Adult Vaccinations

ACROSS FLORIDA — As the number of infected Floridians continues to mount, state health officials are pulling out all stops to convince residents to get vaccinated against hepatitis A. However, the state has yet to clear the single hurdle preventing everyone from getting vaccinated - the cost. Since Jan. 1, 2018, 3,223 Floridians have tested positive for hepatitis A. Of those who tested positive, 71 percent, or 2,071 people, have been hospitalized and 39 have died. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called this the largest outbreak of the virus since the hepatitis A vaccine became available in 1995. In addition to Florida, the CDC is monitoring outbreaks in 29 other states. The unprecedented number of cases prompted Florida Surgeon General Dr. Scott Rivkees to declare a statewide public health emergency on Aug. 1. Additionally, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis asked the CDC to assist the Department of Health in helping to control the unparalleled rise in the disease in the Su...

To try and curb the flow of new Hepatitis A cases in Citrus County, the Citrus County Community Charitable Foundation is donating $45,000 to pay for additional vaccinations, calling the rising number of infections throughout Florida an emergency. CCCCF board members voted 8-1 to bypass their regular grant process and give the money to the Florida Department of Health in Citrus County when its director, Ernesto “ Tito ” Rubio, asked for help. Rubio is also a CCCCF member. The money would be enough to pay for 750 additional vaccinations in the county’s attempt to protect from a disease that has claimed one county resident. The DOH in Citrus County reported the county’s first death Monday from the disease that’s transmitted through human feces. Audrey Stasko, spokeswoman for the DOH in Citrus County, would not give any information about the September death other than in was a Citrus County resident and that the person had other underlying health issues.    Rubi...

State officials have not identified any additional cases of a new virulent strain of Hepatitis A in the past 100 days, since an outbreak began three years ago in Michigan. The outbreak resulted in 738 people being hospitalized (so far), and 30 deaths (so far). Going 100 days without a new case is typically the factor leading officials to call an outbreak over. But Jim Collins, the state's director of communicable diseases for MDHHS, says he's going to let others make that call. He says he is confident in calling the outbreak "mitigated." Meaning, he thinks the new strain is here to stay. "Our new normal might be slightly elevated," he says. "I think it's going to enter into a natural occurrence in Michigan, that we're going to continue to see that strain periodically." Collins says the average number of Hepatitis A cases in the five years before the outbreak (2010-2015) was 61 cases. Currently for 2019, the state has had a total...

DURHAM – Could the end to seasonal flu shots be in sight? Possibly, if Duke researchers have their way. The Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI) landed multiple contracts totaling up to $400 million over seven years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to overhaul the flu vaccine, it was announced today. It’s all part of a national drive by the NIAID to develop a longer-lasting, more broadly protective vaccine to replace the seasonal flu shot. If the options on all three contracts are exercised, it would be the largest federal multi-contract award supporting one program in Duke’s history. “The [DHVI] has long been a global leader in the research and development of lifesaving vaccines, and these extraordinary contracts will strengthen the institute’s efforts to develop innovative solutions to one of the most pervasive and intractable health challenges we face today,” Duke University President Vincent E. Price said in a statement. Duke Human V...

By Jenna Carlesso, CTMirror.org Published 11:17 am EDT, Monday, September 30, 2019 A Superior Court judge has dismissed a Connecticut family’s lawsuit to block the release of child vaccination data. A Superior Court judge has dismissed a Connecticut family’s lawsuit to block the release of child vaccination data. Photo: Mel Melcon / TNS Photo: Mel Melcon / TNS Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Image 1 of 1 A Superior Court judge has dismissed a Connecticut family’s lawsuit to block the release of child vaccination data. A Superior Court judge has dismissed a Connecticut family’s lawsuit to block the release of child vaccination data. Photo: Mel Melcon / TNS Judge dismisses CT family’s lawsuit to block releasing vaccination data Back to Gallery A Superior Court judge has dismissed the lawsuit filed by a Bristol couple seeking to bar the disclosure of school-level vaccination data in Connecticut. Kristen and Br...

ATLANTA -- What if you could skip annual flu vaccinations and get multiyear protection from a single shot? An infusion of federal dollars into research and development may be just the thing to bring such a “ universal” flu vaccine closer to reality. "The government's putting a very large investment in developing new vaccine strategies, new platforms and basically making the flu vaccine work for all populations,” said Ted Ross, director of the Center for Vaccines and Immunology at the University of Georgia . Monday afternoon, UGA announced it has signed a contract with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases , a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which will provide up to $130 million in funding over seven years. UGA will lead one of the projects and collaborate with scientists at 14 other universities and research institutions. PHYSICIAN: WE NEED A UNIVERSAL FLU VACCINE -- NO MORE EXCUSES At the end of that seven-year period, research...

A Superior Court judge has dismissed a parents’ lawsuit against the Connecticut Department of Public Health over the release of school-level vaccination data. Brian and Kristen Festa, of Bristol, challenged DPH’s decision to release school-by-school vaccination data in May. The report also included the percentage of kids with religious and medical exemptions at each school. The Festas claimed that making the data public violated medical privacy rights and caused harm to families like theirs who do not vaccinate, even though the data did not identify students by name. The couple has a 7-year-old son with autism who attends a school with a high exemption rate. Attorneys representing DPH sought to dismiss the case on the grounds that the Festas failed to exhaust their administrative remedies, like submitting a petition to DPH for declaratory relief or judgement on the issue before it made its way to court in a civil lawsuit. Superior Court Judge Susan Cobb agreed with that argument ...

"There's no scientific basis or evidence that there's any aborted fetuses in the vaccinations or any sort of risk with Autism," said Arnot Health infectious disease physician, Justin Nistico, D.O.. "I know a lot of people are concerned about that as well. These things, a lot of times, it becomes hearsay and it's not actually scientific evidence." https://ift.tt/2n4T3n6

Vaccines made from RNA hold great potential as a way to treat cancer or prevent a variety of infectious diseases. Many biotech companies are now working on such vaccines, and a few have gone into clinical trials. One of the challenges to creating RNA vaccines is making sure that the RNA gets into the right immune cells and produces enough of the encoded protein. Additionally, the vaccine must stimulate a strong enough response that the immune system can wipe out the relevant bacteria, viruses, or cancer cells when they are subsequently encountered. MIT chemical engineers have now developed a new series of lipid nanoparticles to deliver such vaccines. They showed that the particles trigger efficient production of the protein encoded by the RNA, and they also behave like an “adjuvant,” further boosting the vaccine effectiveness. In a study of mice, they used this RNA vaccine to successfully inhibit the growth of melanoma tumors. “One of the key discoveries of this paper is that...

S hould we be taking radical steps to make the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine mandatory? This has been advocated by senior members of the medical community and now the Health Secretary has said he's considering it . “I think there’s a very strong argument for movement to compulsory vaccination,” Matt Hancock has said, “and I think the public would back us.”  It’s certainly tempting. Measles can be deadly for children – as well as causing pneumonia, deafness, epilepsy and brain damage. What’s more, it is preventable. The MMR vaccine was so successful that, based on data from 2014-2018, the UK was declared measles-free. No longer. A spike in measles cases caused the World Health Organisation... https://ift.tt/2ngG8yd

Image copyright Thinkstock Falling vaccination rates for children in England have refuelled the debate over whether jabs should be compulsory for youngsters before they are allowed into schools. The Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock says he is "looking very seriously" at going down that route. He has said repeatedly in recent months he is not ruling out compulsion. And he told a Conservative conference fringe meeting he had received advice from officials about how the policy might be implemented. The case for the change in policy is based on increasing official concern about falling take-up over the past five years of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR). In England, the vaccination rate for the first dose, usually taken round the time of a child's first birthday, fell to 90.3% in 2018-19. So-called "herd immunity", when the disease does not spread, is achieved when uptake is at 95%. Recently, the UK lost the measles-free status d...

The Vermilion County Health Department has set up multiple clinics this fall so that people can be vaccinated early against seasonal flu. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends that flu vaccinations begin as soon as vaccine is available. The Vermilion County Health Department’s flu vaccine has arrived and flu clinics are scheduled. The Vermilion County Health Department will offer adult seasonal flu shots at the Health Department, 200 South College Street in Danville, as shown below: October 1 (Tues) 9:00 – 12:00 October 2 (Wed) 1:00 – 4:00 October 3 (Thurs) 9:00 — 12:00 October 10 (Thurs) 3:00 – 6:30 October 17 (Thurs) 9:00 — 12:00 October 18 (Fri) 1:00 – 4:00 October 22 (Tues) 1:00 — 4:00 October 24 (Thurs) 3:00 – 6:30 October 28 (Mon) 9:00 — 12:00 There will also be a clinic from 9 a.m. to noon on Monday, October 7 in St. Mary’s Church at 231 North State Street in Westville, and a clinic from noon to 3:00 p.m. on Monday, October 21 ...

September 30, 2019 3:55 a.m. Douglas Public Health Network, in partnership with local emergency management and medical personnel, will be providing free flu vaccinations October 19 th from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Tri City fire station. A release from DPHN said the vaccines will be given as part of a drive-through point of dispensing exercise and are available to anyone 6 months and older. The release said if a widespread disease or other emergency were to occur, it may be necessary for the local health department to activate PODs to dispense large amounts of vaccines, antibiotics, or other medicines to the community. This POD exercise allows county officials to practice emergency plans and is an opportunity for community members to get vaccinated against the flu and be involved in emergency preparedness in Douglas County. Public Health Officer Dr. Bob Dannenhoffer said “influenza comes around every year and can be very dangerous for some seniors, those with weak immune sys...

LAURIUM – Aspirus Keweenaw Hospital and Clinics is holding two community flu vaccination clinics in Houghton and Laurium in October. Flu vaccinations are available for people ages 6 months to adult. Children under the age of 18 will need parental consent. All vaccinations will be entered into the Michigan Care Improvement Registry. Both walk-in and drive-through options will be offered at each location. Community flu vaccination clinics are scheduled for the following dates: • Saturday, Oct. 5, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aspirus Houghton Clinic, 1000 Cedar Street in Houghton, near Walmart • Wednesday, Oct. 16, 4 to 7 p.m. Aspirus Keweenaw Laurium Clinic, 205 Osceola Street in Laurium Appointments for flu vaccinations are not required. There is a $0 co-pay with most insurances. For more information, call 906-337-6560. https://ift.tt/2n0vZ92

Californians strongly support a state law creating new oversight of vaccine medical exemptions for schoolchildren in a statewide poll released Monday, with backing across a spectrum of political affiliations, income and education levels, and geography. The UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll, conducted for the Los Angeles Times, found that 90% of Democrats, 82% of those with no party preference and 73% of Republicans supported the effort to increase immunization rates at schools and daycare facilities by allowing the California Department of Public Health to review and possibly reject a doctor’s determination that a child should skip all or some of their shots. Overall, 8 out of every 10 voters surveyed said they supported the new law, with 61% saying they favored it strongly. Just 16% said they opposed it. The strongest dissent came from participants in the poll who described themselves as very politically conservative — 1 out of every 3 of those voters said they opp...

September 30, 2019 — STORY: The World Health Organization (WHO) and partners launch emergency vaccination campaign in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), to help contain world’s largest measles outbreak. WHO LENGTH: 00:00 FIRST RUN: RESTRICTIONS: NONE TYPE: SOURCE: STORY NUMBER: 7004140 DATELINE: SHOTLIST: 1.Wide shot, Masi Manimba village with children playing outside a house 2.Wide shot, WHO staff and MoH staff walking through a village towards vaccination site 3.SOUNDBITE (English) Helene Chenge, Epidemiologist, WHO: “Measles is a very dangerous disease. It can kill and also has serious complications.” 4.Wide shot, community mobilizer using megaphone to call for community to come to the vaccination site. 5.Wide shots, community queuing for vaccination 6. SOUNDBITE (English) Helene Chenge, Epidemiologist, WHO: “There are many reasons as to why children are not vaccination. Sometimes parents stop to bring children to the clinic but also sometimes the vaccine ...

By Adam Vaughan The measles virus produces an unplesant rash South_agency/Getty Images The UK is “very seriously” looking at making vaccinations compulsory for schoolchildren in response to falling vaccination rates — that’s what health secretary Matt Hancock told the Conservative party conference yesterday. “When the state provides a service to people then it’s a two-way street. You have to take your responsibilities too,” he said. His comments follow figures that emerged last week showing all routine vaccinations for under-fives fell last year, a decline which UK chief medical officer Sally Davies said was troubling . Embarrassingly, this year the UK lost its official “measles-free” status , after 231 cases were confirmed between January to March 2019. Hancock’s office did not respond to questions about what the means would be used to compel people to vaccinate their children. But there are several possible options. Some countries make vaccination a condition for children g...

I t’s never an easy business to predict which flu viruses will make people sick the following winter. And there’s reason to believe two of the four choices made last winter for this upcoming season’s vaccine could be off the mark. Twice a year influenza experts meet at the World Health Organization to pore over surveillance data provided by countries around the world to try to predict which strains are becoming the most dominant. The Northern Hemisphere strain selection meeting is held in late February; the Southern Hemisphere meeting occurs in late September. The selections that officials made last week for the next Southern Hemisphere vaccine suggest that two of four viruses in the Northern Hemisphere vaccine that doctors and pharmacies are now pressing people to get may not be optimally protective this winter. Those two are influenza A/H3N2 and the influenza B/Victoria virus. advertisement The strain selection committee concluded the H3N2 and B/Victoria viruses needed to be upd...

A Superior Court judge has dismissed the lawsuit filed by a Bristol couple seeking to bar the disclosure of school-level vaccination data in Connecticut. Kristen and Brian Festa in May asked the court to block the release of immunization data for 2018-19, the most recent school year. They also asked for the 2017-18 school-by-school figures to be wiped from the state Public Health Department’s website, arguing it was an invasion of privacy , even though no students’ names were included. Cara Pavalock-D’Amato, the Festas’ lawyer, has argued that the school-level vaccination data poses an invasion of privacy. The Festas’ 7-year-old son attends Meliora Academy, a Meriden school that was identified in news reports as having a high rate of unvaccinated students. The couple charged that after immunization rates were publicized for the 2017-18 year, parents of unvaccinated children became the targets of “hateful and vitriolic” remarks on social media. The Festas said, however, that they ...

A leading influenza epidemiologist has called into question whether the World Health Organization has chosen the correct influenza strains to target with this year’s vaccine. The WHO’s so-called strain-selection committee meets twice a year to study trends to determine which four varieties to include in the four-in-one shot based on global flu trends. But Danuta Skowronski, with the British Columbia Center for Disease Control in Vancouver, told STAT News she believes this year the flu shot contains a “mismatch.” Skowronski says the flu trends changed and the committee may have misjudged which strain would become dominant. “That H3N2 wave” that was responsible for the late-season wave of U.S. cases last year “was evolving at the time that they met in February,” Skowronski said of the selection panel. “And there was a diverse mix of H3 viruses. And it wasn’t clear to them, I guess, [which strain]… would emerge the clear winner.” Read it at STAT News https://ift.tt/2n9qqox

Social media have become one of the preeminent ways of disseminating accurate information about vaccines . However, a lot of the vaccine information propagated across social media in the United States has been inaccurate or misleading . At a time when vaccine-preventable diseases are on the rise , vaccine misinformation has become a cause of concern to public health officials. A 2018 study showed that a lot of anti-vaccine information is generated by malicious automated programs  — known as bots — and online trolls . In a striking parallel with the 2016 presidential campaign and the 2018 midterm elections , some vaccine misinformation on American social media has been traced back to Russia . Advertisement: At Saint Louis University’s Center for Health Law Studies , I monitor legal and policy responses to vaccine misinformation . Now platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest are developing strategies to address anti-vaccine bots and to try to reduce their reach in the...