Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
FDA Allows GSK'S Whooping Cough Vaccine In 3rd Trimester Of Pregnancy
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday allowed the use of GlaxoSmithKline's Boostrix vaccine during the third trimester of pregnancy to prevent whooping cough in infants younger than two months of age. "When the Boostrix vaccine is given during pregnancy, it boosts antibodies in the mother, which are transferred to the developing baby," the agency said. (10/7)
On monkeypox —
A significant proportion of patients reported attending large mass gatherings before developing monkeypox symptoms. Of 161 patients with available information, 37 (23%) met their sexual partners at such gatherings, including the Maspalomas Festival on Spain's Gran Canaria island, and various other Pride-related festivities in Europe and the United States, the authors said. Thirty percent of patients said they developed lesions or rash as a first symptom. (Soucheray, 10/10)
The California Department of Public Health on Friday provided an update on the state’s Mpox outbreak, confirming a total of 419 reported cases in the San Diego region. Data released by the CDPH’s Division of Communicable Disease Control shows the area ranking third in highest case counts statewide. Neighboring Los Angeles was at the top of list with a total of 2,049 cases. (Coakley, 10/8)
New daily monkeypox cases have been falling, and the CDC says cases are probably going to plateau or decline over the next few weeks. (10/11)
On E. coli —
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Oct 7 announced an Escherichia coli O121 outbreak that has sickened 20 people from 6 states is linked to frozen falafel sold at Aldi stores. (10/10)
On flu and RSV —
Flu cases are already rising in parts of the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Pediatricians, too, are seeing a growing number of children sick with respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, and enteroviruses. (Edwards and Syal, 10/10)
The United States is seeing a significant spike in respiratory illness among children. Sick kids are crowding emergency rooms in various parts of the country, and some pediatric hospitals say they are running out of beds. But this uptick in illness has largely been due to viruses other than the coronavirus, like RSV, enteroviruses and rhinovirus. (López Restrepo and Louise Kelly, 10/11)
In the mid-1960s, researchers at D.C.’s top pediatric hospital set out to vanquish a diabolical virus that filled wards with wheezing infants each winter. Their weapon: a vaccine designed to target respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV. The virus had been identified only a decade earlier but was already known to be one of the most challenging illnesses to rattle the lungs of young children, surpassing influenza. There was every reason to think the vaccine would succeed. Scientists grew the virus in a laboratory, then inactivated it with a chemical — similar to the method used to create the world-changing polio shot. Instead of a miracle, a catastrophe began to unfold. (Johnson, 10/10)
