Tag: Vaccine

WHO Malaria Vaccine

WHO Recommends New Vaccine For Malaria

By LokMarg

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended a new vaccine, R21/Matrix-M, for the prevention of malaria in children, an official release said.

The recommendation follows advice from the WHO: Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation (SAGE) and the Malaria Policy Advisory Group (MPAG) and was endorsed by the WHO Director-General following its regular biannual meeting held on September 25-29.

WHO also issued recommendations on the advice of SAGE for new vaccines for dengue and meningitis, along with immunisation schedules and product recommendations for COVID-19.  WHO also issued key immunisation programmatic recommendations on polio, IA2030 and recovering the immunisation programme, it added.

The R21 vaccine is the second malaria vaccine recommended by WHO, following the RTS,S/AS01 vaccine, which received a WHO recommendation in 2021. Both vaccines are shown to be safe and effective in preventing malaria in children and, when implemented broadly, are expected to have a high public health impact. Malaria, a mosquito-borne disease, places a particularly high burden on children in the African Region, where nearly half a million children die from the disease each year, the release said.

Demand for malaria vaccines is unprecedented; however, the available supply of RTS,S is limited.  The addition of R21 to the list of WHO-recommended malaria vaccines is expected to result in sufficient vaccine supply to benefit all children living in areas where malaria is a public health risk. 

“As a malaria researcher, I used to dream of the day we would have a safe and effective vaccine against malaria. Now we have two,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General in a media briefing with Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation.

“Demand for the RTS,S vaccine far exceeds supply, so this second vaccine is a vital additional tool to protect more children faster, and to bring us closer to our vision of a malaria-free future,” he added.

Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, emphasised the importance of this recommendation for the continent, saying, “This second vaccine holds real potential to close the huge demand-and-supply gap. Delivered to scale and rolled out widely, the two vaccines can help bolster malaria prevention and control efforts and save hundreds of thousands of young lives in Africa from this deadly disease.”

The next steps for the second recommended malaria vaccine, R21/Matrix-M, include completing the ongoing WHO prequalification which would enable international procurement of the vaccine for a broader rollout.

At least 28 countries in Africa plan to introduce a WHO-recommended malaria vaccine as part of their national immunisation programmes. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance has approved providing technical and financial support to roll out malaria vaccines to 18 countries. The RTS,S vaccine will be rolled out in some African countries in early 2024, and the R21 malaria vaccine is expected to become available to countries in mid-2024, a WHO release said. (ANI)

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Heart Dysfunction COVID

No Link Between Heart Dysfunction, COVID Booster In India

By LokMarg

Clearing the air around the effects of a booster dose of the vaccines, the health experts have said that there is no definite link between heart dysfunction and the precaution doses of the COVID shots.
With social media flooded with questions revolving around the effects of booster dose on the human heart, the experts came out in defence of the vaccines.

According to Dr Vivek Chaturvedi, Professor & HOD, Cardiology, Amrita Hospital, Faridabad, there have been some instances of heart-related issues in the patients after vaccination, however, there is no conclusive evidence to prove this.

“This is a very thorny question because we do see heart attacks happening. Not just attacks, sometimes fluid around the heart, sometimes Arrhythmias of the heart after vaccination. But it is very difficult to confirm this because these were happening in the past also,” he said.

However, Dr Vivek said that COVID can have effects on the heart and the person getting infected with COVID may have a flared heart-related disease.

“Covid can affect the heart in many ways. The most common problem which has been found is that the people who have had heart disease in the past, their heart disease can get flared and aggravated. They can have heart attacks and heart failure and also Arrhythmia. Secondly, people who have not had heart disease but have diabetes, and blood pressure can have a heart attack, and many such cases have come which is precipitated by COVID. Thirdly, even if no heart attack is precipitated, when covid is severe, it is known to cause heart dysfunctions, heart blocks, and different types of rapid heart rate called Arrhythmias,” he said.

When asked about the increase in the deaths due to heart-related issues since the onset of the pandemic, he said, “Yes, this has been a big controversy because a lot of death was occurring at home during covid when it was at its peak because people were afraid to go out but, data that has been carefully analyzed from certain countries has shown that covid definitely had increased the risk for heart attacks.”

Dr Vinayak Agrawal, Director, Non-Invasive Cardiology, Fortis, Gurugram mentioned that the road to recovery of an individual after COVID may differ for different persons, and added that the person who needs to be hospitalised in the ICU with severe lung disease or other infections may need supervised recovery.

“Post COVID infection, the road to recovery or rehabilitation is quite individualistic. For someone, who required hospitalization or ICU care during COVID with significant lung or heart or multisystem involvement, there would obviously be a need for prolonged and supervised gradual recovery or rehab inputs,” he said.

“Since heart involvement may be seen in these mild or asymptomatic cases also, hence if you experience significant fatigue/ weakness, out of proportion breathlessness at rest or walking, chest discomfort on walking or dizziness, then a specialist consult should be sought and further investigations including blood tests like troponin levels, NT proBNP (biomarkers), ECG, 24-hour ECG (Holter), Echocardiogram or cardiac MRI may be done,” he added.

The expert advised the people undergoing recovery not to engage in moderate to strenuous exercises or gym initially for nearly six weeks.

“Go slow, and do not resume moderate to strenuous exercises or gym initially for 4 to 6 weeks post-COVID diagnosis. Patients returning to high-level sports or physically demanding occupations following confirmed heart involvement require 3-6 months or longer period of complete rest. If you continue to experience symptoms after a few weeks, consult your doctor to rule out long covid syndrome,” he said. (ANI)

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