Dear all,
With a slight delay, here are the updates for October and as usual feel free to forward to your NITAG members and secretariat if they are not part of the mailing list.
COVID-19:
- NACI published an Updated guidance on the use of COVID-19 vaccines in individuals who have not previously been vaccinated against COVID-19. Going forward, XBB.1.5 vaccines are the recommended products for those previously unvaccinated and previously vaccinated. For primary series COVID-19 vaccine in those who were not previously vaccinated, NACI recommends that:
- Children 6 months to under 5 years of age who are at high risk for severe illness due to COVID-19 should be vaccinated against COVID-19, and other children in this age group may be vaccinated;
- Those 5 years of age and over should be vaccinated against COVID-19
More information here.
Meningococcal disease :
- In Belgium, the NITAG published an advice on Vaccination of persons at risk of meningococcal infection. Vaccination against meningococcal ACWY has been part of the basic vaccination schedule for children and adolescents since 2019. For certain risk groups, the SHC recommends the meningococcal group B vaccine, with booster doses for both vaccines depending on the group. This new advice provides an overview of the vaccination schedules and a definition of the risk groups, namely:
- persons at medical risk,
- travellers to endemic areas or pilgrims of the Hadj/Umrah, and
- laboratory staff in contact with invasive meningococci (new).
The advice is available in French here.
- ACIP stated that Pfizer’s MenABCWY vaccine may be used when both MenACWY and MenB are indicated at the same visit.*
*1) Healthy individuals aged 16–23 years (routine schedule) when shared clinical decision-making favors administration of MenB vaccination, 2) individuals aged 10 years and older at increased risk of meningococcal disease (e.g., due to persistent complement deficiencies, complement inhibitor use, or functional or anatomic asplenia) due for both vaccines.
Mpox:
- ACIP recommends vaccination* with the 2-dose (Dose 2 administered 28 days after dose 1) JYNNEOS vaccine series for persons aged 18 years and older at risk for mpox. This is an interim recommendation that ACIP will revisit in 2-3 years
Persons at risk:
- Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men, transgender or nonbinary people who in the past 6 months have had one of the following:
- A new diagnosis of ≥1 sexually transmitted disease
- More than one sex partner
- Sex at a commercial sex venue
- Sex in association with a large public event in a geographic area where mpox transmission is occurring
- Sexual partners of persons with the risks described in above
- Persons who anticipate experiencing any of the above
Polio:
- The ZIMNITAG (Zimbabwe) met urgently to discuss whether the country should adopt the novel oral polio vaccine (nOPV2) for the control of type 2 circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV2) outbreaks which was declared by the Ministry of Health and Child Care on 27 October 2023. The committee recommended:
- The use of nOPV2 in the country as an outbreak response to cVDPV2
- The country to target the 0-9 years age group as a response to cVDPV2. This target age group is important as there is evidence of insufficient routine Immunisation coverage for the group after the switch in 2016 and the disturbances caused by the COVID-19
- There is need to conduct seroprevalence studies for the 12-15 year age group to guide future/anticipated roll-out to this group.
- Monitoring of AESI/AEFIs should be intensified during and after the planned mass vaccination campaigns.
- Maintenance of high population immunity through routine immunization should be encouraged, and vi. Good water and sanitation through promotion of WASH activities should be encouraged as a long term and cost effective solution.
SAGE:
- The SAGE meeting was held on September 25 – 29 2023 and covered several important topics with policy recommendations that will follow: Dengue, Malaria, Meningitis, COVID 19, Smallpox and Mumps. Meeting highlights are available here.
- SAGE updated the Good Practice Statement on the use of variant-containing COVID-19 vaccines, which is available here.
- SAGE updated the WHO roadmap on uses of COVID-19 vaccines in the context of Omicron and high population immunity, online here.
- WHO recommends R21/Matrix-M vaccine for malaria prevention in updated advice on immunization – read the full press release here.
- The next SAGE meeting will be on March 11-14th 2024.
GNN:
- The recording of the GNN SAGE Digest is available:
GNN SAGE DIGEST WEBINAR-20231012_145721-Meeting Recording.mp4
- Presentations are available here.
Vaccinology course:
- The application portal for ADVAC 2024 course is now open until the 15th of November at this address: www.advac.org
For the past 23 years, ADVAC, the Advanced Course of Vaccinology, trained more than 1400 scientists and decision-makers involved in vaccine development, in the elaboration of new vaccination strategies or in policy decisions related to the introduction of new vaccines in public health programs, at national or international levels. This advanced course is relevant for experts from both the public and private sectors and from both LMICs and HICs.
Best wishes,
Louise