpox cases in Africa has surged 177%, and deaths have increased 38.5% compared with the same period a year ago, data from the Africa CDC showed.
“We can say today that mpox is not under control in Africa. We still have this increase of cases that is worrying for all of us,” Jean Kaseya, director general of Africa CDC, told a weekly briefing on the outbreak.
Rwanda Begins Vaccinations Against Mpox Amid a Call for More Doses for Africa
Rwanda has started a vaccination campaign against mpox with 1,000 doses of the vaccine it obtained from Nigeria under an agreement between the two countries, the African health agency said on Thursday.
The vaccinations started Tuesday targeting seven districts with “high risk populations” who neighbor Congo, Dr. Nicaise Ndembi from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.
Nigeria donated the 1,000 doses to Rwanda from an allotment of 10,000 it had received from the U.S.
Congo has been at the epicenter of an outbreak on the African continent, where 2,912 new mpox cases and 14 new deaths have been recorded in the last one week, bringing the total number of cases to 6,105 with 738 deaths since the beginning of the year.
World Better Positioned Against Mpox Than for COVID: Vaccine Alliance
Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic have left the world in a much better position to tackle the current mpox epidemic raging in Africa, according to the Gavi vaccine alliance.
The COVID-19 catastrophe brought with it “important learnings, and those learnings were drawn upon,” said Gavi chief Sania Nishtar.
“Those learnings cascaded into specific instruments that are now coming into play” against mpox, the former Pakistani health minister told AFP in an interview this week.
When COVID-19 emerged in early 2020 and quickly began its deadly rampage around the globe, it revealed how completely unprepared the international community was to face such a global health crisis.
Flu Shots Appear Safe in Successive Pregnancies
Getting flu shots during successive pregnancies did not increase the risk for adverse perinatal outcomes, according to a large U.S. cohort study.
Compared with no vaccination, immunization against influenza in successive pregnancies was not associated with any increased risk for:
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- Preeclampsia or eclampsia (adjusted relative risk [aRR] 1.10, 95% CI 0.99-1.21)
- Placental abruption (aRR 1.01, 95% CI 0.84-1.21)
- Preterm birth (aRR 0.83, 95% CI 0.78-0.89)
- Small for gestational age (aRR 0.99, 95% CI 0.93-1.05)
- Maternal fever (aRR 0.87, 95% CI 0.47-1.59)
- Preterm premature rupture of membranes (aRR 1.00, 95% CI 0.94-1.06)
- Chorioamnionitis (aRR 1.03, 95% CI 0.90-1.18)
Of note, interval time length between pregnancies or type of influenza vaccine formulation did not alter the associations, reported Darios Getahun, MD, PhD, MPH, of Kaiser Permanente Southern California in Pasadena, and colleagues in JAMA Network Open.
