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Quick takes: CDC notes 3rd measles death, FDA OKs hepatitis B treatment, hep B vaccine seized in Guinea-Bissau
News briefToday at 2:47 p.m.
Stephanie Soucheray, MA
Topics
Hepatitis
Measles
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recognizes three measles-related deaths on their measles outbreak dashboard, despite Pennsylvania reporting five deaths (with a sixth under investigation) so far this year. It is unclear what prompted the CDC to change the death toll yesterday. Pennsylvania Gov Josh Shapiro has accused the CDC of playing political theater with its measles death toll, but the agency maintains it’s working with the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) to develop a standardized case definition for deaths due to measles. Last week CSTE told CIDRAP News that a workgroup was officially launched earlier this summer regarding that standard definition. “The workgroup is assessing the timeline for release of the case definition; however, at this time we generally anticipate approximately 2 to 3 months for the work to be completed,” CSTE said.
- The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new treatment for chronic hepatitis B infection (HBV) in some adults without cirrhosis. The injection, Hibsago (bepirovirsen), is to be used in adults who have already been taking HBV antiviral therapy for at least six months, have suppressed levels of HBV in their blood, and have hepatitis B surface antigen levels of 3,000 IU/mL or less, as determined by an FDA-authorized test. “Across the two trials, 24% of patients who received Hibsago met the requirements to stop their existing medicine, compared with none who received placebo,” the FDA said.
- Bandim Health Project, a group of Danish vaccine researchers leading a controversial hepatitis B vaccine trial in Guinea-Bissau, had doses of vaccine seized by police from their Guinea-Bissau office earlier this week, according to a Facebook post . The researchers said they had received approval to conduct the hepatitis B vaccine trial on newborns in the country this summer, with partial funding from the CDC. Earlier this month the University of Southern Denmark confirmed that the trial, which would withhold newborn doses of hepatitis B vaccine to half of the participants, was approved, but the health minister of Guinea-Bissau said at the time he did not think the trial would advance. The World Health Organization has called the trial unethical, saying hepatitis B vaccination at birth is an “essential public health intervention.” Today a lead researcher on the project wrote on LinkedIn, “It is now clear that the HBV-NSE trial will not move forward in Guinea-Bissau – we were not given the necessary governmental approval.”