Category: COVID

Categories : COVIDTags :

WHO Warns of ‘Catastrophic Failure’ over COVID Vaccination

On By ModernMedia

The World Health Organization head, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has warned that the world faces a “catastrophic moral failure” because of unequal access to COVID vaccines. 

He said that 49 wealthier states had conducted 39 million vaccinations between them, but one poor country had only 25 doses.

To date, the US, China, India, Russia and the UK have all developed vaccines, and mostly prioritised their own populations to receive them – although the German company BioNTech developed theirs in collaboration with Pfizer, and even so, the EU failed to secure vaccines sufficiently in advance. 

Dr Tedros spoke to an executive board session of the WHO, saying: “I need to be blunt: the world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure – and the price of this failure will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the world’s poorest countries.”

He warned that a selfish approach to vaccination would lead to hoarding and rising prices.

“Ultimately, these actions will only prolong the pandemic, the restrictions needed to contain it, and human and economic suffering,” he added.

Calling on nations to accelerate their progress, he said: “My challenge to all member states is to ensure that by the time World Health Day arrives on 7 April, Covid-19 vaccines are being administered in every country, as a symbol of hope for overcoming both the pandemic and the inequalities that lie at the root of so many global health challenges.” 

Thus far, 180 countries have signed on to the Covax initiative, which aims to negotiate as a bloc for lower vaccine prices. The initiative aims to distribute vaccines to low- and middle income countries, 92 of which will have their vaccines paid for by the initiative. Dr Tedros said that two billion doses had been secured, with an option of a billion more, with the first doses delivered by February.

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in a reaction to Dr Tedros’ warnings that, “The UK is the world’s biggest supporter, financial supporter, of the global programme to ensure access to vaccines in all countries in the world.”

The UK has contributed £548m ($734m) to the Covax initiative. Canada drew criticism after it was revealed that, due to vaccine hoarding, the 70 poorest countries would only be able to vaccinate 10% of their population, while Canada had secured enough vaccines for five times its population of nearly 38 million. However, these vaccines are “hypothetical” according to Karina Gould, Canada’s minister of international development. Canada is also contributing $380 million to Covax. Furthermore, discussions are reportedly under way for South Africa to secure some of the vaccines allocated to Canada.

Source: BBC News

Categories : COVIDTags :

SA Experts Confirm That COVID Variant is More Contagious

On By ModernMedia

A panel of South African experts confirmed on Monday that the SA strain of COVID is 50% more transmissible than previous strains.

Collecting data from the main infection clusters around the country, the experts came to the conclusion that while more contagious, the new variant is not more lethal. 

“There is no evidence the new COVID variant is more severe than the original variant,” said epidemiologist Professor Salim Abdool Karim, co-chair of the Ministry of Health’s scientific committee.

However, the SA healthy system has been strained by the sheer number of cases. Concerns over more transmissible variants have prompted the UK government to switch to administering the first dose of two-dose vaccines such as the one from Pfizer, and leaving an extended period before a second dose is administered, even though protection will wane over time.

Another panel member, Dr Waasila Jassat, said that although hospital admissions had increased, the overall death rate had not, supporting the case for the variant not being more lethal.

The spread of the variant in December prompted the government to reinstate its lockdown. It also resulted in many countries banning flights from South Africa in a bid to stem the variant. Prof Karim said that it was not yet known if current vaccines would protect against the SA variant, although studies were underway.

Another panel member, virologist Professor Alex Sigal stated: “The world has underestimated this virus.” He added that it was evolving and adapting to humans.

The experts also urged that it should not be referred to as the “South African variant”. The variant could have turned up anywhere in the world, and it was only thanks to the country’s excellent genomic surveillance that it was picked up at all, they said.

Source: Medical Xpress

Categories : COVID Diseases, Syndromes and ConditionsTags :

Nearly a Third of COVID Patients Are Readmitted to Hospital

On By ModernMedia

According to a study reported by The Telegraph, almost a third of COVID patients are readmitted to hospital later. The new study, still on the MedRxiv preprint server and not yet peer reviewed, was conducted by Leicester University and the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Approximately 1 in 10 people who are infected with COVID go on to develop long COVID symptoms, which include breathlessness, excessive fatigue and muscle aches. This appears to be causing hospital readmissions – and deaths.

The study looked at 47 780 individuals with a primary diagnosis of COVID who had a hospital visit between 1 January 2020 and 31 August 2020, and a COVID-negative control group admitted over the same period. The mean follow-up time was 140 days for those with a COVID diagnosis, and during this team 29.4% were readmitted and 12.3% died. The study also found a higher risk in those under 70 and of ethnic minority groups in the UK, most notably in respiratory diseases.

Study author Kamlesh Khunti, professor of primary care diabetes and vascular medicine at Leicester University, said: “This is the largest study of people discharged from hospital after being admitted with Covid.

“People seem to be going home, getting long-term effects, coming back in and dying. We see nearly 30 per cent have been readmitted, and that’s a lot of people. The numbers are so large.”The message here is we really need to prepare for long Covid. It’s a mammoth task to follow up with these patients and the NHS is really pushed at the moment, but some sort of monitoring needs to be arranged.”

One finding which surprised the team was that many patients went back in and had a new diagnosis, such as liver, heart or kidney conditions, as well as diabetes. This means, according to Prof Khunti, that it is important for patients to receive follow-up and protective therapies such as statins or aspirin, adding: “We don’t know if it’s because Covid destroyed the beta cells which make insulin and you get Type 1 diabetes, or whether it causes insulin resistance, and you develop Type 2, but we are seeing these surprising new diagnoses of diabetes.”

Source: Yahoo News

Categories : COVID UncategorizedTags :

SA Government Aims for a Corruption-free Vaccine Programme

On By ModernMedia

In the past week, President Cyril Ramaphosa and health minister Zweli Mkhize have undertaken a publicity drive to demonstrate how the government is working to ensure a tightly controlled vaccine drive that is not plagued by corruption. This is to avoid a repeat of the corruption in PPE acquisition last year, with some R10.5 billion being investigated for looting, with an Auditor-General report finding some items being purchased at five times the going price.

These efforts include centralised transactions which involve the auditor-general looking out for any discrepancies. Vaccine acquisition and roll-out planning will be handled by the government, with the private sector being tapped for storage and distribution. “What we have done is to get the Treasury and the Department of Health’s office of the chief procurement officer to oversee any form of transaction that is going to happen.

“Right now the procurement of the vaccines is within government. It makes it easier because it’s a tight-knit set of people, the prices are known, the manufacturers are known, the deviation is specific and it’s not the same as what we had in PPE where there were so many vendors, suppliers and so many different prices,” he said.

Furthermore, there will be consultation with the Attorney General. “We are going to say [to the AG]… these are the risks we have identified and ask them to analyse our plans and see if there are further risks we must be aware of and how we can work together to prevent any risk of looting,” Mkhize said.

Medical aid schemes have voiced concerns over the process, having sourced vaccines for their members as well as contributing to the vaccination costs of those not covered by any medical aid scheme.

President Ramaphosa said that South Africa would have pre-paid like other countries to secure vaccines, even given the risks of them failing, if it had the funds to do so.

However, he affirmed that there are funds available to buy the vaccination scheme, saying: “we are going to have the money, it will come from Treasury. There is just no way we can say, when it comes to saving the lives of South Africans, that we don’t have the money. The money will be there. It has to be there to save the lives of South Africans. That one will be my bottom line.”

The Covax programme will provide a vaccine for 10% of the population in the second quarter of 2021, for which a deposit of R283 million has been paid. A further 1.5-million vaccine doses have been secured from AstraZeneca and 9-million from Johnson & Johnson (J&J). The J&J vaccine only requires a single dose to confer immunity, so should be able to cover 9 million people.

“J&J will be producing through Aspen here at home, and we are hoping to get the bulk of our supply from there, once the production starts,” said Ramaphosa.

Source: Times Live

Categories : COVIDTags :

EU Angered by Pfizer Delay

On By ModernMedia

Pfizer has said in a statement on Friday that the drop in production is the result of the company upgrading its manufacturing processes, and that there will be an overall increase in supply as a result.

“Although this will temporarily impact shipments in late January to early February, it will provide a significant increase in doses available for patients in late February and March,” Pfizer said.

The German health ministry has said the delays are surprising and regrettable, pointing out that it had secured binding mid-February delivery dates from the company. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that she had been given assurances by Pfizer’s chief executive that all orders for the first quarter would arrive. She had previously said that Pfizer had promised to double its delivery of doses to the EU to 600 million this year.

However, the EU also has agreements in place with Moderna to supply vaccines, and this is not wholly dependent on Pfizer. However, Johnson & Johnson is also falling behind in its vaccine delivery targets, amidst reports that the US has failed to meet vaccination goals for the end of 2020, and may struggle to meet this year’s goals. Meanwhile, the UK is expected to be slightly impacted by the drop in supply but remains on track to meets its February immunisation goals.

However, the EU has lagged behind the UK in its vaccination programme, for a number of reasons including the fact that the UK ordered and approved its vaccines sooner, while Brussels’ negotiations were slower. Much of the delay is due to the added bureaucracy of the 27 nation political confederation and its decision to acquire vaccines as a single entity instead of individual countries further exacerbated this.

According to Reuters, citing a participant at a meeting last week, a third of the EU’s 27 countries reported difficulties in securing enough vaccines for their vaccination programmes.

Source: BBC News

Categories : COVIDTags :

Stellenbosch Doctors Urge Patience on Ivermectin

On By ModernMedia

The South African public should be patient and wait for data on Ivermectin’s effectiveness against COVID, according to Stellenbosch doctors, who urge patience. The doctors wrote an article published in the South African Medical Journal explaining that further studies need to be completed before ivermectin can be authorised for use.

A veterinarian parasiticide that may have relevant antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties, ivermectin has gathered considerable attention for possible use in COVID prophylaxis and treatment since a number of small trials appeared to show effectiveness. However, close examination shows that they are very weak. Doubts have been raised over whether the necessary concentrations used in vitro can be achieved in vivo.

In their article, the doctors noted that several large randomised controlled trials are underway, and the results of these will allow the possible effectiveness of ivermectin to be gauged. “Data for Ivermectin from larger RCTs are expected in early 2021,” the doctors wrote. “These data are very promising, showing large treatment effects and acceptable adverse effect profiles for ivermectin against Covid-19, especially when combined in meta-analyses.”

They pointed out that the hoped-for effectiveness of other medications had not been borne out. “As a recent example, the widely proclaimed benefits of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine from observational studies proved to be unfounded in larger RCTs,” they wrote.

Ivermectin use has been banned by the government, to considerable resistance. A number of organisations have already demanded that ivermectin be administered as a COVID treatment, including Black First Land First, the New Economic Rights Alliance and AfriForum. Afriforum is contemplating legal action to have ivermectin authorised. These calls have come despite the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) repeatedly counselled against the use of ivermectin.

The doctors cautioned that although the data trends indicated a possible efficacy for ivermectin, the optimal dosage if effective still needed to be determined: “Higher than standard Ivermectin doses appear to be safe in humans, but at the time of writing there is still much uncertainty regarding the human dose required to achieve antiviral activity and a favourable benefit-to-risk balance.”

Source: IOL

Categories : COVID Medical Industry VaccinesTags : 1 Comment

Johnson & Johnson is Behind on Vaccine Production

On By ModernMedia

Despite releasing promising data on its COVID vaccine, Johnson & Johnson may fall up to two months behind on its vaccine production schedule, Politico reported. The company is still committed to releasing the trial data on its 45 000 participants by the end of January to pave the way for approval.

If approved, as seems likely, the vaccine would be extremely beneficial for vaccination efforts as it would only require a single dose to confer protection and also would not require sub zero refrigeration, greatly simplifying vaccination efforts.

The company’s effort is part of the Operation Warp Speed initiative to vaccinate the US population as fast as possible, with a goal of vaccinating 80% of the country’s 330.7 million population by the end of June. The previous goal to distribute 20 million doses by the end of 2020 had already fallen short owing to insufficient production.

The co-director of Operation Warp Speed, Moncef Slaoui, hinted at a production slowdown, telling the media that the company was expecting to produce “single-digit million” doses by the second half of February. “We’re trying to make that number get as close to a double-digit number as possible, and then a larger number in March and a much larger number in April,” he added.

Johnson & Johnson had previously made a pledge to deliver 12 million doses by the end of February and as many as 100 million by June.

Despite the delay, there is good news in that initial data from 400 participants shows that the vaccine is safe and has a 90% efficacy in establishing antibodies, with immunity for most subjects established 29 days after the shot and lasting at least 57 days. Adverse reactions were reported to be be mild, and younger subjects were more likely to report them, with one subject experiencing a brief, mild fever.

Source: Politico

Categories : COVIDTags :

Telemedicine Promising for Visits After Low-Risk Surgery

On By ModernMedia

A pair of reports suggests that modern communication methods may be appropriate for post-surgery recovery, albeit at the risk of exacerbating the downsides of any language barriers and digital literacy.

In the midst of the COVID pandemic, telemedicine uptake and use has been greatly expanded by health care providers. In one small trial, cut short by COVID, researchers investigated whether telemedicine was an adequate form of patient follow-up after low-risk surgery.

The video-based post-discharge visits were as effective in terms of getting patients to return to the hospital within 30 days for a hospital encounter. The video visits were half an hour shorter but provided patients with the same amount of time with their surgeons.

However, out of 1645 individuals screened, many participants were excluded due to language difficulties, and 50 were excluded due to a “technology barrier”.

Caroline Reinke, MD, MSHP, of Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, and her team wrote, “Patients and clinicians should be reassured that the critical visit portion, time together discussing medical needs, is preserved. This information will help surgeons and patients feel more confident in using video-based virtual visits.”

Reinke and her team noted that COVID cut the study short: “Although we did not reach target enrollment, noninferiority was demonstrated for postdischarge virtual visits in our study sample and was further supported via a simulation model.”

In another study, Marie-Laure Cittanova, MD, PhD, of Clinique Saint Jean de Dieu in Paris, and her team compared using SMS to contact patients as opposed to calling them. When contacted after being told to expect a contact throughout the following day, 46.2% of patients were reachable by phone, compared to 85.3% by SMS.

Patients expressed similar levels of satisfaction with the SMS service, which was significantly cheaper than using phone calls. However, the single-centre study lacked generalisability.

Source: MedPage Today

Journal information (primary source): Harkey K, et al “Postdischarge virtual visits for low-risk surgeries: a randomized noninferiority clinical trial” JAMA Surg 2021; DOI: 10.1001/jamasurg.2020.6265.

Journal information (secondary source): Cittanova M, et al “Association of automated text messaging with patient response rate after same-day surgery” JAMA Surg 2021; DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.33312.

Categories : COVIDTags :

WHO Team Arrives in China for COVID Origin Investigations

On By ModernMedia

Following months of negotiations, and then a list minute hiccough when two team members were denied entry last week, a team of 10 specialists from the WHO arrives in China to carry out their investigations into the origins of COVID.

China, through rapid action and total lockdowns, managed to clamp down on the coronavirus outbreak inside its borders, preventing it from spreading significantly outside of Wuhan, while in Wuhan itself, life has largely returned to normal. In recent weeks, however, new cases have been appearing in Hebei province around Beijing and in Heilongjiang province in the northeast.

Just before travelling, team leader Peter Ben Embarek told AFP news agency that it “could be a very long journey before we get a full understanding of what happened”.

He cautioned against expecting instant results, saying, “I don’t think we will have clear answers after this initial mission, but we will be on the way,” he said.

For a number of months, China has been saying that the virus may not have originated in Wuhan. There has been a lot of unsubstantiated speculation that the SARS-CoV-2 might have been accidentally released from a lab.

Prof Dale Fisher, chair of the global outbreak and response unit at the WHO, told the BBC that he hoped the rest of the world would regard this as a scientific visit. “It’s not about politics or blame but getting to the bottom of a scientific question,” he said.

When the WHO team arrives in China, they will still have to wait through a two week quarantine. Fabian Leendertz, a professor in the epidemiology of highly pathogenic microorganisms at Germany’s public health institute and working remotely with the team, says that their plan of action will be developed over the next two weeks while they are still in quarantine. The team is expected to look at the infamous wet market in Wuhan where it was originally believed the virus made the jump from animals to humans, as well as working with Chinese colleagues and local clinics to establish a picture of the virus’ origins.

Source: BBC News

Categories : COVIDTags :

SinoVac’s Vaccine 50.4% Effective in Brazilian Trial

On By ModernMedia

The vaccine from Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac is only 50.4% effective, according to updated data from a Brazilian trial.

Sinovac’s vaccine uses inactivated virus particles to trigger an immune response. Both the Sinovac vaccine and the Oxford vaccine have requests for emergency use in Brazil which are expected to soon to be granted.

This new number is lower than what was suggested last week by Butantan Institute, which distributes 65% of the vaccines in the country, and is running the trials. They had reported that the vaccine was 78% effective in “mild-to-severe” COVID cases, but reported on Tuesday that this number had not included cases with very mild COVID symptoms.
Interim results from late stage trials in Turkey and Indonesia reported that SinoVac was 91.25% effective and 65.3% effective, respectively. 

All of these discrepancies show just how hard to it is to compare the effectiveness of vaccines as measured by different trials in different countries. Other countries only count cases of COVID which generate obvious symptoms; including cases which are almost asymptomatic will lower the reported effectiveness.

However, there has been concern that the Chinese vaccine trials have not been subject to the same level of scrutiny and transparency as those in the West. Conversely, claims that the Russian Sputnik vaccine has a 95% effectiveness have been met with some suspicion, especially given its haphazard roll-out, which combined a trial (now cut short) with a release for emergency use. 

Source:BBC News