An expanding pipeline of vaccines is giving patients new hope against some of the deadliest cancers, by training the body’s immune system to attack malignancies.
Why it matters: This personalized approach could make conditions like melanoma and bladder, kidney, pancreatic and breast cancers treatable, and even potentially preventable, via infusion.
Vaccines have transformed children’s lives by protecting them against debilitating and life-threatening illnesses. But they could have a similarly transformative impact on healthy ageing, experts say.
Writing in Science Translational Medicine this week, an international group of scientists outlined how vaccines could be used to improve the health and well-being of older people – as well as the challenges that must be addressed to unlock their full potential.
A study by scientists at the University of Oxford, has unveiled crucial insights into the way that COVID-19 vaccines mitigate severe illness in those who have been vaccinated.
Despite the global success of COVID-19 vaccination campaigns, concerns remain around the continued spread of this disease including in vaccinated individuals. For this reason, researchers at the Oxford Vaccine Group conducted an extensive investigation into the human immune response to COVID-19, in both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals.
In the first half of 2023, COVID-19 killed 42,670 people in the United States, while the flu killed about half that amount. Yet half as many people received the updated COVID booster as those who got the flu shot — even though COVID is twice as deadly as influenza.
In all, around 22% of people have received the new COVID booster, while 47% of people have had a flu vaccine. Experts said much of that COVID-shot resistance is due to the continued polarizing nature of the pandemic and of the COVID vaccine, which has been shown to reduce the risk for long COVID as well as serious acute viral infections and deaths.
The U.S. has two vaccines ready should the strain of bird flu circulating in dairy cows begin spreading easily to people, federal health officials said Wednesday. They could begin shipping doses widely within weeks, if needed.
So far, there’s no evidence that H5N1 is spreading person-to-person, although one dairy worker in Texas who worked closely with infected cattle had a mild infection and developed conjunctivitis, or pinkeye, in April.
Extensive testing of pasteurized commercially purchased milk and other dairy products from 38 states has found no evidence of live H5N1 bird flu virus, Food and Drug Administration officials said at a press briefing Wednesday.
The results confirmed findings of earlier testing of a more limited number of samples and add weight to the FDA’s conclusion that pasteurized milk products are safe for consumption despite a widespread outbreak of cows infected with H5N1.
Women are increasingly leading the charge in the pharmaceutical industry, breaking through barriers and making substantial contributions to vaccine development. Their influence is increasingly vital in driving progress and advancement in the ongoing battle against infectious diseases. In the laboratories and executive offices of leading pharmaceutical companies, women scientists are driving groundbreaking research and strategic planning.
With expertise, determination, and a strong commitment to enhancing global health, these women are pushing boundaries, redefining approaches to vaccine design, development, and distribution. Their contributions extend beyond the laboratory, as they advocate for equitable access to vaccines and collaborate with stakeholders to address pressing public health challenges. Women are leading multidisciplinary teams, driving evolution, and accelerating the pace of vaccine development. Their efforts are not only advancing scientific knowledge but also transforming the way we approach disease prevention and control on a global scale. Women across numerous pharmaceutical companies have made exciting and inventive contributions within vaccine evolution and improvement.
On a recent morning – let’s say it’s this morning – in red-earthed or grassy or cinnamon-sanded villages; in harried, beeping towns of asphalt and cantilevered concrete; in neglected urban thickets, towers bowing as they rise; in one-roomed clinics, plastic sandals waiting obediently on the porch; or in neat structures behind well-pruned rows of flowering bushes; under the stretched shade of a wide tree, or in the black shadow of a cloud, or under the furnace blast of the desert sun, a fridge door opened.
Inside, a bulb zinged on, flinging light at the face of a health worker. She is the runner of the penultimate mile in a very long relay race that has been going non-stop since the mid-1970s.
Doctors have begun trialling in hundreds of patients the world’s first personalised mRNA cancer vaccine for melanoma, as experts hailed its “gamechanging” potential to permanently cure cancer.
Melanoma affects about 132,000 people a year globally and is the biggest skin cancer killer. Currently, surgery is the main treatment although radiotherapy, medicines and chemotherapy are also sometimes used.
Now experts are testing new jabs that are custom-built for each patient and tell their body to hunt down cancer cells to prevent the disease ever coming back.
The world has become a much safer place to be a young child in the last 50 years. Since 1974, infant mortality worldwide has plummeted. That year, one in 10 newborns died before reaching their first birthday. By 2021, that rate had fallen by over two-thirds.
A lot of factors drove this change: lower poverty and better nutrition, cleaner air and water, and readily available antibiotics and other treatments. But one of the biggest contributors, a new study from the World Health Organization (WHO) concludes, was vaccines.
