Health News Roundup: Senegal institute to get $50 million to make vaccines for Global South; J&J to discontinue HIV vaccine trial and more

The island nation of 22 million people is struggling with soaring prices, including of food, largely caused by its worst economic crisis since it gained independence in 1948. Factbox-Moderna data puts the spotlight on RSV vaccines under development Moderna Inc said on Tuesday its respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine was highly effective in preventing at least two symptoms of infections in older adults in a late-stage trial, as drugmakers race to develop a shot against the virus.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Senegal institute to get $50 million to make vaccines for Global South

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI) will invest up to $50 million over 10 years to help Senegal's Institut Pasteur manufacture vaccines for the Global South, it said on Thursday. CEPI, a global initiative headquartered in Norway, is creating a network of vaccine manufacturers in developing countries to help boost capacity and reserves for future outbreaks and pandemics.

J&J to discontinue HIV vaccine trial

Johnson & Johnson said on Wednesday that it was pulling the plug on a late-stage global trial of an HIV vaccine after the shot was found ineffective at preventing infections. The trial's failure marks yet another setback in the search for a vaccine against a virus known to mutate rapidly and find unique ways to evade the immune system, and comes more than a year after another of J&J's HIV vaccine failed a study.

Chinese who lost relatives to COVID angry at failure to protect elderly

Former high school teacher Ailia was devastated when her 85-year-old father died after displaying COVID-like symptoms as the virus swept through their hometown in the southeastern province of Jiangxi. While her father was never tested, Ailia and her mother were both confirmed positive around the same time and she believes that COVID was a cause in his death.

Hong Kong to scrap isolation requirement for people with COVID

Hong Kong said it will no longer require people infected with COVID-19 to quarantine from Jan. 30, removing one of the last major coronavirus restrictions in place in the Asian financial hub. The scrapping of the isolation requirements is part of a decision to downgrade COVID-19's status to an endemic disease from a severe respiratory disease and follows a similar move by China on Jan.8.

China says critical COVID cases have peaked as holiday travel surges

The number of COVID patients needing critical care in China's hospitals has peaked, health authorities said on Thursday, as millions travelled across the country for long-awaited reunions with families, raising fears of fresh outbreaks. There has been widespread scepticism over China's official COVID data since it abruptly axed anti-virus controls last month that had shielded China's 1.4 billion people from the disease for three years.

Make it easier to raise children say many Chinese after population falls

If China wants to reverse a decline in population, more should be done to help families raise their children, according to Wei Chao, a 31-year-old mother of twin girls living in Shanghai, and many more parents interviewed by Reuters held the same view. "Nowadays many people do not want to have children if they can't provide a good education for them," Wei told Reuters on Wednesday as she sat in a park with her husband and daughters.

Child nutrition drops in Sri Lanka amid economic crisis

The number of children grappling with various forms of undernutrition in Sri Lanka increased for the first time in at least six years in 2022, a government report and data from the health ministry indicate. The island nation of 22 million people is struggling with soaring prices, including of food, largely caused by its worst economic crisis since it gained independence in 1948.

Factbox-Moderna data puts the spotlight on RSV vaccines under development

Moderna Inc said on Tuesday its respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine was highly effective in preventing at least two symptoms of infections in older adults in a late-stage trial, as drugmakers race to develop a shot against the virus. There is only one drug in the United States for RSV, and rivals Pfizer Inc and GSK Plc expect a decision in May 2023 for their experimental RSV shots for adults.

EU drug regulator has not seen signal of possible Pfizer COVID shot stroke link

The European Union's drug regulator has not identified any safety signals in the region related to U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech's updated COVID-19 shot, the agency said on Wednesday. On Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said that a safety monitoring system had flagged that the shot could possibly be linked to a type of brain stroke in older adults, according to preliminary data. "EMA can confirm that to date no such signal has been identified in the EU. EMA will continue to evaluate all available data to determine whether emerging safety information could point to a similar signal in the EU," the agency told Reuters in response to a question.

Indonesia court hears class-action suit after children die from tainted cough syrup

Families of Indonesian children who died because of tainted cough syrup demanded restitution as an Indonesian court on Tuesday started hearing their class-action lawsuit against government agencies and pharmaceutical firms. About 200 children have died of acute kidney injury in Indonesia since last year and authorities have said two ingredients, ethylene glycol and diethyelene glycol, found in some syrup-based paracetamol medications are linked to the illness.

(With inputs from agencies.)