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Showing results for tags 'Vaccination'.
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Content Article
This blog is written in time for the WHO's World Immunisation Week. It explores vaccination programmes, in particular that for COVID-19 – it's uptake, both in the UK and globally, and the negative impact the pandemic has had on vaccination programmes for other diseases. -
Content ArticleDr Roberta Heale, Associate Editor of Evidence-Based Nursing, speaks to Dr Elaine Maxwell, Nurse and author of two National Institute for Health Research reviews on evidence on Long COVID in this BMJ Talk Medicine podcast. They discuss the variance in reported Long COVID statistics, the impact of vaccinations, symptoms, and research efforts.
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News Article
Pandemic disrupted routine vaccinations of US kindergarteners
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Yet another hidden cost of Covid-19 was revealed on Thursday as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention presented new data showing how the pandemic has dramatically impeded the US effort to vaccinate kids for other diseases. According to the CDC’s report, national vaccine coverage among American children in kindergarten dropped from 95% to below 94% in the past year – which may seem like a small amount but meant 350,000 fewer children were vaccinated against common diseases. “Overall, today’s findings support previous data showing a concerning decline in childhood immunizations that began in March 2020,” Shannon Stokley, the CDC’s immunization services deputy division director, said in a press conference on Thursday. Some of the reasons for the lower vaccination rates included reluctance to schedule appointments, reduced access to them, so-called “provisional” school enrollment, the easing of vaccination requirements for remote learners, fewer parents submitting documents and less time for school nurses to follow up with unvaccinated students. States and schools also told the CDC that there were fewer staff members to assess kindergarten vaccination coverage, and a lower response rate from schools, both due to Covid-19. “The CDC provides vaccines for nearly half of America’s children through the Vaccines for Children program,” Stokley said. “And over the last two years, orders for distribution of routine vaccines are down more than 10% compared to before the Covid-19 pandemic. “We are concerned that missed routine vaccinations could leave children vulnerable to preventable diseases like measles and whooping cough which are extremely dangerous and can be very serious, especially for babies and young children.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 21 April 2022 -
News Article
Healthcare worker catches Covid twice in less than three weeks
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A healthcare worker caught Covid on two separate occasions over the course of just 20 days, a new study has shown. It is believed to be the shortest recorded time between two infections since the start of the pandemic. Since the arrival of the highly infectious Omicron variant, reinfections have become far more prominent. The 31-year-old woman from Spain first became infected with Delta in December 2021 – 12 days after she had received her Covid booster vaccine. Lab analysis showed that she had initially been infected by the Delta variant, followed by Omicron. Her case, which is being presented to the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Portugal, is believed to represent the shortest recorded time between two separate infections. Dr Gemma Recio of the Institut Catala de la Salut in Spain, who is one of the study’s authors, said: “This case highlights the potential of the Omicron variant to evade the previous immunity acquired either from a natural infection with other variants or from vaccines". “In other words, people who have had Covid-19 cannot assume they are protected against reinfection, even if they have been fully vaccinated." Read full story Source: The Independent, 21 April 2022 -
News Article
Pregnant women 'afterthought' in Covid jab rollout
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Pregnant women have been an "afterthought" during the coronavirus pandemic and some of their deaths were "preventable", a leading scientist has told Newsnight. Data shows there have been at least 40 maternal deaths from Covid in the UK. Almost all were unvaccinated and more than half happened after pregnant women were advised to take-up the vaccine. The regulator says vaccines during pregnancy are "safe". Professor Marian Knight, who investigates every maternal death in the UK, said lifesaving messaging is still "struggling" to reach pregnant women, a year on since all of them were advised to get vaccinated. Professor Knight said: "This has perhaps been the first year where my job has made me cry because that was a preventable situation." During the first months of the vaccine rollout, only pregnant health or care workers or those in at-risk groups were advised by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation to "consider" the jab due to a "lack of evidence". In April 2021, the advice was updated to cover all pregnant women after real-world data raised no safety concerns. By December 2021, a year after the rollout began, pregnant women were deemed to be more at risk of falling seriously ill from Covid and were put on the priority list for jabs. Professor Knight, the maternal lead for pregnancy monitoring group MBRRACE-UK, said changing initial advice wasn't helpful, but stresses the JCVI had little choice because pregnant women were not included in Covid vaccine trials. "It's a complicated message," she said. "The message 'don't get vaccinated because we haven't got any information' is very subtly different from 'don't get vaccinated because it's not safe'. You may think, 'I can't get vaccinated because I'm pregnant, it must not be safe'. Whereas actually we don't yet have enough information." Read full story Source: BBC News, 20 April 2022 -
Content ArticleWhatever your standpoint on whether the pandemic is over, or what “living with the virus” should mean, it is clear some manifestation of Covid-19 will be with us for some time to come. Not least for the estimated 1.7 million people in the UK living with Long Covid. This is a now a large, well-documented, convergent cluster of clear physiological symptoms, and it is common to every part of the globe affected by Covid-19. Many sufferers are now disabled and deprived of their former passions, while some are unable to resume their former professions. Doctors and scientists the world over now consider this a recognised part of the Sars-CoV-2 symptom profile. We thought that the number of Long Covid cases developing might be lower when most cases were breakthrough cases in the vaccinated, or infections in vaccinated or partially vaccinated children. Sadly, far from any subsidence in new Long Covid cases, the big, ongoing caseloads of the Delta, Omicron and BA.2 waves have brought a large cohort of new sufferers. These waves have disproportionately affected primary and secondary schools, and many of the new sufferers are children. In this Guardian article, Danny Altmann discusses why a failure to recognise the need for a response to Long Covid could be a blunder we rue for decades to come
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Content Article
This visual guide by the UK Health Security Agency shows photographs of different vaccines used in the UK routine immunisation schedule and their packaging. It includes information on trade names and abbreviations, diseases each vaccine protects against and the age at which it should be administered. -
Content ArticleThese resources by the Royal College of Nursing provide practical and clinical guidance for vaccine administration. All information supports guidance in The Green Book - Immunisation against infectious disease published by the UK Health Security Agency.
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Content ArticleThis guidance from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) should be used to help reduce the spread of Covid-19 in adult social care settings. It applies from 4 April 2022 and should be read in conjunction with: the infection prevention and control (IPC) resource for adult social care, which should be used as a basis for any infection prevention and control response the adult social care testing guidance, which details the testing regimes for all staff, as well as any resident and outbreak testing where applicable.
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Content ArticleMore and more people have been asking for a return to normal, and with omicron waning, governments are starting to act. The UK is removing its remaining public health measures, including mandatory self-isolation of COVID cases and free testing. However, the inescapable truth is that – unless the virus mutates to a milder form – the “normal” life we are returning to will be shorter and sicker on average than before. This article in The Conversation looks at how we need to live post-Covid.
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Content ArticleThis preprint study aimed to assess whether there is a change in the incidence of cardiac and all-cause death in young people following Covid-19 vaccination or SARS-CoV-2 infection in unvaccinated individuals. The authors concluded that there is no evidence of an association between Covid-19 vaccination and an increased risk of death in young people. By contrast, SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with substantially higher risk of cardiac related death and all-cause death.
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Content Article500,000 immunocompromised people, who are at particularly high risk from Covid, live in the UK. Because their weakened immune systems meant they were less likely to have been protected by the first two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine than the general population, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation recommended they have a ‘third primary dose’ eight weeks after their second dose (whereas other groups were to get a booster six months after their second dose). But the complexity of this system meant that huge numbers of immunocompromised people were left waiting for a vaccine invitation that never came. In this blog for The King's Fund, Gemma Peters, Chief Executive of Blood Cancer UK, examines the challenges people with blood cancer and others with compromised immunity faced during the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out. She argues that NHS England must fix these issues by establishing a register of immunocompromised people and a reliable way of contacting them, tackling misinformation and publicly acknowledging the issues people with compromised immune systems have faced to date.
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Content ArticleAll big experiences in our lives have two realities. There is what really happened. And there is the narrative, the story we tell ourselves and each other about what happened. Of the two, psychologists say it’s the narrative that matters most. Creating coherent stories about events allows us to make sense of them. It is the narrative that determines our reactions, and what we do next. Two years after the World Health Organization (WHO) finally used the word “pandemic” in its own story about the deadly new virus from Wuhan, narratives have multiplied and changed around the big questions. How bad is it? What should we do about it? When will it be over? The stories we embraced have sometimes been correct, but others have sown division, even caused needless deaths. Those stories aren’t finished – and neither is the pandemic. As we navigate what could be – if we are lucky – Covid’s transition to a present but manageable disease, it is these narratives we most need to understand and reconcile. What has really happened since 2020? And how does it still affect us now?
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Content ArticleThis analysis by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development provides the latest comparable data and trends on the performance of health systems in OECD countries and key emerging economies. It examines performance indicators that suggest the following trends: Overall health status in the United Kingdom is close to the OECD average Overweight/obesity and alcohol consumption are higher than the OECD average Population coverage is high, with high satisfaction and strong financial protection The United Kingdom performs well on many key indicators of care quality, though avoidable hospital admissions could be further reduced Health and long-term care spending are above average, though hospital beds and the number of doctors and nurses are slightly below the OECD average The analysis also looks at the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on deaths, health spending, life expectancy, healthcare activity and mental health.
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News Article
No evidence Covid vaccines lead to young deaths
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
There is no evidence that Covid vaccines have led to an increase in deaths in young people, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said. Six months after the mass rollout of Covid vaccines, medical regulators started to report slightly higher rates of two heart conditions after receiving the Pfizer and Moderna jabs. Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle itself, while pericarditis is inflammation of the fluid-filled sac the heart sits in. Both side effects are very rare but appear to be more common after a second dose of either Covid jab, particularly in younger men. The ONS looked at outcomes shortly after vaccination, when the risk of any side effect is highest. The chance of a young person dying in that time was no different to later periods the researchers looked at. Julie Stanborough, deputy director at the ONS said: "We have found no evidence of an increased risk of cardiac death in young people following Covid-19 vaccination." Read full story Source: BBC News, 22 March 2022 -
News ArticleDuring the peak of the omicron variant wave of the coronavirus this winter, Black adults in the United States were hospitalised at rates higher than at any moment in the pandemic, according to a report published last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Black adults were four times as likely to be hospitalised compared with White adults during the height of the omicron variant surge, which started in mid-December and continued through January, the report said. In January, the CDC found, hospitalisation rates for Black patients reached the highest level for any racial or ethnic group since the dawn of the pandemic. As the highly transmissible omicron variant usurped the delta variant’s dominance, people who were unvaccinated were 12 times more likely to be hospitalised than those who were vaccinated and boosted against the coronavirus, according to the report. And fewer Black adults had been immunised compared with White adults, said the report, which analysed hospitalization rates in 99 counties in 14 states. Teresa Y. Smith saw evidence of the phenomenon outlined in the CDC’s report as she treated patients as an emergency physician at SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn. She has felt the crush of the pandemic’s unequal impact since the pre-vaccine waves but has contended with the consequences of health disparities for much longer. Her hospital sits in a heavily Black and Latino borough, where — as in so many communities of color across the country — social, political, economic and environmental factors erode health and shorten lives. In December, she watched as the number of cases and admissions resulting from the omicron variant “just exploded in a short, short amount of time,” saying then, “there is no subtlety to it.” And while the vaccinated patients she treated were less likely to be “lethally sick,” many still needed to be admitted to the hospital. Read full story Source: The Washington Post, 18 March 2022
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News Article
Vaccine used to free a man who was trapped at home with Covid
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A vaccine has been used to free a man who was trapped at home by a Covid infection that lasted for more than seven months. It is the first time that a vaccine has been used to "treat" Covid rather than "prevent" it. Ian Lester, 37, has a weakened immune system due to Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, and was unable to defeat the virus on its own. He says he became a prisoner in his home in Caerphilly, Wales, as he isolated for months on end. He shielded during the first wave of Covid, but coronavirus eventually found him in December 2020. He had one of the classic symptoms - a slight loss of sense of taste and smell - which cleared up within a month. For most of us that would be the end of it, but Ian's Covid journey was only just beginning. His doctors wanted him to keep on testing because his weakened immune system meant there was a risk he could be contagious for longer than normal. But month after month, test after test came back positive. Ian had to give up work. Scientists and doctors were monitoring the battle between the virus and Ian's immune system at Cardiff University and at the Immunodeficiency Centre for Wales in the University Hospital of Wales. The analysis showed Ian had a long-term infection, it was not just "dead virus" being detected, and his symptoms were not long-Covid. Prof Stephen Jolles, clinical lead at the Immunodeficiency Centre, said: "This infection was burbling along, but with his [weakened] immune system it was just not enough to kick off a response sufficient to clear it. "So the vaccine really made a huge difference, in antibodies and T-cells, and utilised and squeezed every last drop out of what his immune system could do." Read full story Source: BBC News, 21 March 2022 -
Content ArticleLast month, Boris Johnson argued that the downward trends in Covid cases and hospitalisations meant that it was time to scrap restrictions. Now both are rising. But the government is ending testing and most surveillance studies. Sajid Javid, the health secretary, said that the rise was “to be expected” – though this foresight did not extend to having a plan to deal with the increase in infections. Instead, he dismissed the concern about the new Deltacron variant. The health secretary seemed nonchalant about the threat the virus now posed. Sajid Javid may be right that the country has weathered the worst of the pandemic, but Covid is not yet in retreat. It makes no sense to withdraw funding from a series of studies that allow the spread of the virus to be mapped in detail. Without the data, experts won’t be able to effectively monitor the disease. The country will be less effective in responding and adjusting to future waves of infection. Individuals will be less able to make informed choices about the risks involved. The clinically vulnerable face being cut off from everyday life. “It is like turning off the headlights at the first sign of dawn,” Stephen Reicher, a psychologist at the University of St Andrews, told the Guardian. “You can’t see what’s coming and you don’t know when it makes sense to turn them on again.”
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Content ArticleThe Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing health inequalities for refugees and migrants. These populations have shown lower rates of Covid-19 vaccination uptake, and may face a range of individual, social, practical and logistical barriers to accessing vaccines. The World Health Organization (WHO) has developed this guide to provide practical recommendations, strategies and good practice for understanding and addressing barriers to Covid-19 vaccination among refugee and migrant populations. It is intended to support all stakeholders responsible for the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines to refugee and migrant populations.
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News Article
Covid-19: Countries in the Americas are warned not to lower their guard
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Covid-19 is on the retreat across the American continents but it is too early for the region to let its guard down, warned the Pan American Health Organisation, the World Health Organization’s regional office for the Americas, on 9 March. Reported cases of Covid-19 fell by 26% in the past week and deaths by nearly 19%, as the omicron wave of infections tailed off. But ongoing transmission and future variants could expose the region’s public health priorities once more, said PAHO’s director, Carissa Etienne. A total of 2.6 million people have died from Covid-19 in the Americas, the highest number of any region of the world and almost half of the global total, despite being home to only 13% of its population. “This is a tragedy of enormous proportions, and its effects will be felt for years to come,” said Etienne on the second anniversary of the pandemic. Patchy vaccination coverage has left countries vulnerable to current and future variants of SARS-CoV-2. Around 248 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean are yet to receive a single dose of a covid vaccine, with vaccination rates particularly low in hard-to-reach rural areas. In the first two months of 2022 the Americas accounted for 63% of the world’s new cases. Despite a general fall in incidence across the region, new cases rose by 2.2% in the Caribbean, while Bolivia and Puerto Rico reported an increase in deaths in the past week. Michael Touchton, head of the University of Miami’s Covid-19 policy observatory for Latin America, said, “Latin America is perhaps the most vulnerable region in the world to the emergence of a new variant. Vaccine delays have a greater impact in Latin America due to concentrated urban populations, chronic disease burden, and low capacity health systems. Taken together, Latin America is likelier to fare worse than other similarly low and middle income regions.” Read full story Source: BMJ, 14 March 2022 -
Content Article
ECRI: Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns 2022
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in International patient safety
ECRI's annual Top 10 list helps organisations identify imminent patient safety challenges. The 2022 edition features many first-time topics, and emphasis is on potential risks that could have the biggest impact on patient health across all care settings. The number one topic on this year’s list has been steadily growing throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and impacts patients and staff on all levels: staffing shortages. Prior to 2021, there was a growing shortage of both clinical and non-clinical staff, but the problem has grown exponentially. In early January 2022, it was estimated that 24% of US hospitals were critically understaffed, while 100 more facilitates anticipated facing critical staff shortages within the following week. The list includes diagnostic and vaccine-related errors that can impact patient outcomes. In addition, several topics on this year's list reflect challenges that have arisen as a result of the stresses associated with delivering care during a global pandemic. -
Content ArticleThe Green Book is published by the UK Health Security Agency and contains the latest information on vaccines and vaccination procedures for vaccine-preventable infectious diseases in the UK.
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Content ArticleThis guide by the non-profit organisation US Pharmacopeia highlights the global challenge of substandard and falsified Covid-19 vaccines and the impact this has on individuals, the ability to control the pandemic, larger societal health, public trust and social justice. It outlines strategies to help prevent, detect and respond to substandard and falsified vaccines, in line with existing World Health Organization processes.
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Content ArticleThis study in PLOS Medicine looked at the uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine in different ethnic groups in Manchester between 1 December 2020 and 18 April 2021. Covid-19 vaccine uptake is lower amongst most minority ethnic groups compared to the White British group in England, despite higher Covid-19 mortality rates. This study adds to existing evidence by estimating inequalities for 16 minority ethnic groups, examining ethnic inequalities within population subgroups, and comparing the scale of ethnic inequalities in Covid-19 vaccine uptake to those for routine seasonal influenza vaccine uptake. The authors of the study found that ethnic inequalities in Covid-19 vaccine uptake exceeded those for influenza vaccine uptake. existed amongst those recently vaccinated against influenza. were widest amongst those with greatest Covid-19 risk. This suggests the Covid-19 vaccination programme has created additional, different health inequalities. They suggest that further research and policy action is needed to understand and remove barriers to vaccine uptake, and to build trust and confidence amongst minority ethnic communities.
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Content ArticleGovernment must take a cautious and evidence-based approach to exiting the pandemic, factoring in six key elements for a fail-safe exit strategy.
