Merck Seeks FDA Approval For HPV Vaccine Use In Boys, Young Men
Merck is seeking FDA approval for the use of its human papillomavirus vaccine, Gardasil, for boys and young men ages nine to 26, the Wall Street Journal reports. Merck is seeking the approval for the prevention of male genital warts and other lesions, for which Gardasil was shown effective in recent studies, according to a Merck spokesperson. The Journal reports that the approval would have the potential to “greatly expan[d] the market for the drug,” which currently is approved for use in girls and young women and has been a “key product” for Merck. Worldwide sales estimates of Gardasil in 2008 were as high as $1.6 billion, although sales recently have decreased (Rockoff, Wall Street Journal, 1/6). According to CNBC.com, Gardasil was approved in 2006 for girls and young women to prevent certain strains of HPV, which is the leading cause of cervical cancer and a sexually transmitted virus that men carry. Merck also has applied for FDA approval for older women to use Gardasil (Huckman, CNBC.com, 1/5).
Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog also included an entry on the approval application (Rockoff, Health Blog, WSJ.com, 1/5).
Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women’s Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women’s Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.
© 2008 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.
Contraceptive Pills Contribute To Environmental Pollution, Male Infertility, Catholic Medical Official Says
An official from the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations said in a report in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano that contraceptive pills pollute the environment and contribute to male infertility, AFP/Google.com reports. In the newspaper, federation President Pedro Jose Maria Simon Castellvi said that the pill “has for some years had devastating effects on the environment by releasing tons of hormones into nature” through female urine. He added, “We have sufficient evidence to state that a non-negligible cause of male infertility in the West is the environmental pollution caused by the pill.” Castellvi did not elaborate further, AFP/Google.com reports.
According to AFP/Google.com, several organizations dismissed Castellvi’s claims. Flavia Franconi of the Society of Italian Pharmacology said that the hormones contained in the pill, such as estrogen, “are present everywhere … in plastics, in disinfectants, in meat that we eat.” Gianbenedetto Melis, vice president of a contraceptive research organization, said, “Once metabolized, the hormones contained in oral contraceptives no longer have any of the characteristic effects of feminine hormones.”
Castellvi’s report follows Pope Benedict XVI’s October reaffirmation that the Roman Catholic Church opposes contraception use (AFP/Google.com, 1/4).
Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women’s Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women’s Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.
© 2008 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.
American Asthma Foundation Announces Breakthrough Discovery
The American Asthma Foundation announced a research breakthrough that explains why tiny, household pests called dust mites are a major source of airborne allergens for patients with allergic asthma.
Dean Smith, Executive Director of the American Asthma Foundation, explains that “although dust mites are known to trigger asthma attacks, until now we did not know why the allergic response to the mites was so strong.” The mystery was solved as a result of research funded by the American Asthma Foundation’s Strategic Program for Asthma Research (SPAR). The results were published December 7, 2008 on http://www.nature.com, the on-line edition of Nature, a prestigious scientific journal. The lead investigator, Dr. Christopher Karp, and his colleagues found that house dust mites trick the immune system into believing that it is facing a bacterial infection. Thus misinformed, the immune system mounts a strong allergic response to the mites, a response that can trigger asthma attacks.
Dr. Karp is head of the Division of Molecular Immunology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. In 2006, he received a three-year senior investigator award from the American Asthma Foundation’s Strategic Program in Asthma Research. The Program sponsors research that investigates new theories about the underlying causes of asthma with the goal of improving treatment and curing and preventing the disease. Dr. Karp’s colleagues included researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Iowa, and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Iowa City, Iowa. Information on Dr. Karp’s research can be found on http://www.americanasthma.org.
Asthma is a chronic, complex disease that is a major public health problem. Nearly one in every 13 people in the United States has asthma — more Americans than have coronary heart disease or cancer or Parkinson’s Disease. Asthma is the most serious chronic disease of childhood and disproportionately strikes the poor.
The American Asthma Foundation is the only national advocacy group in the United States devoted solely to asthma. Marion O. Sandler, Chairman of the Board, describes the Foundation’s mission as “raising funds for research to improve treatment, prevent, and find a cure for the disease. Sad to say, there is no cure for asthma and little progress has been made in 50 years in improving treatment.”
Elaborating on the organization’s approach to research, Sandler explains, “The American Asthma Foundation underwrites a national grants program to attract the best scientific minds to address the asthma problem. Specifically, through its Strategic Program for Asthma Research the American Asthma Foundation supports highly original, cutting-edge asthma research by providing generous multi-year awards to scientists not previously involved in the study of asthma.”
Over the past nine years, the American Asthma Foundation’s Strategic Program for Asthma Research has awarded almost $60 million to 110 outstanding researchers. These United States and Canadian scientists have been drawn from a wide range of fields including biology, epidemiology, medicine, pathology, and pharmacology. Citing the impact of SPAR awards, Executive Director Smith comments that “SPAR investigators have generated over $35 million in new funds from other sources for asthma research. Additionally, over 70% of awardees have continued to study the disease after completion of their SPAR grant.” Recently, the American Asthma Foundation’s SPAR has expanded recruiting efforts to major universities in Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Sweden.
Detailing the positive outcomes achieved by SPAR-funded investigators, Smith notes, “To date, American Asthma Foundation SPAR awards have resulted in eleven promising breakthroughs, or new ‘pathways,’ that have led to support from the pharmaceutical industry. Three of these breakthroughs have progressed to clinical trials. Because the time from a ‘discovery at the bench’ to a new therapy is often measured in decades, we are encouraged that several SPAR-supported projects are on the way to beating this timetable to find a possible therapy.” Smith also observes, “SPAR-supported investigators have published over 200 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals, thereby helping to more broadly distribute the knowledge gained through research sponsored by the program.” The title of Dr. Karp’s Nature article is “Allergenicity Resulting from Functional Mimicry of a Toll-like Receptor Complex Protein.”
Executive Director Smith invites members of the public to help fund SPAR research to find a cure and better treatments for asthma by making a donation at the American Asthma Foundation’s website, http://www.americanasthma.org.
American Asthma Foundation
http://www.americanasthma.org
Chimerix Completes Phase I Study And Initiates A Phase II Multi-dose Clinical Trial For CMX001
Chimerix, Inc., a biotechnology company developing orally available antiviral therapeutics, announced today that the Company has completed a single and multi-dose Phase I study of CMX001 in healthy volunteers. This study supports the further development of the drug for multiple dsDNA infections. The Company has initiated the first Phase II multi-dose clinical trial in patients.
“The safety and high oral availability demonstrated by CMX001 in the Phase I trial has exceeded our original expectations,” said Dr. George Painter, Chimerix President and CEO. “We believe that CMX001 has potential for prevention and treatment of many serious and potentially fatal infections such as smallpox, cytomegalovirus, BK virus and adenovirus.”
The Phase I study of CMX001 was a blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled study that evaluated the safety and pharmacokinetics of orally administered CMX001 in healthy volunteers. The study found CMX001 to be well tolerated at all doses in 84 healthy volunteers.
The first Phase II trial will study the effects of multiple doses of CMX001 given to stem cell and kidney transplant recipients with BK viruria, a condition which may eventually lead to loss of the kidney graft, or to uncontrolled bleeding in the bladder. Further studies are planned to explore the ability of CMX001 to prevent cytomegalovirus disease, a viral disease that may lead to blindness or severe gastrointestinal disease after bone marrow transplant.
CMX001 is being developed for the treatment of smallpox infection and other double stranded DNA virus infections that cause significant human morbidity and mortality. A safe, orally active antiviral drug to treat smallpox infection is needed to help people who become ill after exposure to the disease or those who cannot be vaccinated. The work is partially funded by a $36.1 million grant awarded to the company by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
About Chimerix
Chimerix, Inc. discovers, develops and commercializes therapeutics with enhanced pharmaceutical properties that are active against a broad range of viral diseases. Leveraging a powerful lipid, prodrug technology, ProLipTag(TM), Chimerix is able to develop drug candidates with oral-availability, increased potency and targeted delivery. These enhanced pharmaceutical properties can be applied to new drug moieties or known drugs to improve dosing parameters, broaden therapeutic applications and decrease the risk of adverse events.
Chimerix, Inc.
http://www.chimerix-inc.com
Phase III Studies Of EXPAREL(TM) (DepoBupivacaine) From Pacira Complete Enrollment
Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc., an acute care specialty pharmaceutical company, announced that enrollment has been completed in two pivotal Phase III SIMPLE trials to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a single intraoperative administration of EXPAREL(TM) (DepoBupivacaine) for prolonged postoperative analgesia.
Results from the studies in hemorrhoidectomy and in total knee arthroplasty (TKA) are expected to provide the primary clinical data, in addition to extensive existing preclinical and clinical data, for a planned 2009 NDA filing under U.S. Food and Drug Administration 505 (b)(2) regulations.
EXPAREL, a proprietary product from Pacira Pharmaceuticals, is a novel long-acting, sustained-release formulation of bupivacaine, a local anesthetic widely used for treating postoperative pain. EXPAREL is being studied in several different types of surgical procedures where postoperative pain management is especially problematic and where the need for prolonged analgesia with a single intraoperative administration can provide a significant improvement in pain relief — especially during the first 72-hours following surgery — while also minimizing the need for opioids. With improved prolonged postoperative pain management and a reduction in opioid consumption, Pacira believes patients treated with EXPAREL will experience better pain management and have fewer opioid-related side effects such as nausea and vomiting, and improved outcomes overall.
Recently, Pacira reported the results of a Phase II TKA study of EXPAREL at the International College of Surgeons meeting in Vienna, Austria. The data showed the new sustained-release analgesic significantly reduced postoperative pain, opioid use, and reduced opioid-related adverse events compared to the gold standard pain medication.
Pacira is seeking a co-promotion partner for EXPAREL in the United States. Outside the United States (except Japan), EXPAREL is available for licensing in both human and animal health applications. In the United States, Pacira intends to commercialize EXPAREL and its proprietary pipeline products within specialty acute care. Partnerships in the U.S. for both human and animal health to expand the commercialization are currently in development. EXPAREL is the latest product to benefit from Pacira’s proprietary sustained-release DepoFoam(R) technology. DepoFoam technology is designed to address the limitations of widely used medications by enhancing their dosing and/or administration profile. It achieves this by encapsulating the drug in multivesicular liposomal particles which then release the drug over a desired period of time without altering the drug molecule. DepoFoam is a proven technology that is already used in two commercially available products in the U.S. and Europe.
About Pacira
Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is an acute care specialty pharmaceutical company founded in March, 2007 through the acquisition of the former SkyePharma PLC injectable business, for which an experienced management team was assembled to address the needs of the acute care market. The company’s most advanced product, EXPAREL(TM) (DepoBupivacaine), a bupivacaine-based product intended to deliver postoperative pain relief by infiltration, is in late Phase III clinical development. Pacira also plans to study EXPAREL for nerve block, non-surgical pain such as long bone fracture and for intraarticular injection. EXPAREL benefits from the proprietary DepoFoam Technology owned by Pacira. Two other DepoFoam-based products — DepoDur(R) and DepoCyt/DepoCyte(R) — are marketed by partners in several global territories. The DepoFoam technology also forms the basis of multiple development projects providing Pacira an opportunity to expand its pipeline. Pacira owns two cGMP production facilities which produce the two approved products, EXPAREL clinical development and all pipeline materials.
Additional information about Pacira is available at http://www.pacira.com.
This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including statements relating to initiation and progress of the Company’s clinical trial programs and the preliminary results from the clinical trials. Actual results could differ materially from those projected and the Company cautions readers not to place undue reliance on the forward- looking statements contained in the release and anticipated presentation.
Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
http://www.pacira.com
Cequent To Present First Proof Of Activity Of An Oral RNAi Drug In Non-Human Primates At February Keystone Conference
Cequent Pharmaceuticals, a pioneer in the development of novel products to deliver RNAi-based treatments to prevent and treat human disease, announced that the company has recently completed a successful toxicology study of its candidate CEQ501, an orally administered tkRNAi therapeutic targeting the primary oncogene (beta-catenin, CTNNB1) in FAP (familial adenomatous polyposis). FAP is an inherited gastrointestinal disease that causes hundreds of polyps to form in the colon. Today, without prophylactic removal of the colon, people with FAP almost inevitably develop colon cancer, and there is no medical treatment available. Cequent will present its findings, the first-ever proof of activity of an oral RNAi drug in non-human primates, in a poster at the Keystone Symposia Conference, Therapeutic Modulation of RNA Using Oligonucleotides. The conference will be held February 8 – 13 in Lake Louise, Alberta Canada.
“Delivery of RNAi into the targeted cells and tissues remains one of the biggest challenges in the development of RNAi-based therapeutics – a new class of drugs designed to work by effectively deactivating the specific gene or genes implicated in the progression of a disease,” said Cequent President and CEO, Peter Parker. “We have shown previously in cell-culture assays and in a mouse model for human colon cancer that our tkRNAi technology effectively suppresses beta-catenin, a key oncogene in FAP. These new results are very encouraging, and represent another significant milestone in our work to turn the promise of RNAi into safe and effective therapies to treat devastating diseases, like FAP, and improve the lives of those affected.”
The study showed that tkRNAi targeting beta-catenin was well tolerated at high dosing levels, with no product-related adverse events, no increase in serum cytokines, and no gross or histopathologic abnormalities noted. Orally administered bacteria expressing short hairpin RNA (shRNA) against beta-catenin significantly reduced messenger RNA (mRNA) levels of beta-catenin in the mucosa of the small and large intestine, an effect that was reversible after termination of dosing. Samples obtained from the gastrointestinal mucosa indicate that oral tkRNAi treatment was effective in up to 84 percent of animals, and target gene levels were suppressed between 58 to 64 percent compared to control animals. Pharmacokinetic studies verified the presence of the engineered shRNA in the intestinal mucosa, proving successful delivery of the active hairpin RNA component by the bacterial system. Cequent developed the current tkRNAi candidate on the basis of an E. coli delivery platform obtained from the laboratory of Patrice Courvalin at the Institut Pasteur. Cequent is planning to start a Phase I clinical trial for the indication of FAP in 2009.
About Cequent Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
An early-stage biopharmaceutical company, Cequent is pioneering the development of novel therapeutics to prevent and treat a wide range of human disorders – from inflammatory disease to cancer – based on the company’s proprietary technology, TransKingdom RNA interference (tkRNAi). Cequent’s first products, now in pre-clinical development, are drug candidates targeting colon-cancer prevention and inflammatory bowel disease. The company designed its powerful tkRNAi technology to deactivate specific disease-causing genes safely and effectively, using non-pathogenic bacteria as an engine to produce and deliver RNAi directly into cells. It is based on ground-breaking scientific research originating at the Institut Pasteur (Paris, France) and at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School. A privately held company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cequent was established in 2006.
Cequent Pharmaceuticals
http://www.cequentpharma.com
Kawasaki Disease Treated With Plasma-Derived Therapy
Kawasaki disease is an uncommon illness that typically affects children between the ages of two and five and is a leading cause of acquired heart disease in children in the United States according to the American Heart Association (AHA). Kawasaki disease is treated with intravenous immune globulin (IVIG), a plasma-derived therapy that replaces vital missing antibodies in a person’s plasma and that is manufactured by member companies of the Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association (PPTA).
As reported recently in the news, Backstreet Boys singer Brian Littrell’s six-year-old son Baylee has been diagnosed with atypical Kawasaki disease. According to Littrell’s website posting, “He received IVIG, which is a treatment to bring down the inflammation in his coronary arteries. Baylee will be closely monitored for the next 6-8 weeks by a Pediatric Cardiologist to see if the treatment was effective.” Kawasaki disease can inflame and weaken coronary arteries, creating the risk of blood clots that can cause heart attacks.
“IVIG is produced from plasma donated by healthy, committed donors across the country,” said Julie Birkofer, PPTA Vice President, North America. Plasma is the straw-colored, liquid portion of whole blood that remains when red blood cells, platelets and other cellular components are removed. It is rich in proteins needed to fight infection, clot blood, and ensure proper lung function.
Source plasma used to produce life-saving therapies like IVIG is donated by healthy, committed individuals at 363 government licensed and International Quality Plasma Program-certified plasma collections centers in the U.S., Europe and Canada.
“Nationwide, tens of thousands of individuals rely on plasma protein therapies to treat rare, chronic diseases and disorders, which include hemophilia and other bleeding disorders, primary immunodeficiency diseases, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, Kawasaki disease, and certain autoimmune and neurological disorders,” said Birkofer. “These protein replacement therapies are life-saving.”
To learn more about life-saving plasma protein therapies, visit www.pptaglobal.org. To find out how to become a plasma donor and become an important part of saving someone’s life this holiday season, visit http://www.donatingplasma.org.
The Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association (PPTA) is the trade association and standard setting organization for the world’s major producers of plasmaderived and recombinant analog therapies (collectively, “plasma protein therapies”). These therapies are used by more than 1 million people worldwide each year to treat a variety of diseases and serious medical conditions. PPTA members produce over 80 percent of the plasma therapies for the United States market and more than 60 percent worldwide. Some of the critical therapies produced by PPTA members include: blood clotting factors for people with hemophilia, immune globulin intravenous used to prevent infections in people with immune deficiencies and other serious conditions, and alpha1 proteinase inhibitor used to treat people with alpha1antitrypsin deficiency, also known as genetic emphysema.
Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association
http://www.pptaglobal.org
Childhood Trauma May Be Risk Factor For Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Chronic fatigue syndrome is more likely to be developed in individuals who experience trauma in childhood, according to an article released on January 5, 2008 in the Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. This may be in conjunction with a suggested biological pathway, involving neuroendocrine dysfunctions associated with the early trauma in chronic fatigue syndrome patients.
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a condition related to several painful and tiring symptoms, and is presently a poorly characterized condition at best. According to the article, CFS affects up to 2.5% of adults in the United States, but very little is known about its causes or development. However, several risk factors have been previously identified, including female sex, genetic predisposition, certain personality traits and physical and emotional stress.
The authors note the link of CFS with stress: “Stress in interaction with other risk factors likely triggers chronic
fatigue syndrome symptoms through its effects on central nervous,
neuroendocrine and immune systems, resulting in functional changes that
lead to fatigue and associated symptoms such as sleep disruption,
cognitive impairment and pain.” They continue: “However, obviously
not every individual exposed to a stressor goes on to develop chronic
fatigue syndrome, and it is therefore of critical importance to
understand sources of individual differences in vulnerability to the
pathogenic effects of stress.”
To investigate the association between stress early in life and chronic fatigue syndrome presentation, Christine Heim, Ph.D., of Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, and colleagues examined 113 patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and 124 healthy controls drawn from a general sample of adult residents of Georgia. These participants reported any childhood trauma, including sexual, physical, and emotional abuse and emotional and physical neglect. Additionally, screening was performed for depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and saliva cortisol hormone levels.
The group of participants with chronic fatigue syndrome had higher levels of childhood trauma, such that the trauma was associated with six times the risk of having the condition in comparison to controls. Trauma in the form of sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and emotional neglect were most closely associated with risk of CFS. Additionally, CFS patients were more likely to have depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The authors note that decreased levels of cortisol in the saliva may
indicate decreased function of the body’s neuroendocrine stress
response system, indicating an abnormality in the interaction between
nervous and endocrine reactions. Further examination of cortisol levels indicated that patients with chronic fatigue syndrome who had experienced childhood trauma had decreased levels, while CFS patients without trauma did not. The authors infer, therefore, that early stress could create a biological susceptibility to chronic fatigue syndrome.
The authors conclude that this association must be seriously considered. “Our results confirm childhood trauma as an important risk factor of chronic fatigue syndrome,” they say. “In addition, neuroendocrine dysfunction, a hallmark feature of chronic fatigue syndrome, appears to be associated with childhood trauma. This possibly reflects a biological correlate of vulnerability due to early developmental insults. Our findings are critical to inform pathophysiological research and to devise targets for the prevention of chronic fatigue syndrome.”
Childhood Trauma and Risk for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Association With Neuroendocrine Dysfunction
Christine Heim, PhD; Urs M. Nater, PhD; Elizabeth Maloney, MS, DrPH; Roumiana Boneva, MD, PhD; James F. Jones, MD; William C. Reeves, MD, MSc
Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2009;66(1):72-80.
Click Here For Abstract
Written by Anna Sophia McKenney
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today
Bulimia Nervosa In Women Associated With Certain Brain Circuit Abnormalities
Female patients with bulimia nervosa seem to respond more impulsively in psychological tests in comparison to patients without eating disorders, according to a report released on January 5, 2008 in Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Additionally, functional magnetic resonance imaging brain scans of these patients show different activities in the areas responsible for regulating behavior.
Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder “characterized by recurrent episodes of binge eating followed by
self-induced vomiting or another compensatory behavior to avoid weight
gain,” the authors write. It often occurs in females and begins in the adolescent or young adult years. The authors continue: “These episodes of binge eating are associated with a severe sense of loss of control.”
Frontostriatal circuits are pathways between nerve cells in the brain that allow individuals to control voluntary behaviors. These can be tested in the Simon Spatial Incompatibility task, in which a subject indicates the direction of an arrow regardless of its location on a screen. If the arrow points in the direction corresponding with its location on the screen, this is simple, but when there is dissonance between the directions, the subject must voluntarily ignore the extraneous information to resolve the conflict.
To investigate the behavior of these circuits in patients with bulimia, Rachel Marsh, Ph.D., and colleagues at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, examined 20 women with bulimia and 20 healthy control females under functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing the Simon Spatial Incompatibility task.
The authors summarized the results as follows: “Patients with bulimia nervosa exhibited greater impulsivity than did control participants, responding faster and making more errors on conflict trials [where the arrow direction and location did not match] that required self-regulatory control to respond correctly,” they write. “They responded faster on congruent trials following incorrect conflict trials, suggesting impulsive responding even immediately after having committed an error.” Patients with bulimia generally, when responding correctly in a mismatched arrow, had less activation in their frontostriatal circuits than women in the control group.
The authors conclude that these differences in frontostriatal circuit activity could be significant. “These group differences in performance and patterns of brain activity suggest that individuals with bulimia nervosa do not activate frontostriatal circuits appropriately, perhaps contributing to impulsive responses to conflict stimuli that normally require both frontostriatal activation and the exercise of self-regulatory control to generate a correct response,” they write. “We speculate that this inability to engage frontostriatal systems also contributes to their inability to regulate binge-type eating and other impulsive behaviors.”
They further note that future investigations should include other populations, including impulsive individuals with healthy weights and eating behaviors, adolescents near the age of average bulimia nervosa development, and patients with varying symptom severity.
Deficient Activity in the Neural Systems That Mediate Self-regulatory Control in Bulimia Nervosa
Rachel Marsh, PhD; Joanna E. Steinglass, MD; Andrew J. Gerber, MD; Kara Graziano O’Leary, MA; Zhishun Wang, PhD; David Murphy, MSci; B. Timothy Walsh, MD; Bradley S. Peterson, MD
Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2009;66(1):51-63.
Click Here For Abstract
Written by Anna Sophia McKenney
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today
Measles Eradication By 2010 Unlikely Say Experts
The global plan to eradicate measles by 2010 is unlikely to come about say epidemiology experts because of high rates of infection in some parts
of Europe where many children go unvaccinated.
The research was the work of Dr Mark Muscat, of the Department of Epidemiology at Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen, Denmark, and
colleagues, and is published early online on 7 January in The Lancet.
Although measles vaccination has been a routine part of childhood vaccination programmes in Europe for more than 20 years, the disease persists,
prompting Muscat and fellow epidemiologists to see if the World Health Organization (WHO) goal of global elimination by 2010 is
feasible.
For the study, Muscat and colleagues looked at national surveillance data covering 2006-2007 from 32 European countries that covered age,
confirmation of diagnosis, vaccination, hospital treatment, deaths, and whether acute encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) occurred as a
complication of the disease. They were also able to get data from 30 of the countries on disease importation.
They then selected only clinical cases that had been confirmed by lab tests, analyzed them by age group and categorized the countries into indigenous
incidence bands ranging from zero, low, moderate to high incidence (zero being 0, low being 0.1, moderate being 0.1 to 1.0, and high being over 1.0
cases per 100,000 inhabitants per year).
The results showed that for 2006-2007:
- There was a total of 12,132 recorded cases of measles in 32 European countries, with 85 per cent of them in just five countries: Romania,
Germany, UK, Switzerland, and Italy.
- Most cases were unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated children; however, almost 20 per cent of them were aged 20 years or older.
- Seven measles-related deaths were recorded.
- It appears than in some European countries the vaccination programme is not working as well as it should.
- 210 of the total number of cases were recorded as imported, and of these 117 (56 per cent) came from another European country and 43 (20 per
cent) came from Asia.
Muscat and colleagues wrote that:
“The suboptimum vaccination coverage raises serious doubts that the goal of elimination by 2010 can be attained. Achievement and maintenance of
optimum vaccination coverage and improved surveillance are the cornerstones of the measles elimination plan for Europe.”
These findings suggest that the upsurge of measles in Europe puts the WHO goal under severe threat. Since most of the infected patients were either
unvaccinated or incompleted unvaccinated, it would seem that new vaccination policies are needed to target those most susceptible to the disease, both
in the general population and in high risk groups, notes an editor in the same issue of the journal.
The situation in Europe affects other parts of the world. For instance in the USA in 2008, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), cases of measles infection were at their highest since 1996, and many of them were either imported from or linked to people who
travelled into the US from other countries, particularly from Europe.
The study was funded by the European Commission and the Statens Serum Institut in Denmark.
“Measles in Europe: an epidemiological assessment.”
Mark Muscat, Henrik Bang, Jan Wohlfahrt, Steffen Glismann, Kåre Mølbak, for the EUVAC.NET group.
The Lancet, Early Online Publication, 7 January 2009
doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(08)61849-8
Click here for
Article (registration required to view full text).
Sources: The Lancet.
Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today
