💉 Mpox hogs the headlines; Tonix to repurpose horsepox vaccine for mpox; A new intranasal vaccine for Covid
💉 Mpox hogs the headlines; Tonix to repurpose horsepox vaccine for mpox; A new intranasal vaccine for Covid
#532 | Fish may be going extinct; Frozen viruses may be coming back to life; Oropouche begins to move
Hello, and welcome back to The Kable for the last time in August 2024. We will only see you again next month now but we're pretty certain the intervening period won't see any damping down of the mpox spread.
However, some good news first. CEPI is teaming up with Afrigen Biologics - the host of the WHO's Africa mRNA tech transfer hub - to fund a project that looks into how synthetic DNA could speed up the creation of mRNA vaccines.
Elsewhere, in a boost to what seems like a never-ending fight against cholera, India's Bharat Biotech is introducing an oral cholera vaccine called Hillchol to help tackle the shortage of cholera vaccines.
In more Africa news, leaders from the African Union met with delegates from Japan and Gavi in a bid to boost health security and coverage across the continent.
At the WHO Regional Committee for Africa, 14 African countries pledged over $45 million for the WHO's first-ever Investment Round, launched in May this year. This Investment Round by the WHO is an attempt to diversify funding sources and it certainly seems to be off to a great start.
At the same Committee, the WHO African Region's next director was also unveiled. Dr Faustine Engelbert Ndugulile, a long-term standing politician from Tanzania, who has also served as minister for several portfolios is the new person in the hot seat.
In continuing Africa revelations, a new study published in Nature Medicine says rolling out a safe and effective Lassa vaccine in 15 West African countries could save thousands of lives over the next decade and also save up to $128 million in societal costs.
Speaking of studies, a study commissioned by PAHO highlights significant barriers to accessing essential hypertension medications in Latin America and the Caribbean, including outdated medicine lists and fragmented procurement practices. With cardiovascular diseases being the leading cause of death in the region, affecting over 35% of adults, the lack of standardised antihypertensive treatment contributes to high rates of stroke and heart disease, as many individuals remain undiagnosed, untreated, or inadequately managed.
In ostensibly good news, Israel has seemingly agreed to three-day pauses to the violence it has unleashed in Gaza to allow the WHO to conduct polio vaccination campaigns.
In the US, bird flu in cows may have spread to the largest milk-producing state in the country, California. The US CDC, in a new statement, says three herds may be likely affected.
The little-known Oropouche virus that, till last month, had never resulted in a fatality is now in the US with 21 cases reported among travellers from Cuba.
Speaking of the US, Indian drugmakers continue to withdraw products over manufacturing snafus while other Indian drugmakers continue to face censure from the US FDA.
Meanwhile, over in India, bird flu is resulting in avian culling in the eastern state of Odisha while the southern state of Kerala might be staring at a fresh Nipah outbreak.
And finally, scientists have found more than 1,700 previously unknown viruses frozen in a glacier in Tibet. In our opinion, it might be better to leave those viruses there but what do we know?
Stories Of The Week
Mpox resurgent. This new mpox state of emergency doesn't look like it will relent any time soon. Uganda has confirmed two new cases, Gabon has reported its first case, and Kenya has tightened border security after finding a second case. Meanwhile, in the epicentre of the current outbreak, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the situation is so dire that hospitals aren't able to cope, leading to 14 mpox patients leaving the hospital untreated.
But surely, vaccines are making their way to Africa, right? Well, the continent finally, finally got its first-ever mpox vaccines when Nigeria received a shipment of 10,000 doses donated by the US. That's about it though. The Africa CDC, Africa's nodal health agency, says it has not even received 10% of the funds it has sought to manage a response. The DRC, which was expecting to receive vaccines last week, says it no longer knows when the vaccines will come. Japan, from whom DRC sought 2 million doses, is supposed to be donating the only approved vaccine for children but the actual doses haven't arrived yet. Spain has said it will donate 500,000 doses and Germany has promised 100,000 doses more.
The WHO, on Monday, launched a six-month plan to curb mpox outbreaks, focusing on increasing staffing in affected countries and enhancing surveillance, prevention, and response efforts. The agency stated that the plan, running from September through February next year, will require $135 million in funding and aims to ensure fair access to vaccines, particularly in the African countries most impacted by the outbreak. Later in the week, the WHO also urged manufacturers to submit their mpox diagnostic tests for emergency review to expedite access to these critical tools. The agency has been in talks with manufacturers about the urgent need for effective diagnostics, especially in low-income areas. By calling for submissions for Emergency Use Listing, the WHO aims to quickly approve essential medical products, including tests, vaccines, and treatments, to help countries procure them through UN agencies and other partners.
In drug manufacturing and approval news, Tonix Pharma announced that it is collaborating with Bilthoven Biologicals on an mpox vaccine. The single-dose vaccine, known as TNX-801, is a “live replicating, attenuated virus vaccine” in preclinical development for mpox and smallpox. In the US, the US FDA has approved the expanded use of Emergent BioSolutions' ACAM2000 smallpox vaccine to include individuals at high risk for mpox infection. This approval comes after Emergent submitted an application for Emergency Use Listing of the ACAM2000 vaccine with the WHO.
And finally, a nice little breakdown from Science on what version of mpox is spreading where.
(Reuters, Reuters, Media Wire Express, ACP, WHO, HPW, Reuters, Reuters, WHO, WHO, Tonix, Emergent, Science)
Breakthroughs
No more pricks. Researchers have developed a next-generation COVID-19 mucosal vaccine that could revolutionise vaccine delivery, especially for those who are needle-phobic. The intranasal vaccine, designed to provide long-term protection with just a single dose, offers strong immunity by targeting all major SARS-CoV-2 proteins, making it effective against all known variants. This vaccine, which remains stable at 4°C for seven months, is particularly suitable for low- and middle-income countries and has been licensed to India's Indian Immunologicals for further development and clinical trials.
(Nature Communications)
Bottom line
No more clam chowder. It turns out that our fishy friends are in a lot more trouble than we thought. A new study reveals that many fish populations are in worse shape than previously reported, thanks to overly optimistic models that had us thinking everything was swimming along just fine. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t. By diving into data from 230 fisheries, researchers discovered that overfished stocks were much more depleted than we’d hoped. It’s a wake-up call for more accurate assessments and a bit more caution in how we manage our oceans - because let’s face it, we all want our future fish dinners to be more than just a distant memory.
(The Conversation)
Oh, and Gopal Nair doesn't want you to see this.