Pandemic Watch News Brief: The News You Need To Know ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

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[link removed] October 4, 2023
AVAC's weekly Pandemic Watch is a curated news digest on the latest pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response (PPPR) news and resources.


Advocates cautioned much more work is needed to bring the vaccine to those who need it most. The reality is that malaria financing globally is far from where it needs to be and annual deaths from malaria rose during the pandemic and are still above pre-pandemic levels, so we cannot afford to be complacent as new tools are developed." - Gareth Jenkins, executive director of Malaria No More UK in The Guardian ([link removed])
Table of Contents
• If You Are in a Hurry (#If You Are in a Hurry)
• Mosquitos a Growing Public Health Threat (#Mosquitos a Growing Public Health Threat)
• Record Dengue Deaths in Bangladesh (#Record Dengue Deaths in Bangladesh)
• Nobel Prize for mRNA Pioneers (#Nobel Prize for mRNA Pioneers)
• 1 in 20 Americans Used Unproven COVID-19 Treatments (#1 in 20 Americans Used Unproven COVID-19 Treatments)
• More Good News About COVID-19 Vaccination in Pregnancy (#More Good News About COVID-19 Vaccination in Pregnancy)
• Migratory Birds and Pathogens (#Migratory Birds and Pathogens)
• PEP for STIs (#PEP for STIs)
• US FDA Authorizes Updated Novavax Vaccine (#US FDA Authorizes Updated Novavax Vaccine)
• COVID-19 Vaccine Campaigns in Europe Respond to Rising Cases (#COVID-19 Vaccine Campaigns in Europe Respond to Rising Cases)
• Mpox Vaccine Reduces Hospitalizations (#Mpox Vaccine Reduces Hospitalizations)
• UNICEF Calls for Urgent Diphtheria Vaccinations (#UNICEF Calls for Urgent Diphtheria Vaccinations)

A new malaria vaccine approved by WHO has the potential to have a major impact on the disease. The Guardian ([link removed]) (UK) reports, “The R21/Matrix-M vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford, is only the second malaria vaccine to be recommended by the WHO. It is the first to meet the WHO’s target of 75% efficacy…. Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s regional director for Africa, said: ‘This second vaccine holds real potential to close the huge demand-and-supply gap. Delivered to scale and rolled out widely, the two vaccines can help bolster malaria prevention and control efforts, and save hundreds of thousands of young lives in Africa from this deadly disease.’” The Washington Post ([link removed]) (US) reports, “At a cost of $2-4 per dose, R21 was a cost-effective intervention, the WHO said, adding that it expects the
vaccine to be available by mid-2024. ‘As a malaria researcher, I used to dream of the day we would have a safe and effective vaccine against malaria. Now we have two,’ WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in the statement. “Advocates cautioned much more work is needed to bring the vaccine to those who need it most. ‘Gareth Jenkins, executive director of advocacy and strategy at nonprofit Malaria No More UK, said in a statement that it is vital for both vaccines to receive funding and support to reach children in need soonest. ‘The reality is that malaria financing globally is far from where it needs to be and annual deaths from malaria rose during the pandemic and are still above pre-pandemic levels, so we cannot afford to be complacent as new tools are developed,’ he said.”

News of the newly approved vaccine could not come at a more opportune time. The New York Times ([link removed]) (US) reports on the rise of “Anopheles stephensi, a malaria-carrying species of mosquito that… Is resistant to all insecticides and has adapted to thrive in urban environments and survive in dry seasons…. Africa has expertise and strategies to fight malaria as a rural disease but now faces the threat of urban outbreaks, putting vastly more people at risk and threatening to wipe away recent progress against malaria, which still kills 620,000 people each year, mostly in Africa. Although some mosquito experts say it is too soon to be certain of the magnitude of the threat, the potential for outbreaks in cities, they fear, may set up a competition between urban and rural areas for scarce resources to fight the disease.” Also, a new study in NEJM
([link removed]) (US) found a mainstay malaria drug may be failing in the Horn of Africa. A Columbia University press statement ([link removed]) notes, “In eastern Africa, malaria parasites have developed resistance to artemisinins, the backbone of current treatment regimens, a development that could dramatically worsen malaria’s impact if partner drugs fail in the future.”

If You Are in a Hurry

* Read Science ([link removed]) on the risk of pathogen spread from migrating birds and the scientists who are tracking the risks.
* Read The New York Times ([link removed]) on Nobel Prizes for mRNA pioneers.
* Read CNN ([link removed]) on new US CDC draft guidance to help prevent some STI infections.
* Read Hindustan Times ([link removed]) on the growing death toll of dengue in Bangladesh.
* Read The Hill ([link removed]) on how many Americans used unproven COVID treatments.
* Read aidsmap ([link removed]) on the effect of mpox vaccination on hospitalizations.


Mosquitos a Growing Public Health Threat

Stephanie Nolen reports in The New York Times ([link removed]) (US) reports, “Climate change has brought mosquitoes carrying viruses that cause dengue and chikungunya, excruciating and sometimes deadly fevers, to places where they have never been found before. Once a purely tropical disease, dengue is now being transmitted in Florida and France. This past summer, the United States saw its first locally transmitted cases of malaria in 20 years, with nine cases reported, in Texas, Florida and Maryland. ‘The situation has become challenging in new ways in places that have historically had these mosquitoes, and also at the same time other places are going to face new threats because of climate and environmental factors,’ [entomologist Eric] Ochomo said.”

Record Dengue Deaths in Bangladesh

Hindustan Times ([link removed]) (India) reports, “More than 1,000 people in Bangladesh have died of dengue fever this year, the country's worst recorded outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease, which is increasing in frequency due to climate change…. Figures from Bangladesh's Directorate General of Health Services published on Sunday night said 1,006 people had died, among more than 200,000 confirmed cases. The agency's former director Be-Nazir Ahmed said the number of deaths so far this year was higher than every previous year combined since 2000.”

Nobel Prize for mRNA Pioneers

The New York Times ([link removed]) (US) reports, “Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, who together identified a chemical tweak to messenger RNA, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday. Their work enabled potent Covid vaccines to be made in less than a year, averting tens of millions of deaths and helping the world recover from the worst pandemic in a century. The approach to mRNA the two researchers developed has been used in COVID-19 shots that have since been administered billions of times globally and has transformed vaccine technology, laying the foundation for inoculations that may one day protect against a number of deadly diseases like cancer.”

1 in 20 Americans Used Unproven COVID-19 Treatments

The Hill ([link removed]) (US) reports, “A new nationwide survey found that about one out of 20 US adults reported using ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 despite the lack of evidence that these medicines do anything to fight the virus. The study published in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) included 13,438 people who said they had previously contracted COVID-19 infections. This group included adults from all 50 US states…. Researchers in the study published last week found that people who endorsed even just one piece of misinformation about vaccines had a ‘significantly greater likelihood’ of turning to unproven treatments.

More Good News About COVID-19 Vaccination in Pregnancy

CBS News ([link removed]) (US) reports, “Getting a shot of the COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy works to pass on protection against the virus to newborns during their most vulnerable early months of life, a new study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. Maternal vaccination was 54% effective against COVID-19 hospitalization in infants younger than 3 months old over the past season…. The effectiveness dropped to 35% when measured in infants from 3 to 5 months old. COVID-19 vaccines are currently approved in the U.S. for children ages 6 months and up, but not the youngest babies. So ‘these findings indicate that maternal vaccination during pregnancy could help prevent COVID-19–related hospitalization in infants too young to be vaccinated,’ the study's authors wrote.” Read the study ([link removed]) .

Migratory Birds and Pathogens

Science ([link removed]) (US) reports on the impact of climate change on bird migration and the spread of pathogens and the “Versatile Emerging infectious disease Observatory ([link removed]) (VEO)…. [Which] aims to improve the early warning system that tracks key pathogens, potentially thwarting pandemics…. As birds migrate to feed or breed, rising temperatures and changing moisture patterns are likely to affect where they go, how long they stay, and what pathogens they meet. The VEO group is on particularly high alert for birds that travel through Europe to the Arctic, which is warming faster than any other part of Earth and serves as a mixing pot for many species.

PEP for STIs

CNN ([link removed]) (US) reports on new draft guidelines from the US CDC that recommend “health care providers should consider prescribing a commonly used antibiotic to certain people as a way to prevent chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis infections…. The proposed guidelines for the method, called doxyPEP, apply only to men who have sex with men, and transgender women.”

US FDA Authorizes Updated Novavax Vaccine

STAT ([link removed]) (US) reports, “The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday authorized Novavax’s updated Covid-19 vaccine, giving Americans seeking to update their protection against the SARS-CoV-2 virus another option…. Novavax, which did not own its own production facilities when it began its quest to make a Covid vaccine, has struggled to compete with other more established or nimble manufacturers. Among other issues its vaccine — which uses a sub-unit protein platform — takes longer to make and update than the mRNA vaccines. That will remain a challenge as SARS-2 continues to evolve and vaccine targets are changed to try to keep up.”

COVID-19 Vaccine Campaigns in Europe Respond to Rising Cases

Euro News ([link removed]) (Belgium) reports several European countries are tepping up COVID-19 vaccine booster campaigns…. As cases are rising in more than half of European countries, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), with increases in hospitalisations, ICU admissions, and deaths in some countries, though this remains limited. While some 73 per cent of people in EU and European Economic Area (EEA) countries have had a primary course of COVID-19 vaccination, the original one or two-shot jab regime, booster shot uptake is lower.”

Mpox Vaccine Reduces Hospitalizations

Aidsmap ([link removed]) (UK) reports, “Receiving at least one dose of the MVA-BN vaccine significantly reduced the likelihood of being hospitalised with mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) for both HIV-positive and HIV-negative people, according to a study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the California Department of Public Health, published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. ‘To optimise durable immunity, all eligible persons at risk for mpox, especially those infected with HIV, should complete the two-dose [MVA-BN] series,’ the study authors concluded.” Read thestudy ([link removed]) .

UNICEF Calls for Urgent Diphtheria Vaccinations

In a press release ([link removed]) UNICEF Nigeria urges action. “In the midst of the most severe diphtheria outbreak in recent global history, UNICEF Nigeria is sounding the alarm about the urgent need for widespread vaccination. The outbreak has so far resulted in over 11,500 suspected cases, more than 7,000 confirmed cases, and claimed the lives of 453 people, mostly children. Most cases are children aged between 4 to 15 years who have not received even a single dose of the vital vaccine, laying bare the urgency of the vaccination situation in Nigeria.”
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