View allAll Photos Tagged immunization
Baby Abdirahman Abshir (over 2 months old), is being held by mother Muhubo Hassas (black scarf with yellow diamonds), is getting a measles vaccine.
Mariam Mahamud, Head of the Badbaado Health center, Gambool, Garowe town (dark brown scarf and not in this photo). She opened the center in 2010. Today at the Badbaado Health Center there is vaccination campaign for Penta 3 (for prevention of 5 diseases in children) and OBV (polio vaccine). With donations from KFW, UNICEF is supporting the OTP screening and treatment of malnutrition with RUTF, vaccinations (funded by GAVI) and supplies for the center. ©UNICEF Somalia/2022/Lisa Hill
The 13th Vaccination Week in the Americas (VWA) will be celebrated from April 25th to May 2nd, 2015. The regional slogan for VWA 2015 is “Boost your power! Get vaccinated!” Vaccines are weakened or killed pathogens that help your immune system fight diseases. Vaccines do not make you sick, but prepare your body to fight off disease when exposed to full strength pathogens in the future. Vaccines boost the power of your immune system and fight off more than 20 different vaccine-preventable diseases. To read more on how vaccines boost your power, check out: www.paho.org/vwa/
Immunization Team.
James Case (me), Darrell Dozier, Brenda Griffith, Scott Carroll, Lanae Jackson and a soldier (in front) whose name I, unfortunately, do not remember.
186th Medical Squadron, Mississippi Air National Guard, except for the soldier who was U.S. Army medical.
Honduras
August 1996
Nadifo Ahmed is a vaccinator (blue scarf). Nurse Khadra Chi Jaamac (black hijab) is recording information for the immunized children. To the right of Nadifo is Mahamed Abdi, the pharmacist involved in the mobile clinic. Some children need asprin after the vaccine and others come in sick and need a prescription.
Nurses are working at the Jawle Health Center mobile vaccine clinic in Garowe, is set up in the Jawle IDP camp Mother and Baby center. The clinic moves to different places around the IDP camps 3 days a week so that they can reach many people. UNICEF works through EPI donors like GAVI to supports partner organizations like World Vision, Save the Children, CRC and the Puntland Ministry of Health. Many pastoralists are coming to the IDP camp here because the drought is killing off their livestock. There has been outbreaks of diseases and so this year there will be 2 rounds of an integrated vaccination campaigns (one was in March the next is in November) to immunize for measles and polio along with vitamin A supplementation and deworming.
In July there was a measles outbreak and more children for suffering but there was an outreach campaign in response to the outbreak and the situation soon stabilized. After the outreach about immunization around 530 children under 5 years old were brought into the clinic for their dose.
The Jawle Health Center in Garowe are seeing an increase in the number of malnourished children as the drought continues. In July there was a measles outbreak and more children for suffering but there was an outreach campaign in response to the outbreak and the situation soon stabilized. After the outreach about immunization around 530 children under 5 years old were brought into the clinic for their dose.
©UNICEF Somalia/2022/Lisa Hill
Akinwumi Adesina, President of African Development Bank having portrait and discussing with Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Board Chair of Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) on December 8, 2016.
Halima takes her baby back home after the measles vaccine. Halima Abdi (blue/purple scarf) brought in her baby, Munira Mohamed (7 months old, she is holding her) for a measles vaccine. Also with her is her 1-year-old girl (wearing brown printed dress) who is already up to date on vaccines. She heard about the event through the outreach health workers mobilizers. She has 4 children and cares for them mostly alone while her husband moves around the town selling clothes to support the family. Halima used to clean homes in town for an income, but since the drought many people have stopped having a cleaner come as they are also suffering with less income. They lived in Baidoa but once the drought increased, they moved to Garowe where there are less people.
Nurses are working at the Jawle Health Center mobile vaccine clinic in Garowe, is set up in the Jawle IDP camp Mother and Baby center. The clinic moves to different places around the IDP camps 3 days a week so that they can reach many people. UNICEF works through EPI donors like GAVI to supports partner organizations like World Vision, Save the Children, CRC and the Puntland Ministry of Health. Many pastoralists are coming to the IDP camp here because the drought is killing off their livestock. There has been outbreaks of diseases and so this year there will be 2 rounds of an integrated vaccination campaigns (one was in March the next is in November) to immunize for measles and polio along with vitamin A supplementation and deworming.
In July there was a measles outbreak and more children for suffering but there was an outreach campaign in response to the outbreak and the situation soon stabilized. After the outreach about immunization around 530 children under 5 years old were brought into the clinic for their dose.
The Jawle Health Center in Garowe are seeing an increase in the number of malnourished children as the drought continues. In July there was a measles outbreak and more children for suffering but there was an outreach campaign in response to the outbreak and the situation soon stabilized. After the outreach about immunization around 530 children under 5 years old were brought into the clinic for their dose. ©UNICEF Somalia/2022/Lisa Hill
A Maasai woman from northern Tanzania with her calf tagged to show that it has just been immunized against East Coast fever (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann).
A community health worker injects a dose of COVID-19 vaccine into a client.
Photo credit: Anne Boher/MOMENTUM Routine Immunization Transformation and Equity
Child health, EPI, Expanded Program on Immunization, Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation, Mohammad Khairul Alam
Coverage rate of other routine vaccinations are also high, helping reduce under-five mortality rates in the country by 70 per cent since 1990, Four-year-old M. Duurenbayar is examined in the district of Ulaan-Uul © UNICEF/NYHQ2012-1732/BRIAN SOKOL
Akinwumi Adesina, President of African Development Bank discussing with Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Board Chair of Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) and Dr. Seth Barkley, CEO of Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance and delegates on December 8, 2016.
www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/annual-covid-shots-mean-...
Annual COVID Shots Mean We Can Stop Counting
A couple of weeks ago, a friend asked me how many COVID shots I’d gotten so far. And for a brief, wonderful moment, I forgot.
“Three,” I told them, before shaking my head. “No, actually, four.” I had no trouble recalling when I’d received my most recent shot (September). But it took me a moment to tabulate all the doses that had preceded it.
By this point in the pandemic, a lot of people must be losing track. “I actually think this is a good thing,” says Grace Lee, a pediatrician at Stanford, and the chair of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Now that so many Americans have racked up several shots or infections, she told me, the question is no longer “‘How many doses have you gotten cumulatively?’ It’s ‘Are you up to date for the season?’”
The flip is subtle, but it marks a rethink of the COVID-vaccination paradigm. We’re at a define-the-relationship moment with these shots, when people are trying to commit—to normalize them as a routine part of our lives. At a September ACIP meeting, CDC officials noted that “we are changing the way we are thinking about these vaccines,” and trying to “get on a more regular schedule.” If COVID shots are here for good, then at least we can be rid of the bother of counting them.
Counting doses was more apt early in the vaccine rollout, when it seemed that two jabs (or even one) would be enough to get Americans “fully vaccinated” and out of the danger zone. When more shots followed, they were often advertised with confusing finality: What some initially described as the booster was later retconned as the first booster after a second one was recommended for certain groups. But with immunity against infection more fragile than some hoped, and a virus that quickly shapeshifts out of antibodies’ grasp, those ordinal adjectives have stopped making sense. Until our vaccine tech becomes much more durable or variant-proof, repeat doses will be, for most of us, a fixture of the future—and it won’t do anyone much good to say, “‘I’m on shot 15’ or ‘I’m on shot 16,’” Angela Shen, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told me.
The numbers certainly matter when they’re small: It will continue to be important for people to count off their first few shots, for instance, especially those without a history of infections. But after that initial set of viral-spike-protein exposures, the total count is moot. In most cases, about three vaccinations or infections—preferably vaccinations, which are both safer and easier to accurately track—should be “enough to fully charge up the immune system’s battery” for the first time, says Rishi Goel, an immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania. Further COVID shots will help only insofar as they can recharge the battery toward max capacity when it starts to lose its juice. Scheduling a vaccine, then, becomes a matter of “how long it’s been since your last immunity-conferring event,” regardless of how many exposures a body has racked up, says Avnika Amin, a vaccine epidemiologist at Emory University.
People who are immunocompromised may need four or more shots to establish that initial immunity charge, and their own (maybe smaller) peak capacity. But ultimately, the threshold effect they experience—a point of “diminishing returns”—is similar, says Marion Pepper, an immunologist at the University of Washington. Given how many vaccinations and infections the U.S. has now logged, the majority of Americans “can be done with counting,” she told me.
If we’re going to shift our focus to timing shots, instead of counting them, we’ll have to schedule our shots smartly. Several prominent figures have already come out and said that yearly doses are a top choice. Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s CEO, has been pushing that idea since early 2021; Peter Marks, who heads the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, has been delivering a similar line for several months. Even President Joe Biden has endorsed the annual approach, noting in a September statement that the debut of the bivalent shot heralded a new phase in COVID vaccination, in which Americans would receive a dose “once a year, each fall.”
That plan is not unreasonable. Shots will have to come with at least some regularity, as variants keep rolling in and immunity against infection ebbs. But re-dose prematurely with a shot with similar ingredients, and the body—still hopped up from the previous dose—may destroy the vaccine before it has much effect, making it about as useful as charging a battery that’s already at 95 percent. SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels drop off steeply in the first six months following a vaccine dose, and then, the rate of drain slows down. It’s as if the immune system goes into “power-saver mode,” Goel told me, which means there might not be a huge difference between revaccinating twice a year or only once. Plus, living out much of the year with lower antibody levels is not as worrisome as it might sound. Although antibodies can be a rather useful proxy for our level of protection, especially against infection, they don’t paint the whole defensive picture: T cells and other fighters tend to stick around for far longer, maintaining safeguards against severe disease. (The immunocompromised and older people may still need more frequent COVID-immunity top-offs.)
The optimal pace for COVID vaccination will also depend on the speed at which the virus spews out variants. A yearly schedule works for influenza, Shen told me, but “we know flu’s cadence.” SARS-CoV-2 hasn’t yet settled down into a predictable, seasonal pattern; its waves aren’t relegated to the chilliest months. The degree to which we, as the coronavirus’s hosts, tamp down transmission also matters quite a bit. Having more virus around puts more pressure on vaccines to perform, especially when there aren’t many other mitigation measures in place. If all this talk of “once a year, each fall” turns out to be another red-herring recommendation, Amin told me, it could undermine any messaging that follows.
All of that said, the autumn regimen may yet stick around because it’s the easiest approach. Flu-shot uptake is far from perfect, but the messaging around it is “simple and clean,” says Rupali Limaye, a behavioral scientist and vaccine-attitudes researcher at Johns Hopkins. After dosing up twice in four weeks as infants, people are asked to get a yearly shot, and that’s it. Compare that with the most convoluted days of COVID vaccination, when people couldn’t dose up without accounting for their age, health status, number of previous doses, vaccine brand, time since last dose, and more. “That’s absolute overload,” Limaye told me. Complicated schedules burn people out—or dissuade them from showing up at all. This fall, when the bivalent shot debuted, a troubling proportion of Americans didn’t even know they were eligible.
Encouraging COVID vaccines at the same, straightforward pace as flu shots would make it easy for people to sign up for both at once, and maybe, eventually, to get them in the same syringe. Vaccines tend to ride one another’s coattails, Shen told me. “In the fall, there’s a bump in other routine vaccines,” she said, because people “are already there for their flu shot.” It would also make a big difference if the COVID-vaccine recipes changed for everyone at the same time, as they do for flu.
If we’re going to pivot from numbering doses to timing them, we might as well take the opportunity to discard the term booster as well. Some people don’t understand what it means, Limaye told me, or they default to a logical question—How many more boosters will I need? Plus, booster may no longer fit the science. “When we start updating formulas, it’s not really a booster anymore,” Amin told me. That’s not how we generally talk about flu shots: I certainly couldn’t tell you how many “boosters” of that vaccine I’ve had. (I don’t know, maybe 14? 15?) Pivoting to a terminology of “seasonal shots” could make COVID vaccination that much more routine.
So, fine, if anyone should ask: I’ve had (count ’em: one, two, three) four doses of the vaccine so far. But more important, I’ve gotten the shot most recently available to me.
UNITED NATIONS
Some 67 million children partially or fully missed routine vaccines globally between 2019 and 2021 because of lockdowns and health care disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations said Wednesday.
"More than a decade of hard-earned gains in routine childhood immunization have been eroded," read a new report from the U.N.'s children's agency, UNICEF, adding that getting back on track "will be challenging."
Of the 67 million children whose vaccinations were "severely disrupted," 48 million missed out on routine vaccines entirely, UNICEF said, flagging concerns about potential polio and measles outbreaks.
Vaccine coverage among children declined in 112 countries and the percent of children vaccinated worldwide slipped 5 points to 81 percent -- a low not seen since 2008. Africa and South Asia were particularly hard hit.
"Worryingly, the backsliding during the pandemic came at the end of a decade when, in broad terms, growth in childhood immunization had stagnated," the report said.
Vaccines save 4.4 million lives each year, a number the United Nations figures could jump to 5.8 million by 2030 if its ambitious targets to leave "no one behind" are met.
"Vaccines have played a really important role in allowing more children to live healthy, long lives," Brian Keeley, the report's editor in chief, told AFP. "Any decline at all in vaccination rates is worrying."
Before the introduction of a vaccine in 1963, measles killed approximately 2.6 million people each year, mostly children. By 2021, that number had fallen to 128,000.
But between 2019 and 2021, the percentage of children vaccinated against measles fell from 86 percent to 81 percent, and the number of cases in 2022 doubled compared to 2021.
The slide in vaccination rates could be compounded by other crises, Keeley warned, from climate change to food insecurity.
"You've got increasing number of conflicts, economic stagnation in a lot of countries, climate emergencies, and so on," he said. "This all sort of makes it harder and harder for health systems and countries to meet vaccination needs."
UNICEF called on governments "to double-down on their commitment to increase financing for immunization" with special attention on accelerating "catch-up" vaccination efforts for those who missed their shots.
The report also raised concerns about a drop in people's confidence in vaccines, seen in 52 out of 55 countries surveyed.
"We cannot allow confidence in routine immunizations to become another victim of the pandemic," Catherine Russell, UNICEF's executive director, said in a statement. "Otherwise, the next wave of deaths could be of more children with measles, diphtheria or other preventable diseases."
Vaccine confidence can be "volatile and time specific," the report said, noting that "further analysis will be required to determine if the findings are indicative of a longer-term trend" beyond the pandemic.
Overall, it said that support for vaccines "remains relatively strong."
In about half of the 55 countries surveyed, more than 80 percent of respondents "perceived vaccines as important for children."
"There is reason to be somewhat hopeful that services are recovering in quite a few countries," said Keeley, who added that preliminary vaccination data from 2022 showed encouraging signs.
But even getting numbers back up to pre-pandemic levels will take years, he said, not including reaching "the children who were missing before the pandemic. And they are not an insubstantial number."
The Kirk U.S. Army Health Clinic hosted a mass immunization clinic at the APG North (Aberdeen) Recreation Center, Jan. 14. The clinic was open to eligible APG personnel, to include servicemembers, civilian and contractor employees, spouses and families. During the clinic, the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinations and booster shots were available for participants. The clinic also offered the Influenza vaccine. For more information about the vaccine, visit www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/index.html.
(Photos by Troy Saunders, APG News)
A nurse injects a new born during an immunization process at Government District Hospital in Ambikapur, Sarguja, Chhattisgarh, August 01, 2014.
(Photograph/UNICEF/Syed Altaf Ahmad)
Mass Polio Vaccination Campaign Supported by WHO and UNICEF Kicks Off in Iraq
11 August 2014 – Iraq has launched a polio immunization campaign aiming to protect over four million children under the age of 5 throughout the country against the crippling disease.
The four-day campaign, undertaken by the Ministry of Health with the support of WHO and UNICEF, is part of the national response to the re-emergence of the polio virus earlier this year which ended nearly 14 years of Iraq's polio-free status.
“This campaign comes at a critical time while the country is witnessing a huge internal exodus of children fleeing violence and turmoil,” said Marzio Babille, UNICEF Iraq Representative. “This is a top priority for UNICEF. No child should be missed. No child should be paralysed.”
The campaign aims to reach children in conflict zones, displaced communities and host populations. The on-going violence in the country has precipitated the internal displacement of nearly 1.2 million people since the beginning of the year. Almost 200,000 have been displaced only in the last three days alone. UNICEF estimates half of that number are children.
“As the violence spreads, children are being displaced up to three times with their families, often living in overcrowded conditions where they are at a much higher risk of contracting infectious diseases,” said Dr Syed Jaffar Hussain, WHO Iraq Representative. “WHO is working with the national health authorities and partners to ensure that the health of all vulnerable populations, especially children, is protected against diseases like Polio.”
With two cases of polio in Iraq and a relatively high number of unvaccinated children due to difficulties in accessing families and children, especially in conflict zones and due to social reservations, Iraq has now become vulnerable to a wider outbreak of the crippling and incurable disease. WHO and UNICEF are helping health authorities reach children in 12 governorates, including the three governorates in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq where approximately 250,000 Iraqi children and 125,000 Syrian children have taken refuge.
“Iraq is one of seven countries included in a consolidated polio response plan by WHO and UNICEF that aims to reach 25 million children in the region with repeated doses of the vaccine. Everything possible must be done to reach all children and end polio forever,” said Chris Maher, WHO manager for polio eradication.
For more Information, please contact:
Juliette Touma, on mission to UNICEF Iraq, jtouma@unicef.org, +964-780-9-288-265 or +962-79-867-4628
Karim El-Korany, UNICEF Iraq, kelkorany@unicef.org, +964-780-92-585-42
Bahaaeldin Elkoussy, WHO polio programme, elkoussyb@who.int, +201006019316
Ajyal Al-Sultany, WHO Iraq, sultanya@who.int, +964 7809 269 506
A camp in Danapur in Bihar for immunization, organized by ministery of Health under the umbrella of Mission Indradhanush. Mission Indradhanush was launched by Union Health Minister J.P Nadda on December 25, 2014. It aims to immunize all children against seven vaccine preventable diseases namely diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, tuberculosis, measles and hepatitis B by 2020. The Ministry will be technically supported by WHO, UNICEF, Rotary International and other donor partners. Mass media, interpersonal communication, and sturdy mechanisms of monitoring and evaluating the scheme are crucial components of Mission Indradhanush..UNICEF has taken the initiatives to take on the campaign and make sure to immunize every child who had been left out earlier. The mission foresee to immunize children from 65% to 90% under this mission.
Photo: UNICEF/India/Shome Basu.
Year 2005 Star of Hope ambulance started its services in Santos, Brazil.
The main objective is to offer basic health care among children at nursery schools in the slum areas in Santos. All the children in the program receives immunization and will meet health care proffessionals on regular basis.
Star of Hope would like to increase the services to other cities. If you would like to sponsor our health care program in Brazil please contact www.starofhope.org
(C) Dennis Thern
Jilab Health Center is supported by UNICEF and the Ministry of Health through donations by the Government of Sweden. Maimuna Hussein (wearing burgundy headscarf and dark glasses), Head of Health Center and Nurse Services. They do immunization and nutrition social mobilization, mother and child maternal health 24-hour services, antenatal care, postnatal care. UNICEF supports nutrition, vaccination and general support. Catchment area is I 27,271 people. Some people come from 6 kms away. She says that 99 per cent of mothers get their children vaccinated once they have the consultations. Some community members challenge getting children vaccinated but when there is an outbreak, they realize that the vaccines are necessary. It’s usually fathers that resist because they are away at work when the mobilizers come or when the mom goes to the clinic and gets educated about vaccinations. She said that spreading the information about vaccines should be increased through radio and SMS.
The Jilab Health Center vaccinates around 200 children below 5 years old. They also scan and treat children for SAM. In June they screened 709 children and admitted 21. Due to the drought there was a campaign to teach families about using the MUAC to screen there children at home and this is helping to catch malnutrition early.
The Main Hospital in this area is 8-10 kms away so when Maimuna refers a mom out, she worries that they might not make it there. She wishes they had an ambulance to be able to transport those who need it. ©UNICEF Somalia/2022/Lisa Hill
A UNICEF team discussing with the Medical Director of Lalibela Hospital Dr Melkamu Guade. UNICEF supported with a generator as part of its support to restore health services in
conflict-affected areas of the Amhara region. ©UNICEF Ethiopia/2022/Mulugeta Ayene
Maryam Abdi (2 years old) and Hawa Abdi (3 years old) (red dresses) just received their vaccines for measles, polio and penta 3. Mother Fatum Mahmed heard about the importance of immunizing her children when the mobilizers came to her door.
Nurses are working at the Jawle Health Center mobile vaccine clinic in Garowe, is set up in the Jawle IDP camp Mother and Baby center. The clinic moves to different places around the IDP camps 3 days a week so that they can reach many people. UNICEF works through EPI donors like GAVI to supports partner organizations like World Vision, Save the Children, CRC and the Puntland Ministry of Health. Many pastoralists are coming to the IDP camp here because the drought is killing off their livestock. There has been outbreaks of diseases and so this year there will be 2 rounds of an integrated vaccination campaigns (one was in March the next is in November) to immunize for measles and polio along with vitamin A supplementation and deworming.
In July there was a measles outbreak and more children for suffering but there was an outreach campaign in response to the outbreak and the situation soon stabilized. After the outreach about immunization around 530 children under 5 years old were brought into the clinic for their dose.
The Jawle Health Center in Garowe are seeing an increase in the number of malnourished children as the drought continues. In July there was a measles outbreak and more children for suffering but there was an outreach campaign in response to the outbreak and the situation soon stabilized. After the outreach about immunization around 530 children under 5 years old were brought into the clinic for their dose.
©UNICEF Somalia/2022/Lisa Hill
The ubiquitous vaccine carrier - used in measles, polio and other vaccination campaigns around the world.
Mumino Ahmed (custard color scarf) brought in baby Abrahim Mohammed, 4 months old, for vaccinations. She lives an hour away in Washington IDP camp. She remains with 10 children after loosing 3 to various reasons.
Mariam Mahamud, Head of the Badbaado Health center, Gambool, Garowe town (dark brown scarf and white jacket - not in this picture). She opened the center in 2010. Today at the Badbaado Health Center there is vaccination campaign for Penta 3 (for prevention of 5 diseases in children) and OBV (polio vaccine). With donations from KFW, UNICEF is supporting the OTP screening and treatment of malnutrition with RUTF, vaccinations (funded by GAVI) and supplies for the center.
They vaccinate around 7-10 babies a day, 6 days a week. ©UNICEF Somalia/2022/Lisa Hill
Jonas Salk with Basil O'Connor and John Enders
(Original Caption) 8/26/1954-New York, NY- Dr. Jonas Salk (L), discoverer of the Salk vaccine for polio; Basil O'Connor (C), president of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis; and Dr. John Enders, Harvard University professor and chief of Boston Children's Hospital's research division, are pictured aboard the S.S. Independence before sailing to Rome and the 3rd International Poliomyelitis Congress. Mr. O'Connor will preside over the Congress, and Doctors Salk and Enders will discuss their work
Bettmann
Media ID 39160739
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FDA Lays Out Annual Covid Shot Plan Similar to Flu
(Bloomberg) -- Americans are about to get a clearer idea of how often they’ll roll up their sleeves for Covid-19 shots when advisers to US regulators meet Thursday to discuss an immunization schedule that looks more like the one used for flu.
The plan would have health officials meet each June to review which strains of the virus should be included in Covid shots to be deployed no later than September of the same year, according to documents released by the US Food and Drug Administration ahead of the Jan. 26 meeting.
Experts from around the world convene annually to make predictions about which flu strains will dominate during the upcoming season and, thus, should be targeted by shots. The FDA is looking for a similar coordinated effort to take place at least as often for Covid shots, one of several changes the agency hopes might help simplify the immunization process and encourage more Americans to stay up to date.
Waning immunity from vaccinations and the emergence of new variants every few months has led regulators to recommend variant-targeted boosters, a tactic that so far has been unpopular among Americans and has even split some health experts on costs and benefits. Just weeks after rolling out the updated BA.4 and BA.5 boosters in September, new mutations were rampant. Now, even as the US sees the rise of an immune-evasive variant called XBB.1.5, booster uptake is hovering at about 15%.
“Although the use of the bivalent mRNA boosters is supported by the available evidence, their deployment has been associated with significant implementation complexities,” the FDA said. Switching to one composition for both primary shots and boosters will help streamline the process, according to the agency documents.
Evidence suggests that immunity from prior exposure to the virus along with vaccination will provide enough protection so that most people will need one annual Covid booster, according to the documents. However, young children who might not have been previously exposed and people who are at higher risk for severe disease may need two yearly shots, the FDA said.
“An annual vaccine would be ideal because people would remember, they can do it with other vaccinations like flu and it can last,” Albert Bourla, chief executive officer of Covid vaccine-maker Pfizer Inc., said Jan. 18 in an interview with Bloomberg.
The FDA is still concerned about evasion of vaccine-induced immunity by mutants of the fast-spreading omicron strain, according to the documents. That warrants continued surveillance of variants and also monitoring of the protection previous vaccines provide against new strains.
Pfizer and Moderna Inc. are both working on next-generation vaccines that hold up against mutations and provide longer-lasting protection, but it’s unlikely those will be ready to go into arms anytime soon.
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SARS-CoV-2 Omicron XBB.1.5, CA.3.1, and CH.1.1 exhibit remarkable antibody resistance
In a recent study posted to bioRxiv* preprint server, researchers at Ohio State University examined the degree of neutralizing antibody (nAb) evasion by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron XBB.1.5, CA.3.1, and CH.1.1 subvariants.
Several subvariants have emerged from SARS-CoV-2 Omicron, some showing relatively higher immune evasion, threatening vaccination efficacy. The BQ.1.1 sub-variant was the most prevalent following months of BA.5 predominance in the United States. Nonetheless, it is being quickly replaced by XBB.1.5. The XBB lineage was first detected in India as a recombinant of BA.2.75 and BA.2.10.1.1. Its emergence was alarming since it contained numerous mutations with established immune escape characteristics.
The effectiveness of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), mono- or bivalent vaccines, and infection-induced immunity were reduced against XBB. The XBB lineage acquired two additional substitutions in the spike, resulting in XBB.1 and XBB.1.5 subvariants, and their impact remains unknown. In addition, the CA.3.1 and CH.1.1 subvariants of Omicron have been notable lately, as they carry the L452R substitution in the spike, previously discovered in the Delta and Omicron BA.4/5 variants.
The study and findings
In the present study, researchers evaluated the spike protein biology of emergent SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariants XBB.1.5, CA.3.1, and CH.1.1. First, they assessed the infectivity of spike-pseudotyped lentiviruses in HEK293T-ACE2 cells expressing human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and Calu-3 cell line. XBB.1 and XBB.1.5 had higher infectivity, with nearly two-fold increased titers than SARS-CoV-2 D614G in HEK293T-ACE2 cells.
XBB subvariants’ infectivity was not significantly different from that of D614G in this cell line. By contrast, CA.3.1 and CH.1.1 subvariants had nearly 2.5-fold lower infectivity than D614G in Calu-3. Next, the team tested neutralization of these emergent subvariants by sera from 14 healthcare workers (HCWs) boosted with a bivalent vaccine after two-to-four doses of monovalent mRNA vaccine.
Sera were obtained after a median of 66 days post-bivalent vaccination. CA.3.1, CH.1.1, and XBB.1.5 subvariants showed strong resistance to neutralization by sera relative to BA.4/5, with 4.6 to 17.7 times lower nAb titers than BA.4/5. Interestingly, XBB.1.5 had slightly higher nAb titers than its parent lineage (XBB).
Of note, BQ.1.1 showed higher neutralization resistance than any of the XBB subvariants, with 12.8 lower nAb titers than BA.4/5. The CA.3.1 and CH.1.1 subvariants displayed much higher resistance to neutralization by bivalent sera. Next, the neutralization experiments were repeated using sera from HCWs vaccinated thrice with monovalent mRNA vaccines.
Samples were obtained after 2-13 weeks post-vaccination. The mean nAb titers of triple-vaccinated sera against SARS-CoV-2 D614 and Omicron (BA.2 and BA.4/5) were up to 5.6-fold lower than those of bivalent sera. nAb titers were markedly reduced for CA.3.1, CH.1.1, and XBB.1.5 subvariants. Overall, the trends of triple-vaccinated sera in neutralizing subvariants were comparable to those of bivalent sera.
In addition, the team examined the neutralization resistance of subvariants to sera from individuals infected with BA.4/5. They observed potent and near-complete neutralization resistance for CA.3.1, CH.1.1, and XBB.1.1 subvariants, with 2.6 to 4.1-fold lower nAb titers than BA.4/5. Furthermore, the researchers determined fusogenicity, surface expression, and processing of spike proteins of the subvariants.
Reduced syncytia formation was evident for all subvariants relative to D614G. XBB.1 and XBB.1.5 showed no differences in spike fusogenicity compared to XBB. The efficiency of syncytia formation of CA.3.1 and CH.1.1 was lower than BA.2.75.2. XBB subvariants, BQ.1.1, and BA.2.75.2 exhibited higher spike processing than D614G. There were no differences in spike processing for CA.3.1 and CH.1.1 subvariants relative to the parental BA.2.75.2.
Finally, homology modeling of XBB lineage spikes complexed with ACE2 or nAbs was performed. The P486 residue in XBB.1.5 was more hydrophobic than the S486 residue in XBB/XBB.1, resulting in favorable interactions with residues in ACE2, which allows better receptor utilization. The residue 486 is a hotspot for class I nAb recognition, and mutations at this site in XBB subvariants completely abolish interactions with the therapeutic mAb, AZD8895. Mutations at K444 and L452 residues found in CA.3.1 and CH.1.1 also affect interactions with class II nAbs.
Conclusions
Taken together, the findings suggested that bivalent mRNA vaccines induce up to eight times higher nAbs than monovalent vaccines. XBB subvariants, CA.3.1 and CH.1.1, exhibited almost complete escape from neutralization by triple-vaccinated or BA.4/5 infection sera. Moreover, XBB.1.5 did not show enhanced immune evasion relative to BQ.1.1. CA.3.1 and CH.1.1 subvariants consistently showed higher resistance to neutralization than XBB subvariants, warranting continued surveillance and further analyses.
1976, March 24 – Cabinet Room – The White House – Washington, DC – Gerald R. Ford, Mathews, Doctors: Theoodore Cooper, David Senser, Jonas Salk, Albert Sabin; Frederickson, Meyer, Alex Schmidt,Dickson,McIntosh,Jaspar Williams;Richard Krause,Mrs. Dale Bumpers, Moses Wilds;Sen. Rosalie Abrahms,Francis Francois;Gov. Noel, Others, Staff – seated at table;[l-r: Dr. Jonas Salk, GRF, HEW Secretary F. David Mathews, Dr. Albert B. Sabin]; all not in frame – Meeting to Discuss Federal Initiative to Immunize all Americans against Swine Flu Influenza; HEW Sec & Asst Sec, CDC Director Senser; pioneers in polio vaccine Salk & Sabin; other medical professionals, business representatives and government officials
This is 13-year old Laxmi Tamang, the first person in Nepal to officially receive the combined measles-rubella vaccine. She lives in Nepalganj in Nepal’s low-lying “terai” area bordering India. People in this area are especially at risk of cross-border spread of diseases like measles.
Baby Kafio Ahmed (purple clothing) is 4 months old and getting vaccinated today. Mother Amina Said (yellow scarf) walked for one hour to get to the health center. She has another 3 children at home.
Nurse Sadia Adem Hussien (glasses) is vaccinating the baby.
Mariam Mahamud, Head of the Badbaado Health center, Gambool, Garowe town (dark brown scarf and white jacket - not in this picture). She opened the center in 2010. Today at the Badbaado Health Center there is vaccination campaign for Penta 3 (for prevention of 5 diseases in children) and OBV (polio vaccine). With donations from KFW, UNICEF is supporting the OTP screening and treatment of malnutrition with RUTF, vaccinations (funded by GAVI) and supplies for the center.
They vaccinate around 7-10 babies a day, 6 days a week. ©UNICEF Somalia/2022/Lisa Hill
A doctor immunizes an Afghan woman against tetanus.
An Afghan woman is vaccinated against tetanus by a doctor who works with a mobile medical team from the NGO Merlin.
The team rode on donkeys and horses for took two hours to reach the woman's remote village of Khaspak in Afghanistan's mountainous northeastern Badakshan province.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan is one of 22 countries from WHO's Eastern Mediterranean Region taking part in the first-ever Vaccination Week campaign that launched today.
Photo: Chris Black (WHO)
The Kirk U.S. Army Health Clinic hosted a mass immunization clinic at the APG North (Aberdeen) Recreation Center, Jan. 14. The clinic was open to eligible APG personnel, to include servicemembers, civilian and contractor employees, spouses and families. During the clinic, the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinations and booster shots were available for participants. The clinic also offered the Influenza vaccine. For more information about the vaccine, visit www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/index.html.
(Photos by Troy Saunders, APG News)
Village Simmalwadi, Kishanganj, Bihar- Another UNICEF run bus carrying street performers from Patna ( Bihar) places itself on a nearby ground of the village and sets up to perform a light and humorous play with the message of benefits of immunization and effects of how diseases can affect the childhood and future in the villagers children. Even be fatal for many small babies. The performers engross the villagers and in the process help them in the awareness towards their children's good health keeping.