Jump to content

Search the hub

Showing results for tags 'Vaccination'.


More search options

  • Search By Tags

    Start to type the tag you want to use, then select from the list.

  • Search By Author

Content Type


Forums

  • All
    • Commissioning, service provision and innovation in health and care
    • Coronavirus (COVID-19)
    • Culture
    • Improving patient safety
    • Investigations, risk management and legal issues
    • Leadership for patient safety
    • Organisations linked to patient safety (UK and beyond)
    • Patient engagement
    • Patient safety in health and care
    • Patient Safety Learning
    • Professionalising patient safety
    • Research, data and insight
    • Miscellaneous

Categories

  • Commissioning, service provision and innovation in health and care
    • Commissioning and funding patient safety
    • Digital health and care service provision
    • Health records and plans
    • Innovation programmes in health and care
    • Climate change/sustainability
  • Coronavirus (COVID-19)
    • Blogs
    • Data, research and statistics
    • Frontline insights during the pandemic
    • Good practice and useful resources
    • Guidance
    • Mental health
    • Exit strategies
    • Patient recovery
    • Questions around Government governance
  • Culture
    • Bullying and fear
    • Good practice
    • Occupational health and safety
    • Safety culture programmes
    • Second victim
    • Speak Up Guardians
    • Staff safety
    • Whistle blowing
  • Improving patient safety
    • Clinical governance and audits
    • Design for safety
    • Disasters averted/near misses
    • Equipment and facilities
    • Error traps
    • Health inequalities
    • Human factors (improving human performance in care delivery)
    • Improving systems of care
    • Implementation of improvements
    • International development and humanitarian
    • Safety stories
    • Stories from the front line
    • Workforce and resources
  • Investigations, risk management and legal issues
    • Investigations and complaints
    • Risk management and legal issues
  • Leadership for patient safety
    • Business case for patient safety
    • Boards
    • Clinical leadership
    • Exec teams
    • Inquiries
    • International reports
    • National/Governmental
    • Patient Safety Commissioner
    • Quality and safety reports
    • Techniques
    • Other
  • Organisations linked to patient safety (UK and beyond)
    • Government and ALB direction and guidance
    • International patient safety
    • Regulators and their regulations
  • Patient engagement
    • Consent and privacy
    • Harmed care patient pathways/post-incident pathways
    • How to engage for patient safety
    • Keeping patients safe
    • Patient-centred care
    • Patient Safety Partners
    • Patient stories
  • Patient safety in health and care
    • Care settings
    • Conditions
    • Diagnosis
    • High risk areas
    • Learning disabilities
    • Medication
    • Mental health
    • Men's health
    • Patient management
    • Social care
    • Transitions of care
    • Women's health
  • Patient Safety Learning
    • Patient Safety Learning campaigns
    • Patient Safety Learning documents
    • 2-minute Tuesdays
    • Patient Safety Learning Annual Conference 2019
    • Patient Safety Learning Annual Conference 2018
    • Patient Safety Learning Awards 2019
    • Patient Safety Learning Interviews
    • Patient Safety Learning webinars
  • Professionalising patient safety
    • Accreditation for patient safety
    • Competency framework
    • Medical students
    • Patient safety standards
    • Training & education
  • Research, data and insight
    • Data and insight
    • Research
  • Miscellaneous

News

  • News

Find results in...

Find results that contain...


Date Created

  • Start
    End

Last updated

  • Start
    End

Filter by number of...

Joined

  • Start

    End


Group


First name


Last name


Country


Join a private group (if appropriate)


About me


Organisation


Role

Found 450 results
  1. News Article
    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
  2. News Article
    During 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
  3. News Article
    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
  4. News Article
    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
  5. News Article
    Up-to-date registers of clinically vulnerable patients must be created to ensure that those who are most at risk during Covid-19 and any future pandemics are protected and can access the support they need, a report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Vulnerable Groups to Pandemics has recommended. The report considered vulnerable people’s experiences during the pandemic and makes 16 recommendations on what the government and the health service can do better to plan and prioritise extremely vulnerable patients during further Covid-19 outbreaks and future pandemics. These tackle the format and content of information and guidance; access to medical services such as mental health support to help people deal with anxiety, fear, and isolation; provision of practical support such as food and finance when isolating; and the need for more research into how medical conditions make people more vulnerable to a threat and vaccines less protective. At the launch of the report representatives of charities and patient groups described how the pandemic had left clinically vulnerable people feeling anxious, afraid, lonely, trapped, and desperate. They also described the “not on the list” scenario many had had to contend with, meaning they could not access priority services such as testing or support to isolate. There were still patients whose doctors recognised that they should be on the list fighting to get their condition recognised, said Susan Walsh, chief executive of Immunodeficiency UK. This means that, under the government’s Living with Covid plans, they will no longer be able to access free testing. Lord Mendelsohn, co-chair of the APPG on Vulnerable Groups to Pandemics, said, “We should be more willing to allow the medical practitioners responsible for these patients to be able to overhaul computerised systems and find ways to make that happen.” Read full story Source: BMJ, 28 February 2022
  6. News Article
    "We don't know the long-term side effects of Covid vaccines." That's a claim that's still common to see shared online. But a year is actually considered relatively "long term" when it comes to vaccine safety. This week marks the anniversary of the first delivery of Covid-19 vaccines under the Covax scheme - as well as being more than 14 months since the first dose was given. And scientists explain that's enough time for all but the rarest side effects to have emerged. Read full story Source: BBC News, 25 February 2022
  7. News Article
    The NHS has been accused by a major charity of failing to address the emerging gap in Covid booster vaccine coverage for racialised communities. Blood Cancer UK has told The Independent it has “serious concerns” over what it claims is a “shocking” lack of urgency from the NHS in addressing the gap in booster vaccine doses for immunocompromised people from black and minority ethnic communities. The charity has said NHS England has failed to set out any “concrete” plans since it revealed 84% of immunocompromised people from a white British background had three vaccine doses by mid-December, compared to just 43% of immunocompromised people from a Pakistani background. The news comes after the government announced people over 75 and immunocompromised children would be eligible to receive a fourth Covid vaccine by Spring. According to an analysis published by Open Safely, a team of data scientists at Oxford University, of those who are part of the shielding population, as of the 22 February just 72% of Black people have had their booster does, and 73% of south Asian people. This compares to 89% of white people. NHS England has highlighted a number of actions it is taking to address the situation such as using pop-up sites within communities and providing free transport. Speaking with The Independent chief executive of Blood Cancer UK Gemma Peters, said: “We have serious concerns about how the poor roll-out of third doses for the immunocompromised has left people from some communities much less well-protected than people from a white British background. But while it is deeply troubling that a racial disparity in access to third vaccine doses has been allowed to develop, just as shocking has been NHS England’s apparent lack of urgency in addressing it." Read full story Source: The Independent, 25 February 2022
  8. News Article
    Despite a backlog of routine operations, NHS hospitals are being advised to delay elective surgical procedures by at least seven weeks if a patient has just had Omicron. UK experts say it is a precaution since the first couple of months following infection is a riskier period, linked to poorer post-operative recovery. In some circumstances the surgery may be urgent enough to go ahead, however. Patients should ideally have had all of their Covid vaccines too. The advice has been issued by surgery and anaesthesia experts, including two Royal Colleges representing those professions. The experts who drew up the recommendations say the desire to tackle waiting lists and backlogs must be balanced with delivering the safest care possible. The latest expert guidance on routine operations recommends: Elective surgery should not take place within 10 days of a confirmed Covid infection, mainly because the patient may be infectious which is a risk to staff and other patients. Operations that happen in the six-week period after an infection - even an asymptomatic one - carry a higher risk of serious complications for the patient, experience suggests. Dr Mike Nathanson, president of the Association of Anaesthetists, said: "The frustration felt by patients is immense and we - the healthcare professionals - want to do our jobs and provide these services when it is safe to do so and with the risks clear to all involved." Read full story Source: BBC News, 23 February 2022
  9. News Article
    Today the Government is expected to announce the end to all Covid restrictions, including ending self-isolation and free testing in the country. However, in an open letter to the UK's Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Officer, the UK science and medical communities say this is a "HUGE mistake". The open letter expresses concern about the Government plans to end testing, surveillance surveys and legal isolation of Covid-19 cases and asks the Government to clarify the scientific advice underpinning these policy decisions as they do not believe there is a solid scientific basis for the policy. "It is almost certain to increase the circulation of the virus and remove the visibility of emerging variants of concern." "The emergence of new variants and a resultant wave of infections can occur very quickly, potentially within just several weeks. The ability to rapidly detect and characterise new variants and to scale up necessary responses (such as TTI and vaccinations) quickly will be very important. Considerations for future response preparedness and surveillance infrastructure should take this into account." "We believe humanity is in a race against the virus." The letter goes on to say that some form of surveillance must be continued to ensure the situation is well understood and new variants of concern identified. Lack of testing is not only detrimental to controlling the spread of SARSCoV2 and detecting new variants, it also puts people who develop Long Covid at a great disadvantage by not having a confirmation of their infection, which is integral to the diagnosis, support and care they need to receive. For the 1 in 4 people in the UK who are clinically vulnerable, the current approach appears a perilous and politicised pandemic response. The authors of the letter are asking members of the UK science and medical communities to sign the open letter. Read the letter in full and sign here
  10. News Article
    When the coronavirus pandemic began, Emily Landon thought about her own risk only in rare quiet moments. An infectious-disease doctor at the University of Chicago Medicine, she was cramming months of work into days, preparing her institution for the virus’s arrival in the United States. But Landon had also recently developed rheumatoid arthritis—a disease in which a person’s immune system attacks their own joints—and was taking two drugs that, by suppressing said immune system, made her more vulnerable to pathogens. Normally, she’d be confident about avoiding infections, even in a hospital setting. This felt different. “We didn’t have enough tests, it was probably around us everywhere, and I’m walking around every day with insufficient antibodies and hamstrung T-cells,” she said. Two years later, Covid-19 is still all around us, everywhere, and millions of people like Landon are walking around with a compromised immune system. A significant proportion of them don’t respond to Covid vaccines, so despite being vaccinated, many are still unsure whether they’re actually protected—and some know that they aren’t. Much of the United States dropped COVID restrictions long ago; many more cities and states are now following. That means policies that protected Landon and other immunocompromised people, including mask mandates and vaccination requirements, are disappearing, while accommodations that benefited them, such as flexible working options, are being rolled back. This isn’t a small group. Close to 3% of US adults take immunosuppressive drugs, either to treat cancers or autoimmune disorders or to stop their body from rejecting transplanted organs or stem cells. That makes at least 7 million immunocompromised people. In the past, immunocompromised people lived with their higher risk of infection, but COVID represents a new threat that, for many, has further jeopardised their ability to be part of the world. From the very start of the pandemic, some commentators have floated the idea “that we can protect the vulnerable and everyone else can go on with their lives.” Seth Trueger, who is on immunosuppressants for an autoimmune complication of cancer, said. “How’s that supposed to work?” He is an emergency doctor at Northwestern Medicine; he can neither work from home nor protect himself by avoiding public spaces. “How am I supposed to provide for my family or live my life if there’s a pandemic raging?” he said. Read full story Source: The Atlantic, 16 February 2022 Further reading Read further Covid-19 blogs and stories from staff on the frontline
  11. News Article
    The UK’s status as a global leader on vaccination is at risk because of falling uptake rates among children and an “alarming” decline in clinical trial activity, MPs have warned. The Health and Social Care Committee said in a report that it was concerned that England did not meet the 95% target for any routine childhood immunisations in 2021-22.1 Committee chair Steve Brine MP said that new spikes in measles cases in London and the West Midlands because of low uptake of MMR vaccines should be a “massive wake-up call” for the government to take action. “Vaccination is the one of the greatest success stories when it comes to preventing infection. Unless the government tackles challenges around declining rates of childhood immunisations and implements reform on clinical trials, however, the UK’s position as a global leader on vaccination risks being lost,” he said. The Health and Social Care Committee said, “It is unacceptable that there are people who are unable to take advantage of the important protection that vaccination offers because of practical challenges of time and location that can and must be tackled.” Read full story Source: BMJ, 27 July 2023
  12. News Article
    A vaccine that promises to protect infants and the over-75s from a lung infection which adds to pressure on the NHS each winter has been backed by government advisers. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a leading cause of pneumonia in the very young and elderly. It typically causes between 22,000 and 30,000 hospital admissions of small children a year. RSV’s impact on the elderly is less well understood but important, and experts believe that an effective vaccine could significantly lessen winter pressures on the health service. After 60 years of research, vaccines for older adults from Britain’s GSK and its US rivals Pfizer and Moderna are in the final stages of development. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) believes that they could be licensed this year or early next year and trial data suggest that they work well. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 23 June 2023
  13. News Article
    A malaria vaccine created by Oxford researchers “is really exciting” and could contribute towards drastically reducing the number of children who die from the infection, experts suggest. A new study reports on the effectiveness of a malaria booster vaccine which shows long-lasting high efficacy in African children, meeting the World Health Organisation (WHO) specified 75% efficacy goal. The research found that a vaccine booster dose one year after children received three doses as their primary vaccination regime maintained high efficacy against malaria. Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute and Lakshmi Mittal and Family Professor of Vaccinology, University of Oxford, said: “We think these data are the best data yet. “And very importantly, this is a vaccine that we think can be manufactured and deployed, very widely.” He added that the vaccine could be produced for a few dollars a dose, and together with existing measures, like mosquito nets and sprays, could help save children’s lives. Read full story Source: The Independent, 8 September 2022
  14. News Article
    The decision to reduce the number of children who are offered Covid jabs has prompted outcry from parent groups and academics. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said children who had not turned 5 by the end of last month would not be offered a vaccination, in line with advice published by the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) in February 2022. UKHSA said the offer of Covid jabs to healthy 5 to 11-year-olds was always meant to be temporary. UKHSA’s Green Book, which provides information on the vaccine rollout for public health professionals, states: “This one-off programme applies to those aged 5 to 11 years, including those who turn 5 years of age before the end of August 2022". “Subject to further clarification, on-going eligibility in 2022/23, after the one off-programme, is expected to be for children in the academic years where children are aged 11 or 12 years.” However, Prof Christina Pagel, of University College London, criticised the move. “JCVI itself considered there to be a benefit to young children to be vaccinated – even if most of them had already been infected,” she said. “There is also the additional benefit to children of providing additional protection from developing long Covid, missing school during the acute illness and reducing transmission to household members, other children and teachers.” Pagel said that at least one serious Covid wave was expected later this year, but that many children about to start school would now have to wait six years for vaccination, with likely relatively frequent infections in that time. “When we know there is a safe and effective vaccine available this seems unjustifiable to me,” said Pagel, adding that – while rare – children had died from Covid. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 6 September 2022
  15. News Article
    Millions of people will be invited for their autumn Covid booster jab in England and Scotland, with care home residents the first to receive them. Although infections are falling, health bosses are predicting a resurgence of Covid and flu this autumn and winter. They are urging those eligible to protect themselves from serious illness by getting vaccines against both. A recently approved vaccine against the Omicron variant will be used first. However, there is not enough of Moderna's "bivalent" vaccine to protect everyone aged over 50 so health officials say people should take whichever booster they are offered. These will be the vaccines used in the spring. The UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) announced on Saturday that it had approved a second "bivalent" coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech for people aged 12 and over. Read full story Source: BBC News, 4 September 2022
  16. News Article
    Covid vaccination advice in pregnancy has not changed, contrary to false social media posts, UK health agencies have clarified. Inaccurate messages shared by thousands claimed that pregnant or breastfeeding women were now recommended not to take the vaccine. In fact, the NHS says the vaccine is both safe and strongly recommended for this group. The misleading claim came from a now out-of-date document from 2020. The document went viral after a Twitter user - whose account has since been suspended - shared a post stating incorrectly that the UK government had, "quietly remove[d] approval for use of Covid vax in pregnant and breastfeeding women". She linked to a report from December 2020 which said, "reassurance of safe use of the vaccine in pregnant women cannot be provided at the present time", because of an absence of data and that, "women who are breastfeeding should also not be vaccinated". This was true at the time, but since then data has been gathered finding no link between the vaccine and problems in pregnancy or birth. In fact, the Covid vaccine seems to reduce the risk of still-birth and pre-term delivery. And unvaccinated pregnant women are more likely to need hospital treatment if they catch Covid, especially in the third trimester. This evidence led to the recommendation being changed - so the statement found in this report no longer stands. Read full story Source: BBC News, 1 September 2022
  17. News Article
    Britain faces a low uptake of the Covid booster jab this autumn amid “vaccine fatigue” and complacency about the virus, the new Pfizer boss has warned. The booster campaign starts next week, with care home residents and the housebound the first to be invited. Over-75s and the clinically vulnerable will be able to book appointments from September 12, with a wider rollout for over-50s taking place in phases. Roughly 26 million in England will be eligible. Susan Rienow, who was appointed UK managing director at Pfizer in February, said: “We have to remain vigilant. I recognise there may be some vaccine fatigue in the population. But making sure that people are boosting their immunity, so that we can prevent people from being hospitalised, is going to be really important.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times (28 August 2022)
  18. News Article
    The Biden administration plans to offer the next generation of coronavirus booster shots to Americans 12 and older soon after Labor Day, a campaign that federal officials hope will reduce deaths from Covid-19 and protect against an expected winter surge. Dr. Peter Marks, the top vaccine regulator for the Food and Drug Administration, said in an interview on Tuesday that while he could not discuss timing, his team was close to authorizing updated doses that would target the versions of the virus now circulating. Even though those formulations have not been tested in humans, he said, the agency has “extremely good” data showing that the shots are safe and will be effective. “How confident am I?” he said. “I’m extremely confident.” Read full story Source: The New York Times (23 August 2022)
  19. News Article
    At the beginning of this year, there was a thrum of excitement among global health experts: Eradication of polio, a centuries-old foe that has paralyzed legions of children around the globe, seemed tantalizingly close. But there were several ominous setbacks. Malawi in February announced its first case in 30 years, a 3-year-old girl who became paralyzed following infection with a virus that appeared to be from Pakistan. Pakistan itself went on to report 14 cases, eight of them in a single month this spring. In March, Israel reported its first case since 1988. Then, in June, British authorities declared an “incident of national concern” when they discovered the virus in sewage. By the time New York City detected the virus in wastewater last week, polio eradication seemed as elusive as ever. “It’s a poignant and stark reminder that polio-free countries are not really polio-risk free,” said Dr. Ananda Bandyopadhyay, deputy director for polio at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest supporter of polio eradication efforts. The virus is always “a plane ride away,” he added. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The New York Times (18 August 2022)
  20. News Article
    Vaccine coverage continued to decline worldwide in 2021, with 25 million children missing out on lifesaving vaccines, according to data published by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. "The largest sustained decline in childhood vaccinations in approximately 30 years has been recorded," the organisations have said. Between 2019 and 2021, there was a 5-point drop in the percentage of children who got three doses of DTP3, the vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis. This took the coverage down to 81%. DTP3 coverage is used as a marker for broader immunization coverage, WHO and UNICEF said. "As a result, 25 million children missed out on one or more doses of DTP through routine immunization services in 2021 alone. This is 2 million more than those who missed out in 2020 and 6 million more than in 2019, highlighting the growing number of children at risk from devastating but preventable diseases," they said. Eighteen million of these children didn't get a single dose of the vaccine, the majority of whom lived in low- and middle-income countries. Other decreases were seen in HPV, with which over a quarter of the coverage achieved in 2019 was lost, and measles, with which first-dose coverage dropped to 81% in 2021. WHO notes that this is the lowest level since 2008 and means 24.7 million children missed their first dose in 2021. Read full story Source: CNN, 14 July 2022
  21. News Article
    The UK has become the first country to approve a dual vaccine which tackles both the original Covid virus and the newer Omicron variant. Ministers say the vaccine will now form part of the autumn booster campaign. Moderna thinks 13 million doses of its new vaccine will be available this year, but 26 million people are eligible for some form of booster. Health officials say people should take whichever booster they are offered as all jabs provide protection. Moderna's latest vaccine - called Spikevax - targets both the original strain and the first Omicron variant (BA.1), which emerged last winter. It is known as a bivalent vaccine as it takes aim at two forms of Covid. The UK's Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has considered the evidence and given the vaccine approval for use in adults. Dr June Raine, the regulator's chief executive, said: "What this bivalent vaccine gives us is a sharpened tool in our armoury to help protect us against this disease as the virus continues to evolve." Read full story Source: BBC News, 16 August 2022
  22. News Article
    All children aged one to nine and living in Greater London will be offered a polio vaccine after the virus was detected in sewage. The virus, which can cause paralysis, has been found 116 times in London's wastewater since February. The urgent immunisation campaign will see nearly a million children offered the vaccine - including those already up to date with their jabs. Parents and carers will be contacted by their GP within the next month. Polio is seen as a disease of the past in the UK after the whole of Europe was declared polio-free in 2003. Dr Vanessa Saliba, a consultant epidemiologist at UKHSA, said: "All children aged one to nine years in London need to have a dose of polio vaccine now - whether it's an extra booster dose or just to catch up with their routine vaccinations." She said the risk for the majority of the population who are vaccinated remains "low" but said it was "vital" parents ensure their children are fully vaccinated. Read full story Source: BBC News, 10 August 2022
  23. News Article
    A health official in New York State has told the BBC there could be hundreds or even thousands of undiagnosed cases of polio there. It follows an announcement last month that an unvaccinated man had been paralysed by the virus in Rockland County, New York. His case has been linked genetically to traces of polio virus found in sewage in London and Jerusalem. Developed countries have been warned to boost vaccination rates. Dr Patricia Schnabel Ruppert, health commissioner for Rockland County, said she was worried about polio circulating in her state undetected. "There isn't just one case of polio if you see a paralytic case. The incidence of paralytic polio is less than 1%," she said. "Most cases are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, and those symptoms are often missed. So there are hundreds, perhaps even thousands of cases that have occurred in order for us to see a paralytic case." "This is a very serious issue for our global world - it's not just about New York. We all need to make sure all our populations are properly vaccinated," she said. Read full story Source: BBC News, 9 August 2022
  24. News Article
    Sexual health charities and LGBT groups are calling for the government to step up efforts to control the monkeypox outbreak in the UK. In an open letter to Health Secretary Steven Barclay, they say that without a quicker and wider vaccine rollout, the virus could become "endemic". There have been more than 2,600 cases of monkeypox in the UK so far, mostly among men who have sex with men. The Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC) says it is working "rapidly" to vaccinate those at risk. The Terrence Higgins Trust, which co-wrote the letter, says the rollout needs to be speeded up across the UK to help combat "fear and anxiety" within the LGBT community. Trust head of policy Ceri Smith told BBC News: "We need to see far better co-ordination, increased vaccine procurement, improved delivery and a cash injection to sexual health services to treat monkeypox." The letter reads: "Without urgent action, we risk monkeypox becoming endemic in the UK. This poses a serious risk to health and will exacerbate the health inequalities already experienced by gay and bisexual men and other men who have sex with men. "Vaccinating those most at risk of monkeypox must be a priority if we are to stand a chance of preventing the virus from becoming endemic in the UK." Read full story Source: BBC News, 5 August 2022
  25. News Article
    More than 100,000 doses of the monkeypox vaccine have been acquired in order to combat the spread of the virus, the government has said. Last month the NHS stepped up its monkeypox vaccination programme in England as infections rose. Vaccines minister Maggie Throup said the majority of vaccines were being made available in London, with about 75% of confirmed cases in the capital. But she urged people to wait to be invited to receive their jabs. While anyone can get monkeypox, the majority of those with the virus are gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men. The latest figures show that nationally there have been 2,436 confirmed cases, with 1,778 of those in London. Read full story Source: BBC News, 3 August 2022
×
×
  • Create New...