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.
We’re in the last mile in the fight to eradicate polio, but progress is fragile. As long as the disease is a threat anywhere, it remains a threat everywhere. A look at how UNICEF and partners are working to reach every child with lifesaving polio vaccines.
Since the introduction of the first polio vaccine in the 1950s, fully vaccinated children have been protected from the dangerous viral illness that attacks the nervous system, causing paralysis and sometimes death.
Today, polio is on the brink of eradication, but conflict, climate disasters, displacement and vaccine misinformation are hindering efforts to reach some of the world’s most marginalized children with lifesaving vaccines.
For most Americans, measles is an unfamiliar threat. If you’re my age, you might remember getting it as a kid — the mild annoyance of lying in a dark room, protecting your sensitive eyes and trying not to scratch your rash.
But here’s a more recent measles story, one of many I experienced throughout my 45-year nursing career.
A 9-month-old boy lies unconscious on a ventilator in the intensive care unit (ICU). He had traveled with his family to Kenya to meet his grandparents. He is the youngest sibling and the only one who didn’t get his measles vaccines. Now his mom sits by his hospital bed, watching a machine breathe for her baby.
As whooping cough cases are surging globally, some may wonder if it’s necessary to get a booster.
Cases of the childhood respiratory disease also known as pertussis are surging internationally and in parts of the U.S., according to a recent report.
Bordetella pertussis is a type of bacteria that causes a very contagious respiratory infection that spreads from person to person through small respiratory droplets, per the CDC.
Whooping cough outbreaks in Europe, Asia and parts of the U.S. should be a reminder to get vaccinated, experts say.
Since January, cases of whooping cough have risen sharply in the U.K. and Europe, the largest surge since 2012.
China logged more than 15,000 cases in January of this year, a 15-fold increase over the same time period last year. This month there have been small clusters of reported cases among high school students in the San Francisco Bay Area and several isolated cases in Hawaii. From October through earlier this year, New York City went through an outbreak, with more than 200 cases of mostly young children.
With a resurgence of measles cases happening across the country, Colorado health officials sent emails and text messages to the families of 75,000 kids ages 4 to 6 whose records show they may be overdue for the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.
The goal is to increase MMR vaccination rates and prevent an outbreak.
“We’ve seen more cases of measles already in the U.S. this year than we saw last year, and it’s only the beginning of the year,” State Epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy said. “So we know that things have shifted and there’s more cases of measles happening right now.”
