Moderna developing first mRNA vaccine for Marburg
The haemorrhagic fever, which transmits to humans via fruit bats before rapidly spreading person to person, has caused several lethal outbreaks in sub-Saharan Africa – most recently killing 10 people in Tanzania earlier this year.
While Marburg kills more than half of those it infects, there are currently no licenced vaccines or treatments available to tackle it, posing a significant challenge to outbreak response.
Researchers at the University of Texas and Moderna say a new vaccine developed using mRNA technology (used during the pandemic to quickly deliver Covid vaccines) provided full protection against Marburg in a pre-clinical trial carried out on rodents.
The new immunisation produced 'strong neutralising antibodies' and 'importantly, no virus was detectable in the blood of vaccinated animals after exposure – suggesting sterilising immunity,' the study said.
'The fact that we achieved complete protection in all vaccinated animals is a major leap,' said Dr Alexander Bukreyev, an author of the study.
'Moderna's mRNA platform is proving to be very potent when targeting highly lethal pathogens,' added Dr Andrea Carfi, a researcher at the pharmaceutical company.
The jabs will still need to go through rigorous human trials before being licenced for use.
Marburg disease belongs to the Filovirus family, a group of viruses which includes Ebola. It is naturally carried by fruit bats, and can 'jump' to humans via the animals' bites or contact with the animals' urine or saliva.
Once a person is infected, the virus tends to spread rapidly, mainly through contact with the bodily fluids of a sickened person.
Symptoms include high fever, severe headache, muscle pains, diarrhoea, vomiting, and bleeding under the skin and from the eyes.
The virus was first recognised after simultaneous outbreaks occurred in laboratories in Marburg, Frankfurt, and Belgrade, in 1967.
A group of at least 30 lab workers all came into contact with the bodily fluids of a batch of imported African green monkeys from Uganda and became severely unwell.
Seven of the lab workers subsequently died, before the virus's origins were traced back to the monkeys.
Since, outbreaks have occurred sporadically and have all occurred in sub-Saharan Africa in countries including Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, and Uganda.
However, the frequency of outbreaks has been increasing in recent years with at least one cluster of cases occurring every year since 2021.
Scientists suggest that part of the reason for the uptick in cases is related to human encroachment on previously undisturbed habitats which gives more of an opportunity for the virus to spillover from animals to humans.
In January of this year, 10 people in Tanzania were reported to be infected with Marburg virus – all of which died.
Biharamulo district, the area in which the virus spread, is home to several large gold mines and it was suspected that the index case was infected by a bat while working in a mine.
Rwanda also experienced an outbreak of Marburg in September last year – the first ever to be reported in the country – in which 16 people died, mostly healthcare workers in the capital city, Kigali.
US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr quietly announced last month that the Department of Health and Human Services would develop two new vaccines – one for use against Marburg virus and one against Sudan virus, a type of Ebola.
The two jabs are in the early stages of development but, unlike Moderna's vaccine, they do not use mRNA technology – which has come under fire from Mr Kennedy and his vaccine sceptic allies since the Covid-19 pandemic.
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The Guardian
4 hours ago
- The Guardian
The Trump administration is making viruses great again
Do you enjoy getting sick from preventable diseases? Do you have a hankering to make once-declining viruses great again? If so, why not pop over to the US where the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, and his anti-vaccine cronies are making a valiant effort to overturn decades of progress in modern medicine? Let's start with measles cases, which are at their highest rate in 33 years in the US. The blame for this doesn't rest entirely with the Trump administration, of course, but officials certainly don't seem too bothered by it all. RFK Jr has downplayed the number of deaths that have occurred from measles and complained about all the headlines they're generating. Like the rest of his peers in the Trump administration, RFK Jr seems to have absolutely no idea what he is doing, and appears to be just making things up as he goes along. Indeed, the health secretary memorably told Congress in mid-May that he doesn't really think people should be taking medical advice from him. He seems to have forgotten that statement the moment the words left his mouth, however. Not even a couple of weeks later Kennedy announced that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would stop recommending Covid-19 booster shots for healthy children and pregnant women. This was a highly unusual move, as the health secretary doesn't normally make unilateral changes to vaccine recommendations like this. While Kennedy seems to govern by vibes, actual medical experts, who rely on things like evidence and data, are deeply alarmed by the removal of the shots from officials' recommended immunization schedule. '[D]espite the change in recommendations from [health and human services], the science has not changed,' the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) said in a statement. 'It is very clear that Covid-19 infection during pregnancy can be catastrophic and lead to major disability, and it can cause devastating consequences for families.' Kennedy's decision is now facing legal opposition. In the same week that the US reached its dark measles milestone, a number of leading medical associations sued the Trump administration. 'This administration is an existential threat to vaccination in America, and those in charge are only just getting started,' said the lead counsel for the plaintiffs in a statement. Restoring trust in public health agencies and vaccines, especially among pregnant women, will take far more than a lawsuit. Two new surveys, published as a research letter in Jama Network Open, have found that only 35% to 40% of US pregnant women and parents of young children say they intend to fully vaccinate their child. To reiterate: we are now at a place where a majority of pregnant women and parents don't plan to accept all recommended kids' vaccines. 'Given the high decisional uncertainty during pregnancy about vaccinating children after birth, there may be value in intervening during pregnancy to proactively support families with childhood vaccination decisions,' the researchers wrote. Unfortunately, under this administration, that's a lot easier said than done. The president is throwing a fit over backlash to his administration's sudden U-turn on the 'Epstein Files'. On Wednesday he accused his voters of being gullible 'weaklings' who had fallen for the 'Jeffrey Epstein Hoax' which, according to him, is a 'SCAM' cooked up by the 'Lunatic Left' to discredit him. (If it's all a hoax, why is Ghislaine Maxwell in prison, eh?) Then, on Thursday, Status News reported that Trump had called the editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal to try to block its story on Trump's relationship with the disgraced financier. No matter how many insults he flings around or threats he makes, Trump can't bury the bigger Epstein story. Instead people are more invested in finding out who Epstein's associates were than ever before and polls show most Americans believe the government is concealing information. Trump may want to look up the Barbra Streisand effect. The 25-year-old's father allegedly felt threatened because she helped support him financially. The poet and performance artist died of ovarian cancer. 'Whenever I leave this world, whether it's sixty years from now, I wouldn't want anyone to say I lost some battle,' Gibson once wrote. 'I'll be a winner that day.' Gibson was a winner this week, but the world has lost a force for good. Back in 2014, the Oscar-winning actor had surgery to remove 30 uterine fibroids– non-cancerous tumors that can cause severe pain and heavy menstrual bleeding. Black women are three times more likely to develop fibroids than white women. July is Fibroid Awareness Month and, on Tuesday, the actor helped introduce a US uterine health legislative package aimed at introducing better prevention and screening protocols and less invasive treatments. 'I hope to seek answers for the far too many women dealing with uterine fibroids,' Nyong'o said. 'We must reject the normalization of female pain.' 'We are deeply concerned about women's access to health care, especially maternal health care, in ICE detention,' the caucus wrote in a letter. They reference the case of a woman who delivered a stillborn baby after being detained in immigration custody and allegedly having medical care delayed. Sign up to The Week in Patriarchy Get Arwa Mahdawi's weekly recap of the most important stories on feminism and sexism and those fighting for equality after newsletter promotion The Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk writes about her 45 days in a south Louisiana processing facility. Someone needs to give that man contraceptive advice, but OK. In her new memoir, Southern says Tate strangled her in a hotel bed in 2018 and assaulted her. 'No one wants to be a victim, especially not when you come from my political background,' Southern wrote. 'I know exactly what's coming. I'll be crucified online. I'm not looking for sympathy, and I don't expect a victim trophy from any side. I'm publishing this simply because it's the truth and far too few people are telling the truth these days.' Tate, who has been accused of rape and bodily harm by multiple women, responded by accusing Southern of drumming up publicity for her memoir. Husam Masrouf, a poet from Gaza, has a surreal and haunting piece in Flaming Hydra about the lengths some starving Palestinian women are going to try to obtain nutritional supplements. You think the US is turning into a police state? 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Daily Mail
21 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Covid shot linked to vision loss in rare cases
A study has linked a Covid shot with vision loss. It found that Pfizer 's vaccine can adversely affect the cornea, which allows light to enter the eye. At its worst this could lead to corneal swelling or blurry vision, especially in those who already suffer from eye problems or have had a cornea transplant. In 64 people, scientists in Turkey measured changes in the cornea's inner layer, called the endothelium, before taking the first Pfizer dose and two months after receiving the second. Results revealed that taking both doses of the vaccine led to thicker corneas, fewer endothelial cells in the eye and more variation in size of these specialized cells that form the endothelium. In the short term, these changes suggest the Pfizer vaccine may temporarily weaken the endothelium, even though patients didn't suffer clear vision problems during the study. For people with healthy eyes, these small changes likely won't affect vision right away. However, if scientists find that these changes last for years, they could lead to corneal swelling or blurry vision, especially in those with pre-existing eye problems or people who have had a cornea transplant. A thicker cornea and reduced cell density could contribute to eye conditions like corneal edema, bullous keratopathy, or corneal decompensation, which can all cause permanent vision loss in severe cases, especially if left untreated. The researchers warned in the study, published Wednesday in the journal Ophthalmic Epidemiology: 'The endothelium should be closely monitored in those with a low endothelial count or who have had a corneal graft.' An eye doctor can use a special microscope called specular microscopy to find out if someone has a low endothelial cell count. If you have blurry vision or eye discomfort, this test can also check if your cornea's cells are healthy. A low count can be the result of aging, eye diseases like Fuchs' dystrophy, eye surgeries, injuries, or infections. These factors damage the cells that keep your cornea clear, and they don't grow back. Specifically, the team found that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine caused a patient's cornea to go from 528 to 542 micrometers in thickness, or roughly 0.0208 inches to 0.0213 inches. This is a roughly two-percent increase in micrometers. A slightly thicker cornea isn't automatically harmful. The cornea can thicken temporarily due to inflammation, fluid buildup, or stress on the endothelium from minor illnesses or injuries to the eyes. If it stays too thick for months or years, however, it could make the cornea less clear, potentially affecting vision. The team did not recommend against vaccination and will still need to conduct long-term testing on patients to see if these changes continue to appear months and years after taking the shots. The average number of endothelial cells, which keep the cornea clear by pumping out excess fluid, dropped from 2,597 to 2,378 cells per square millimeter in the study, a loss of about eight percent. Normal endothelial cell counts range from 2,000 to 3,000 cells per square millimeter in healthy adults, so 2,378 is still within a safe range for most people. However, for someone with a low cell count to start with, due to a previous eye surgery, infection, or disease, this loss could be riskier for their vision. Researchers also discovered that these cells became less uniform after the vaccination, with their coefficient of variation - each cell's difference in size - increasing from 39 to 42. When cells die, nearby cells stretch to fill the gaps, leading to bigger differences in size. This could mean the endothelium is less healthy. If this trend continued for years, it could affect the cornea's clarity. After vaccination, the study found fewer cells kept their healthy six-sided shape, with the total dropping from 50 to 48 per cent of the cells in the eye. Healthy endothelial cells are usually shaped like hexagons, which allows them to fit together tightly, like a honeycomb. Although the two per cent drop was not a direct sign of damage, it suggested to the team that the cells might be reacting to some sort of stress over those two months to three months. Researchers said their results also showed evidence that the changes had a high likelihood of being directly linked to taking the vaccine, meaning it wasn't just a random anomaly in the testing. If the signs of stress and inflammation drop off shortly after receiving the Pfizer shot, the impact of these minor changes would not be overly harmful. To find these results, the team studied 128 eyes, 64 pairs in total, before each person received their Covid vaccinations. They followed up with the group approximately 75 days after they got their second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The team used a machine called Sirius corneal topography to measure the corneas' thickness and shape, and another device, the Tomey EM-4000 specular microscope, to take detailed pictures of the endothelial cells to check their number, size and shape. Each participant also took a full eye exam, including tests for vision sharpness, eye pressure and scans of the eye's front and back parts to ensure overall eye health. By comparing the measurements taken before vaccination to those after, the researchers could see if the Pfizer vaccine was influencing the health of the eyes. The new data on potentially harmful side-effects linked to Pfizer's Covid vaccine added to a growing list of concerns the Trump Administration has highlighted. In May, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) forced Pfizer and Moderna to use expanded warning labels about the risks of heart damage tied to Covid-19 vaccines. The shots previously included warning labels about the rare chance of patients suffering myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle, and pericarditis, inflammation of the sac-like lining surrounding the heart. The new labels expanded that warning to certain age groups, particularly men between the ages of 16 and 25. Researchers found that this seemingly healthy group appeared to be at the highest risk of the rare complications.
The Guardian
21 hours ago
- The Guardian
The Trump administration is making viruses great again
Do you enjoy getting sick from preventable diseases? Do you have a hankering to make once-declining viruses great again? If so, why not pop over to the US where the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, and his anti-vaccine cronies are making a valiant effort to overturn decades of progress in modern medicine? Let's start with measles cases, which are at their highest rate in 33 years in the US. The blame for this doesn't rest entirely with the Trump administration, of course, but officials certainly don't seem too bothered by it all. RFK Jr has downplayed the number of deaths that have occurred from measles and complained about all the headlines they're generating. Like the rest of his peers in the Trump administration, RFK Jr seems to have absolutely no idea what he is doing, and appears to be just making things up as he goes along. Indeed, the health secretary memorably told Congress in mid-May that he doesn't really think people should be taking medical advice from him. He seems to have forgotten that statement the moment the words left his mouth, however. Not even a couple of weeks later Kennedy announced that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would stop recommending Covid-19 booster shots for healthy children and pregnant women. This was a highly unusual move, as the health secretary doesn't normally make unilateral changes to vaccine recommendations like this. While Kennedy seems to govern by vibes, actual medical experts, who rely on things like evidence and data, are deeply alarmed by the removal of the shots from officials' recommended immunization schedule. '[D]espite the change in recommendations from [health and human services], the science has not changed,' the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) said in a statement. 'It is very clear that Covid-19 infection during pregnancy can be catastrophic and lead to major disability, and it can cause devastating consequences for families.' Kennedy's decision is now facing legal opposition. In the same week that the US reached its dark measles milestone, a number of leading medical associations sued the Trump administration. 'This administration is an existential threat to vaccination in America, and those in charge are only just getting started,' said the lead counsel for the plaintiffs in a statement. Restoring trust in public health agencies and vaccines, especially among pregnant women, will take far more than a lawsuit. Two new surveys, published as a research letter in Jama Network Open, have found that only 35% to 40% of US pregnant women and parents of young children say they intend to fully vaccinate their child. To reiterate: we are now at a place where a majority of pregnant women and parents don't plan to accept all recommended kids' vaccines. 'Given the high decisional uncertainty during pregnancy about vaccinating children after birth, there may be value in intervening during pregnancy to proactively support families with childhood vaccination decisions,' the researchers wrote. Unfortunately, under this administration, that's a lot easier said than done. The president is throwing a fit over backlash to his administration's sudden U-turn on the 'Epstein Files'. On Wednesday he accused his voters of being gullible 'weaklings' who had fallen for the 'Jeffrey Epstein Hoax' which, according to him, is a 'SCAM' cooked up by the 'Lunatic Left' to discredit him. (If it's all a hoax, why is Ghislaine Maxwell in prison, eh?) Then, on Thursday, Status News reported that Trump had called the editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal to try to block its story on Trump's relationship with the disgraced financier. No matter how many insults he flings around or threats he makes, Trump can't bury the bigger Epstein story. Instead people are more invested in finding out who Epstein's associates were than ever before and polls show most Americans believe the government is concealing information. Trump may want to look up the Barbra Streisand effect. The 25-year-old's father allegedly felt threatened because she helped support him financially. The poet and performance artist died of ovarian cancer. 'Whenever I leave this world, whether it's sixty years from now, I wouldn't want anyone to say I lost some battle,' Gibson once wrote. 'I'll be a winner that day.' Gibson was a winner this week, but the world has lost a force for good. Back in 2014, the Oscar-winning actor had surgery to remove 30 uterine fibroids– non-cancerous tumors that can cause severe pain and heavy menstrual bleeding. Black women are three times more likely to develop fibroids than white women. July is Fibroid Awareness Month and, on Tuesday, the actor helped introduce a US uterine health legislative package aimed at introducing better prevention and screening protocols and less invasive treatments. 'I hope to seek answers for the far too many women dealing with uterine fibroids,' Nyong'o said. 'We must reject the normalization of female pain.' 'We are deeply concerned about women's access to health care, especially maternal health care, in ICE detention,' the caucus wrote in a letter. They reference the case of a woman who delivered a stillborn baby after being detained in immigration custody and allegedly having medical care delayed. Sign up to The Week in Patriarchy Get Arwa Mahdawi's weekly recap of the most important stories on feminism and sexism and those fighting for equality after newsletter promotion The Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk writes about her 45 days in a south Louisiana processing facility. Someone needs to give that man contraceptive advice, but OK. In her new memoir, Southern says Tate strangled her in a hotel bed in 2018 and assaulted her. 'No one wants to be a victim, especially not when you come from my political background,' Southern wrote. 'I know exactly what's coming. I'll be crucified online. I'm not looking for sympathy, and I don't expect a victim trophy from any side. I'm publishing this simply because it's the truth and far too few people are telling the truth these days.' Tate, who has been accused of rape and bodily harm by multiple women, responded by accusing Southern of drumming up publicity for her memoir. Husam Masrouf, a poet from Gaza, has a surreal and haunting piece in Flaming Hydra about the lengths some starving Palestinian women are going to try to obtain nutritional supplements. You think the US is turning into a police state? I'm afraid things are not any better in the UK, where armed police may threaten to arrest you simply for peacefully holding a Palestinian flag. We live in an upside down world where accused war criminals like Benjamin Netanyahu are wined and dined by politicians, while protesting against the murder of more than 17,000 children is treated as some sort of crime. Turns out your canine companion may secretly be judging you for your reality TV habit. A new study has found that dogs engage meaningfully with the TV and have certain viewing preferences. I reckon my little chihuahua is a big fan of Game of Bones and RuPaw's Drag Race. Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
