1- Monday Infectious Disease News – 17th May

1 – COVID vaccine: WHO approves China’s Sinopharm for emergency use

• It is the first time the World Health Organization has given the green light to a Chinese-made vaccine.
• The Sinopharm jab is the sixth vaccine to receive approval from the global health body.
• It is the first non-Western vaccine to gain WHO emergency use approval.
• The WHO had already given such approval to vaccines developed by BioNTech-Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna.

Source: DW

2 – Coronavirus: Germany opens up AstraZeneca COVID vaccines for all adults

• AstraZeneca jabs will soon be available to all adults, after German officials lifted restrictions banning under 60-year-olds from getting the vaccine.
• AstraZeneca jabs will no longer be limited to people aged 60 and older, German federal and state officials agreed on Thursday.
• People will also no longer have to wait 12 weeks to receive their second dose of the AstraZeneca jab, Health Minister Jens Spahn announced.
• The second dose can be delivered as soon as four weeks after the first.

Source: DW

3 – Covid-19: Two doses of Pfizer vaccine are “highly effective” against infection, hospital admission, and death, study finds

• Two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech covid-19 vaccine provide more than 95% protection against infection, hospital admission, and death, including among older people.
• A single dose of the Pfizer vaccine was associated with 58% protection against infection, 76% against hospital admission, and 77% against death.
• Seven days after a second dose, the Pfizer vaccine provided everyone aged over 16 with 95.3% protection against infection, 97.2% protection against hospital admission overall, 97.5% protection against severe and critical hospital admission, and 96.7% protection against death.

Source: The BMJ

4- Arterial events, venous thromboembolism, thrombocytopenia, and bleeding after vaccination with Oxford-AstraZeneca ChAdOx1-S in Denmark and Norway: population based cohort study

• This study aims to assess rates of cardiovascular and haemostatic events in the first 28 days after vaccination with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine ChAdOx1-S in Denmark and Norway and to compare them with rates observed in the general populations.
• Among recipients of ChAdOx1-S, increased rates of venous thromboembolic events, including cerebral venous thrombosis, were observed.
• For the remaining safety outcomes, results were largely reassuring, with slightly higher rates of thrombocytopenia/coagulation disorders and bleeding, which could be influenced by increased surveillance of vaccine recipients.
• The absolute risks of venous thromboembolic events were, however, small, and the findings should be interpreted in the light of the proven beneficial effects of the vaccine.

Source: The BMJ

5 – Where are we with drug treatments for covid-19?

• A year since the pandemic began, just a handful of lifesaving drugs have emerged as approved covid-19 treatments
• Covid-19 is a viral disease.
• Therefore, researchers have sought drugs such as antivirals that target viruses, to debilitate SARS-CoV-2 or block its activity in the human body.
• Another approach involves using drugs such as antibody treatments, to prevent covid-19 infection from occurring in the first place.
• This article looks at the ongoing major trials for COVID-19 treatment.

Source: The BMJ

6 – India’s COVID-19 emergency

• The scenes of suffering in India are hard to comprehend.
• The impression that India had beaten COVID-19 after several months of low case counts, despite repeated warnings of the dangers of a second wave and the emergence of new strains.
• Modelling suggested falsely that India had reached herd immunity, encouraging complacency and insufficient preparation.
• India must now pursue a two-pronged strategy.
• There are two immediate bottlenecks to overcome: increasing vaccine supply (some of which should come from abroad) and setting up a distribution campaign that can cover not just urban but also rural and poorer citizens.

Source: The Lancet

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