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National Post
2 hours ago
- Health
- National Post
As RSV Season Approaches, the Federation of Medical Women of Canada Urges National Response to Protect Infants Across the Country
Article content FMWC's Maternal RSV Task Force releases new white paper highlighting gaps in access and calls for immediate action ahead of RSV season Article content TORONTO — Today, the Federation of Medical Women of Canada (FMWC) released its latest white paper through the Maternal RSV Task Force—a national group of experts in maternal, infant, and public health—highlighting the urgent need for equitable access to maternal RSV prevention across Canada. With the 2025–2026 RSV season approaching, the task force is calling for immediate action to protect infants, especially healthy, full-term newborns who account for the majority of severe RSV cases. Article content Article content Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is the leading cause of infant hospitalizations in Canada, with 1 in 50 infants hospitalized during their first year of life 1. The RSV virus causes upper and lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) 2, and babies who develop LRTI in early childhood have almost double the risk of premature death from respiratory disease relative to unaffected individuals. 3 Although two newly approved RSV immunization options have been authorized by Health Canada — a maternal vaccine RSVpreF (Abrysvo™, Pfizer) and a monoclonal antibody for infants nirsevimab (Beyfortus™, Sanofi) — access remains inconsistent across provinces and territories. Article content Ontario is leading by covering both RSVpreF for pregnant women and pregnant people and nirsevimab for infants, yet provinces like B.C. only cover the older monoclonal antibody, palivizumab, for high-risk infants — leaving 98% of infants unprotected and at risk for RSV. 4 'With two safe and effective immunization options now available, we have the tools to protect infants from RSV—but awareness, access, and equity remain critical challenges,' says Dr. Vivien Brown, Family Physician and Co-Chair of the FMWC Maternal RSV Task Force. 'This white paper highlights the urgent need for national coordination, public funding, and ongoing education to ensure that every pregnant woman and pregnant person, regardless of where they live, can protect their infant from this serious and preventable disease.' Article content The white paper outlines 13 short- and long-term recommendations to improve RSV prevention in Canada, including: Article content Public funding for RSV immunization (maternal vaccine year-round; nirsevimab seasonally) Authorizing pharmacists to administer publicly funded vaccines Tailoring education for a range of healthcare providers, including midwives and pharmacists Engaging with manufacturers to clarify the predicted availability of immunization options Implementing a universal, national immunization registry Strengthening national guidance on vaccination and provincial implementation Article content 'This is fundamentally about health equity,' says Dr. Shelley Ross, Family Physician and Co-Chair of the FMWC Maternal RSV Task Force. 'Our hope is that by providing a clear, evidence-based roadmap that outlines the steps we can take as a united healthcare system, we can close the gaps and ensure every infant in Canada has the opportunity to be protected from RSV, regardless of geography or circumstance.' Article content The task force also launched a national hub for healthcare providers and the public, offering up-to-date information and comprehensive educational resources on RSV and RSV protection strategies. Article content The FMWC urges pregnant women and pregnant people to speak with their healthcare providers about RSV prevention options and calls on policymakers to help close the access gap as the upcoming 2025–2026 RSV season begins. Article content For more details on the FMWC Maternal RSV White Paper and its recommendations, please visit Article content About FMWC Article content The Federation of Medical Women of Canada (FMWC) is a national organization recognized for its leadership and advocacy for women's evolving health. We are committed to promoting the well-being and health of women and women-identifying individuals both within the medical profession and society at large. The FMWC has a 100-year history in Canada, is a member of the non-governmental organization (NGO) section of the Department of Global Affairs at the United Nations (UN) and is a member of the Medical Women's International Association (MWIA), making us a part of the Economic and Social Council of the UN (ECOSO). For more information, please visit: Article content _____________________________ 1 Government of Canada. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines: Canadian Immunization Guide. immunization-guide-part-4-active-vaccines/ Updated May 14, 2025. Accessed May 21, 2025. 2 Sanchez-Martinez A, Moore T, Freitas TS, et al. Recent advances in the prevention and treatment of respiratory syncytial virus disease. J Gen Virol. 2025;106(4). doi: 10.1099/jgv.0.002095 3 Zar HJ, Cacho F, Kootbodien T, et al. Early-life respiratory syncytial virus disease and long-term respiratory health. Lancet Respir Med. 2024;12(10):810-821. 4 Paes B, Brown V, Courtney E, et al. Optimal implementation of an Ontario nirsevimab program for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) prophylaxis: Recommendations from a provincial RSV expert panel. Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2024;20(1):2429236. Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content Contacts Article content Media: Article content Article content Article content Article content
Malay Mail
15-07-2025
- Health
- Malay Mail
UN warns of ‘devastating consequences' as aid cuts disrupt global infant vaccinations
GENEVA, July 15 — Global infant vaccination levels have stabilised after shrinking during the Covid crisis, the UN said today, but it warned that misinformation and drastic aid cuts were deepening dangerous coverage gaps and putting millions at risk. In 2024, 85 per cent of infants globally, or 109 million, had received three doses of the vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP), with the third dose serving as a key marker for global immunisation coverage, according to data published by the UN health and children's agencies. That marked an increase of one percentage point and a million more children covered than a year earlier, in what the agencies described as 'modest' gains. At the same time, nearly 20 million infants missed at least one of their DTP doses last year, including 14.3 million so-called zero-dose' children who never received a single shot. While a slight improvement over 2023, when the United Nations said there were 14.5 million zero-dose children, it was 1.4 million more than in 2019 -- before the Covid pandemic wreaked havoc on global vaccination programmes. 'The good news is that we have managed to reach more children with life-saving vaccines,' UNICEF chief Catherine Russell said in a joint statement. 'But millions of children remain without protection against preventable diseases,' she said. 'That should worry us all.' Deeply unequal The World Health Organization meanwhile warned that the planet was 'off track' for reaching its goal of ensuring that 90 percent of the world's children and adolescents receive essential vaccines by 2030. 'Drastic cuts in aid, coupled with misinformation about the safety of vaccines, threaten to unwind decades of progress,' warned WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Tuesday's report cautioned that vaccine access remains deeply unequal, with widespread conflicts eroding efforts to boost vaccine coverage. Dramatic cuts to international aid by the United States in particular, but also by other countries, could further worsen the situation. 'Our ability to respond to outbreaks in nearly 50 countries has been disrupted due to the funding cuts,' UNICEF immunisation chief Ephrem Lemango told reporters. While lack of access was the main cause of low coverage globally, the agencies also highlighted the threat of misinformation. Dangerous immunity gaps Dwindling trust in 'hard-earned evidence around the safety of the vaccines' is contributing to dangerous immunity gaps and outbreaks, WHO vaccine chief Kate O'Brien told reporters. Experts have sounded the alarm in the United States especially, where Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has himself long been accused of spreading vaccine misinformation, including about the measles vaccine, even as the US grapples with its worst measles epidemic in 30 years. Last year, 60 countries experienced large and disruptive outbreaks of the highly contagious disease, nearly doubling from 33 in 2022, the report showed. An estimated two million more children worldwide were vaccinated against measles in 2024 than the year before, but the global coverage rate remained far below the 95 percent needed to avert its spread. On a positive note, Tuesday's report showed that vaccine coverage against a range of diseases had inched up last year in the 57 low-income countries supported by the vaccine alliance Gavi. 'In 2024, lower-income countries protected more children than ever before,' Gavi chief Sania Nishtar said. But the data also indicated 'signs of slippage' emerging in upper-middle and high-income countries where coverage had previously been at least 90 percent. 'Even the smallest drops in immunisation coverage can have devastating consequences,' O'Brien said. — AFP
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Gut Microbe Deficiency in U.S. Babies Tied to Asthma, Allergies, Autoimmune Disorders
Dirty diapers are more than a messy reality of infant care—baby poop can be an indicator of an infant's gut microbiome and future health. Scientists recently published the first two years of data from My Baby Biome, a seven-year research project that represents one of the largest and most geographically diverse U.S. infant microbiome studies to date. The findings, which came out in Communications Biology in June, are concerning: more than 75 percent of the babies in the study were deficient in key gut bacteria that are associated with a healthy microbiome. Nearly all the infants displayed deficiencies in gut microbes of some kind. These deficiencies led to a significantly increased risk of those children developing allergies, asthma or eczema, according to the study. 'Three-quarters of babies are at heightened risk of atopic conditions because of the composition of their microbiome,' says Stephanie Culler, senior author of the new study. 'That, for us, was the really big alarm.' Culler is CEO of Persephone Biosciences, a biotech company in San Diego, Calif., that runs the My Baby Biome project and funded the research. [Sign up for Today in Science, a free daily newsletter] A healthy infant gut microbiome is critical for immune development, and an abnormal microbiome puts babies at a higher risk of being diagnosed with certain autoimmune disorders such as asthma and type 1 diabetes. But a lack of robust data on infant microbiomes in the U.S. has held back researchers. Culler and her colleagues used social media and word of mouth to recruit the families of 412 infants to take part in the study. The children came from 48 states and were representative of U.S. demographic diversity. To identify the types of microbial species that were present, the team analyzed bacterial DNA in stool samples that were collected when the children were infants, and, for 150 of them, additional samples from when they were one-year-olds. They also measured other molecules in the samples that gave clues about microbial activity in the children's gut. Additionally, about half of the participating families gave follow-up information about health outcomes when the children were two years old. Based on the results, only 24 percent of infants had a healthy microbiome. The rest were deficient in Bifidobacterium—a crucial group of bacteria associated with a lower risk of a host of noncommunicable diseases. A quarter of infants lacked any detectable level of Bifidobacterium at all. In Bifidobacterium-deficient children, the researchers also detected higher levels of potentially harmful microorganisms, bacteria with antimicrobial-resistance genes and molecules that pathogens use to cause disease. As two-year-olds, those children had a three times greater risk of developing allergies, asthma or eczema compared with those with a healthy microbiome. The researchers did not find any demographic or socioeconomic trends that could explain why certain children had a deficient microbiome or went on to develop a health condition, suggesting that these outcomes could affect 'basically any baby,' Culler says. The team did find that breastfeeding was associated with a greater concentration of Bifidobacterium in children who were vaginally birthed. But the data showed that the combination of vaginal birth and breastfeeding was still not sufficient to ensure a healthy microbiome because many of these children went on to develop chronic disease, Culler says. Researchers in other countries have reported similarly alarming findings. Last year, for example, scientists in the U.K. found Bifidobacterium species in very low abundance in the gut microbiomes of around one-third of 1,288 infants they tested. Those infants' microbiome was instead dominated by Enterococcus faecalis, a species associated with antibiotic resistance and negative health outcomes. The recent U.S. study supports previous research that established the relationship between Bifidobacterium in infancy and health, says Willem de Vos, an emeritus professor of human microbiomics at the University of Helsinki, who was not involved in the new work. De Vos and his colleagues' 2024 study of 1,000 infants in Finland also suggests that Bifidobacterium species play key roles in intestinal microbiota development—and that the presence of these species is associated with positive health outcomes in children for at least five years. But the new U.S. study adds an important nuance: it revealed that a particular species of Bifidobacterium—Bifidobacterium breve—was associated with a decreased risk of disease in two-year-olds, whereas another related species, Bifidobacterium longum, did not seem to play a role in reducing that risk. These findings 'are highly interesting and important,' de Vos says. Erin Davis, a postdoctoral fellow in pediatric allergy and immunology at the University of Rochester, who was also not involved in the new work, agrees that the species-related findings are striking. 'What was unexpected was how different infant Bifidobacterium species differentially impacted relative risk of adverse health outcomes,' she says. What is driving the changes in babies' gut microbiome is unknown. But comparisons of infant microbiomes from industrialized and nonindustrialized communities, such as Old Order Mennonites, suggest that various features of modern living are likely to blame. Such factors could include the overuse of antibiotics, the oversanitization of the environment, a reduction in breastfeeding, a lack of physical contact with other babies, adult humans and animals, and more, says Matthew Olm, an assistant professor of integrative physiology at the University of Colorado Boulder, who was not involved in the new study. 'Bifidobacteriathrives on breast milk, and it's conceivable that when only 20 percent of mothers breastfed in the 1970s, it caused a population-level decrease that we're still living with today,' Olm says. 'Even though more than 80 percent of infants are breastfed today, there may just be less bifidobacteria in the environment to colonize these babies.'
Associated Press
04-07-2025
- Health
- Associated Press
March of Dimes Statement on the Passage of H.R. 1
ARLINGTON, Va., July 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The passage of H.R. 1, the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act,' sets in motion harmful changes to Medicaid that would restrict access to care for pregnant women, infants, children, and low-income families. By shifting costs to states, raising barriers to care, and dismantling key federal protections, this legislation threatens the health of millions—especially those already facing the greatest risks. The bill's inclusion of work requirements, increased cost sharing, provider tax restrictions, and cuts to the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) for expansion populations represents a direct attack on the nation's maternal and infant health system. These changes come at a time when the US continues to be the most dangerous high-income nation for childbirth. They would also place significant financial strain on states, threatening the future of critical optional benefits like 12-month postpartum Medicaid extension, which many states have only recently implemented to improve outcomes. These changes will only make it more difficult for families to receive timely comprehensive care throughout the pregnancy journey and worsen existing challenges in maternity care deserts, where families already struggle to access essential services. They also risk accelerating the closure of labor and delivery units, maternity wards, and OB departments and further straining hospitals in already underserved areas. Cindy Rahman, President and CEO of March of Dimes, issued the following statement: 'March of Dimes strongly opposes the passage of H.R. 1, which undermines the Medicaid program and jeopardizes the health and survival of millions of women, babies, and families. This is not just policy—it's personal. I recently heard Elizabeth's story, a mom who was pregnant with twins and had just $14 in savings. Medicaid wasn't just her only option—it was the reason she and her babies survived. Stories like hers aren't rare. They are playing out every day, in every state across the country. Medicaid covers over 41% of births in the US and nearly 39% of all children. Cutting this lifeline will reverse decades of progress, deepen disparities, and make essential care even harder to access for those who need it most. States will be forced to make painful decisions about what services they can sustain—jeopardizing programs that are foundational to maternal and infant health, including postpartum care and access to obstetric providers. More than 80% of maternal deaths are preventable. We cannot afford to move backward. March of Dimes remains committed to advancing policies that protect moms and babies, and we invite lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to continue to work with us to ensure every family has the opportunity for a healthy start.' Media Contact Sarah Smith [email protected] View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE March of Dimes Inc.
Medscape
02-07-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Fast Five Quiz: Probiotics Facts vs Fiction
Probiotics are undoubtedly a popular choice among many Americans. Consumers cite goals ranging from bowel health and regularity to vaginal health, bone density support, and immune boosts as reasons for using probiotic capsules, gummies, and beverages. However, confusion and concern from patients and healthcare providers persist over probiotic indications, quality, and reliability. How much do you know about probiotics and their applications? Test your knowledge with this quick quiz. Guidance from the AAP states that current evidence does not support the universal, routine administration of probiotics to preterm infants, especially those with birth weight < 1000 g. Despite some studies showing that probiotics reduce the risk of necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm infants or infants with very low birth weight, the AAP does not recommend their use due to conflicting data regarding safety and efficacy as well as the lack of pharmaceutical-grade, FDA-regulated probiotic products in the United States. Additionally, the AAP maintains no evidence of significant reduction of nosocomial sepsis in preterm infants is associated with probiotic supplementation. However, the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) suggests using probiotics with specific combinations of bacterial species in infants < 37 weeks of gestational age and low birth weight to prevent necrotizing enterocolitis. Learn more about necrotizing enterocolitis. AGA clinical practice guidelines recommend probiotics in patients with C difficile infection only in the context of a clinical trial. Otherwise, the AGA makes no recommendations on the use of probiotics in C difficile colitis. A knowledge gap surrounds this topic as study data has been heterogenous. Learn more about C difficile colitis. Multiple organizations, such as the AGA and the World Gastroenterology Organisation (WGO), do not recommend probiotics for the management of Crohn's disease. According to the WGO, studies have not produced evidence that probiotics are beneficial for the remission or maintenance of remission of Crohn's disease. The AGA only recommends probiotics for Crohn's disease in the context of a clinical trial. Learn more about Crohn's disease. A meta-analysis of trials including a total of more than 1400 participants found that probiotic supplementation was associated with significant reductions in ALT, AST, and GGT in MASLD. Significant reductions in triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein and low-density lipoprotein cholesterols, insulin, insulin resistance, tumor necrosis factor alpha, BMI, and C-reactive protein were also observed with probiotic supplementation. A separate meta-analysis including more than 5100 participants on the effects of probiotics on ALT, AST, and GGT in patients with MASLD also found reductions in all three liver enzymes associated with probiotic use. Learn more about MASLD. Per the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics, probiotics are defined as 'live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit.' Probiotics are found in foods such as kimchi, yogurt (with live and active cultures), and certain cheeses. Prebiotics are typically fiber or other complex carbohydrates that function as metabolic food for beneficial microorganisms. Some examples of prebiotic-containing foods include flaxseeds, whole oats, and barley. Prebiotics and probiotics might both be used to treat conditions as well as for disease prevention. Some fermented foods, like miso and sauerkraut, contain live strains of probiotics. Prebiotics are bioactive compounds found in fiber-rich foods, such as whole grains, and undergo fermentation by bacteria in the gut. Probiotics might be found in solid foods, supplement beverages, as well as supplement capsules and gummies. Prebiotics are present in fiber-rich foods and are also available as purchasable supplements. Learn more about about fiber supplementation.
