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Vaccine Studies Still Exclude Pregnant Women. That’s a Big Mistake.

December 18, 2018

“The decision to continue to withhold this vaccine from pregnant women is not justifiable,” says our Ruth Faden, “We must listen to the voices of pregnant women in the midst of an outbreak. If they’re saying, ‘Give me the choice, I want to decide,’ how can we not respond to that? How could you not give them that choice?”

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Vaccine Studies Still Exclude Pregnant Women. That’s a Big Mistake.

Tuesday, December 18th, 2018

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According to a new report by medical experts, the problem is global. New vaccines are rarely designed with the specific needs of pregnant women in mind, leaving many women vulnerable to diseases which, a few months earlier, they might have been able to receive protection from. “The decisionto continue to withhold this vaccine from pregnant women is notjustifiable,” says Ruth Faden, a professor of biomedical ethics at Johns Hopkins University and one of the lead authors of the report. “We must listen to the voices of pregnant women in the midst of an outbreak. If they’re saying, ‘Give me the choice, I want to decide,’ how can we not respond to that? How could you not give them that choice?”

The report, penned by the Pregnancy Research Ethics for Vaccines, Epidemics, and New Technologies (PREVENT) Working Group, a team of experts specializing in disciplines including bioethics, maternal-fetal medicine, philosophy, and vaccine research, examines the urgent need to address the welfare of pregnant women in public health crises. It lays out 22 recommendations for policymakers in the United States and abroad, including directions to improve data collection so vaccines can be developed—and clinical trials conducted—with pregnant women in mind. In the event of an outbreak, the experts say, maternal and neonatal health experts should be closely consulted, and decisions should be informed by the perspective of affected women themselves—many pregnant women, Faden says, would likely opt into research to protect them and their babies, born or otherwise, from disease. And during an epidemic, the default should be to offer vaccines to pregnant women, not the reverse.

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Mother Jones

Ebola Vaccine Is Having ‘Major Impact’ But Worries About Congo Outbreak Grow

December 11, 2018

As an Ebola outbreak in a conflict-plagued region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continues to spread after 4 months, there’s a glimmer of hope: An experimental Ebola vaccine appears to be helping the communities it reaches

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Ebola Vaccine Is Having ‘Major Impact’ But Worries About Congo Outbreak Grow

Tuesday, December 11th, 2018

More than 40,000 people have received the vaccine, by far the largest use of it since a trial in 2015 showed it worked well. The vaccine’s effectiveness in this outbreak has not been formally assessed. But Peter Salama, who heads the Ebola response for the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland, says, “I think it’s having a major impact.”

WHO, which works in concert with the DRC’s Ministry of Public Health, can’t distribute the vaccine as widely as it would like, however, because of limited supplies, Salama notes. And the obvious targets for vaccination—people who have had contact with cases—have been difficult to identify and reach because of the ongoing conflict; a small number of front-line health care workers have even been caught in the crossfire.

So far the outbreak has tallied some 500 cases, about half of whom have died, according to the DRC’s Ministry of Public Health. It spans a region of the DRC’s northeast that abuts four other countries, and Salama and many others worry about the deadly virus jumping a border, which would require separate response teams and boost the potential for wider spread by infecting people with increased transportation options. Without more financial and personnel support from wealthy countries, the situation could explode into a long-running calamity similar to the Ebola epidemic that devastated three West African countries from 2014 to 2016, warns an editorial published last month in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). A consensus statement from 25 public health and policy experts published the same week in The Journal of the American Medical Association calls the outbreak “exceptionally” dangerous.

…continue reading ‘Ebola Vaccine Is Having ‘Major Impact’ But Worries About Congo Outbreak Grow’

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Science

‘Like a horror film’: The efforts to contain Ebola in a war zone

December 10, 2018

The medical anthropologist was in the shower when she heard the first pops of gunfire. Initially, she thought it might be the action movie she’d left playing on high volume. Then the wall shook

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Exclusion of Pregnant Women from Vaccine Research, Deployment Is ‘Unacceptable,’

December 10, 2018

New report outlines recommendations for ensuring that pregnant women receive potentially life-saving vaccines

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Refusal To Give Pregnant Women Vaccines Branded Unacceptable

December 6, 2018

Failure to vaccinate pregnant women during deadly infectious disease outbreaks is putting them and their unborn children at risk, a new report has warned

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Vaccines

November 30, 2018

Our greatest hope in defeating AIDS, Ebola, TB, and other infectious diseases, writes Mark Feinberg

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Security is a Top Line Issue in the Fight Against Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo

November 26, 2018

In a recent discussion of the Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Dr. Peter Salama, Deputy Director-General of Emergency Preparedness and Response for the WHO, properly described the “perfect storm” of a potentially devastating epidemic in the midst of a major security crisis

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A Pivotal Day In World’s Response to Ebola Nears

November 12, 2018

Health officials are preparing to launch a clinical trial designed to test whether experimental Ebola therapies improve patients’ chances of survival in the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — a landmark moment in the world’s efforts to respond to this and future crises

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Vaccine Studies Still Exclude Pregnant Women. That’s a Big Mistake.

Vaccine Studies Still Exclude Pregnant Women. That’s a Big Mistake.

Ebola Vaccine Is Having ‘Major Impact’ But Worries About Congo Outbreak Grow

Ebola Vaccine Is Having ‘Major Impact’ But Worries About Congo Outbreak Grow

‘Like a horror film’: The efforts to contain Ebola in a war zone

‘Like a horror film’: The efforts to contain Ebola in a war zone

Exclusion of Pregnant Women from Vaccine Research, Deployment Is ‘Unacceptable,’

Exclusion of Pregnant Women from Vaccine Research, Deployment Is ‘Unacceptable,’

Refusal To Give Pregnant Women Vaccines Branded Unacceptable

Refusal To Give Pregnant Women Vaccines Branded Unacceptable

Vaccines

Vaccines

Security is a Top Line Issue in the Fight Against Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Security is a Top Line Issue in the Fight Against Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo

A Pivotal Day In World’s Response to Ebola Nears

A Pivotal Day In World’s Response to Ebola Nears

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