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Moderna flu jab cracks FDA nod after earlier dispute
Moderna may be publicly pivoting toward its cancer therapies, but it’s still notching up vaccine approvals, with the Food & Drug Administration last week...
Measles cases reach 35-year high in United States
America has already recorded 2 295 measles cases this year, a number not seen since 1991, according to new data published on the Johns...
British lung cancer patient first in world to get new vaccine
A woman from England has become the first patient in the world to receive a new vaccine that doctors hope could significantly improve the...
Game-changer new vaccine will eliminate TB public health threat
A new breakthrough vaccine for TB – the first to be introduced in more than a century – is likely to be rolled out...
Mammoth struggle to contain rapidly-spreading Ebola cases in DRC
The Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak, announced just two months ago, has already infected more than 2 120 people and caused...
Drop in vitamin K birth shots tied to bleeding in babies – Swedish analysis
Bleeding episodes among infants aged six months or younger in Sweden doubled between 2003 and 2021, a concerning trend apparently driven by more parents...
Shingles jab may also protect the brain, help ward off dementia
Could a shingles vaccine, which is now available in South Africa, also fight dementia? The evidence appears to be positive, writes Linda Nordling for...
Vaccine hesitancy – lessons from South Africa and Brazil
Vaccine uptake has been declining in Brazil and South Africa over the past decade, reversing important gains in protecting children against vaccine-preventable diseases like...
FDA panel okays mRNA flu jab shot down by Kennedy
An mRNA flu jab candidate that was criticised and dismissed by US Health Sectretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has been unanimously endorsed by a...
HPV jab success sees ‘almost zero chance of cervical cancer death’ – UK study
Since 2008, when schoolgirls were first vaccinated against HPV (human papillomavirus), around 200 lives have been saved in England alone, and the risks of...
Common vaccine shows 24% lower dementia risk – US study
While there’s already convincing evidence that an older shingles vaccine (Zostavax), can protect against dementia, a new and improved shot – Shingrix – has...
More risk of illness, adverse events, from Covid infection than jabs – SA study
A large South African study, involving more than 3m people from the Discovery Health database and undertaken by experts in the field, has concluded...
First African mRNA ‘hub’ gets manufacturing certificate
'Failure was never an option,” said Afrigen Biologics CEO Professor Petro Terblanche last week as the company – which developed an mRNA vaccine from...
Still no conclusive explanation for SIDS – Swiss study
Contemporary sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) research is at an impasse, say experts, who are still unable to pinpoint the cause, or risk factors,...
NICD finds two polio virus strains in Cape wastewater
The Department of Health has said there is no need to panic after the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) detected two polio virus...
Biovac clinches R5.3bn state vaccine contract
The Biovac Institute has retained a critical three-year contract to supply South Africa with Hexaxim, the six-in-one shot provided to babies and toddlers in...
Infant RSV jab better protection than maternal jab – French study
Immunisation with the long-acting monoclonal antibody nirsevimab may provide stronger protection against hospitalisations for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in infants than maternal RSV vaccination...
Why South Africa’s boys should also get the HPV vaccine
South Africa’s 2026-2030 strategy, which will soon be launched, aims to get girls vaccinated from the age of nine against HPV before they turn...
Personalised DNA vaccine shows promise in US brain cancer trial
In a small phase 1 trial, researchers found that an adjuvant personalised DNA vaccine was safe and demonstrated promising efficacy among patients with MGMT-unmethylated...
Malaria mortality slashed in African children after vaccine
WHO’s approval of the RTS,S/AS01 (Mosquirix) malaria vaccine in 2021 was a milestone in global public health, representing not only the first vaccine approved...
Kennedy stalls $600m in jabs for poor countries
US Health & Human Sciences Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s push to remake the US vaccination schedule is on hold after a federal judge’s...
CDC blocks report showing Covid jabs cut hospital visits
A report showing the efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccine and previously delayed by the head of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention...
Alarm over drop in Gauteng’s childhood vaccination rate
More and more children are skipping their childhood immunisations, with the Gauteng Department of Health warning that the declining rates are reducing protection against preventable diseases,...
Promising signs for mRNA cancer vaccines
Messenger RNA, or mRNA, which had generated excitement in the cancer research community long before it became popularly associated with the Covid vaccine, is...
HPV jab halves men’s cancer risk – Japanese cohort study
Cancers caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV) affect both men and women in large numbers, but prevention efforts initially focused on women, reports CIDRP...
High-dose flu shots may lower Alzheimer’s risk – US analysis
A high-dose inactivated flu vaccine has been tied to a roughly 20% lower risk of Alzheimer’s dementia – within the first two years of...
No link between vaccines and sudden cardiac death – Canadian study
The worldwide roll-out of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccines was controversial, with many claiming it took more lives than the infection itself. However, a recent...
Landmark South African study shows efficacy of HPV vaccination
A national HPV vaccination programme can be extremely effective in a high HIV-prevalence setting, a Wits-led research published in The Lancet Global Health shows...
Judge strikes down US vaccine policy changes
In a major blow to the Trump administration’s health agenda, a Massachusetts federal judge has blocked the US Government from implementing a series of...
HPV vaccine winning the cervical cancer war, but …
Two recent studies confirm the HPV vaccine offers lasting protection against cervical cancer, but geography still determines who benefits, reports Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance.
In...
When will SA take the prevention of chronic HBV infection seriously?
South Africa bears a significant burden of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, and a notable prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) among pregnant...
Polio resurgence fears but US healthcare ill-prepared
With a leading United States vaccines adviser saying all vaccine recommendations may be reconsidered – despite a surge in infectious diseases – experts are...
WHO slams US-funded baby vaccine trial in Guinea-Bissau
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has condemned the proposed and now-suspended randomised controlled trial planning to withhold the hepatitis B birth dose vaccine from...
Scientists find cause of blood clots linked to Covid jab
Australian researchers have said they finally know what caused the blood clots linked to Covid-19 vaccines early on in the pandemic.
A “rare and severe”...
US threatens Gavi over vaccines ingredient
The US Government has threatened to withdraw all future funding unless Gavi, the vaccine alliance, removes the ingredient thimerosal from its vaccines. This comes...
Japan to start Nipah virus human vaccine trial
A team of researchers in Japan has announced a clinical trial to confirm a vaccine’s efficacy against the deadly Nipah virus in humans, for...
Western Cape diphtheria cases on the rise
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has warned that cases of toxigenic respiratory diphtheria are increasing, particularly in the Western Cape, where booster...
Six countries lose WHO measles-free status
A rise in measles deaths – and a decline in the number of children having the MMR jab – has resulted in Britain, with...
US plan to test vaccine in West African babies halted
A planned, controversial American-funded study of a hepatitis B vaccine drew that drew widespread condemnation from researchers, including from experts in South Africa, has...
Hidden mpox exposure found in healthy Nigerians – Cambridge study
The mpox virus appears to be circulating silently in parts of Nigeria, in many cases without the symptoms typically associated with the disease, according...