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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...
Shingles vaccine may slow biological ageing – US study
Apart from its prime benefit in protecting against a painful viral illness, the shingles (herpes zoster) vaccine may help slow biological ageing in older...
SA HIV vaccine trial picks up again after funding setback
Everything had been leading to the meeting early last year in Zanzibar, where 100 researchers, clinicians and other experts on HIV from across Africa...
US medical groups ask court to block vaccine changes
Six medical organisations in the US plan to ask the courts to throw out revisions to the childhood vaccination schedule recently announced by Health...
US court allows Covid jab lawsuit to continue
A US federal court has denied the government’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit challenging changes to Covid-19 vaccine recommendations, and the case will now...
Bayer sues Covid jab makers over mRNA technology
Monsanto sued Covid-19 vaccine makers Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna in Delaware federal court on Tuesday for allegedly misusing its messenger RNA technology in manufacturing their vaccines,...
Controversial study will delay life-saving vaccine for Guinea-Bissau babies
This week saw the start of a $1.6m trial in Guinea-Bissau, funded by the United States Government, on the timing of hepatitis B vaccinations,...
Novel cholera vaccine shows promise in phase 1 trial
Oral cholera vaccines have played a critical role in efforts to prevent and control the severe and potentially life-threatening diarrhoeal disease. But experts agree...
Outcry after US childhood vaccine changes
In a radical shift in child immunisation policy, US federal officials this week announced unprecedented changes to its childhood vaccine schedule, sparking widespread condemnation...
CDC ends decades-long hepatitis jab policy
Experts have expressed concern about the Centres for Disease Control's (CDC) decision to end the recommendation that all newborns should receive the hepatitis shot,...
Now US shifts focus to RSV shots despite safety, efficacy data
RSV vaccines, which have drastically lowered infant hospitalisations, have come under review by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) despite no previously published reports...
SAHPRA and WHO pilot new approval process
The WHO and SAHPRA have agreed to pilot a new review mechanism for locally manufactured vaccines to speed up the process, and has called...
More proof that one dose of HPV jab as good as two – Costa Rica trial
The results from a recent trial support the WHO recommendation for single-dose human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination to achieve higher coverage while sustaining efficiency, say...
US to end recommendations for newborns’ hepatitis B jabs
A federal vaccine committee in the US has voted to end a decades-long recommendation that all newborns be immunised at birth against hepatitis B,...
Another study throws light on shingles vaccine effect in dementia fight
A new follow-up study has found that the shingles vaccine – which had been found in an earlier study to slow the progression of...
SA lines up plans to make its own six-monthly anti-HIV jab
The government says it could fill the potential gap in the number of doses of the HIV prevention jab Lenacapavir (LEN) needed to end...
Growing concern over drop in infant immunisations
The Western Cape Department of Health & Wellness recently flagged a concerning decline in infant immunisation rates, and is intensifying its campaign to step...
Backlash against FDA claims that Covid vaccine tied to children’s deaths
US public health experts are questioning a claim by the Food & Drug Administration that a new review has linked 10 children’s deaths to the...