Viral fragments of bird flu have been identified in samples of milk taken from grocery store shelves in the United States, a finding that does not necessarily suggest a threat to human health but indicates the avian flu virus is more widespread among dairy herds than previously thought, according to two public health officials and a public health expert who was briefed on the issue.
Health
HVTN at the 24th International AIDS Conference in Montreal – Newswise
Newswise — SEATTLE (EMBARGOED UNTIL 10 A.M. EDT ON JULY 28, 2002) — Scientists, doctors and other health professionals from the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) will present research findings and other HIV-related news at AIDS 2022, the International AIDS Conference taking place virtually and in person in Montreal, Canada, July 29 to Aug. 2.
HVTN, based at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle with an international network of AIDS and HIV experts, will be involved in more than a dozen oral, poster and other presentations. Abstracts and information are embargoed until 10 a.m. EDT on Thursday, July 28. To arrange an interview, please contact Sandy Van, [email protected].
Here are summaries of several representative sessions.
Dr. Jessica Andriesen, a senior staff scientist in vaccine and infectious disease who will make this presentation, said the Ubuntu study (CoVPN 3008) provides the opportunity to further understand the COVID-19 pandemic in people living with HIV. People living with HIV make up approximately 80% of the about 11,300 individuals enrolled as of July 1, 2022. The planned analyses include the effectiveness of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines against symptomatic and severe COVID-19 illness caused by variants of concern, and the immune response to mRNA vaccination in people living with HIV. As Ubuntu began enrollment, a high percentage of participants who were joining the study were found to be living with asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections at their first vaccination visits. Participants living with HIV who had low CD4 counts were more likely to also be living with SARS-CoV-2 infections, whether or not they already had antibodies from an infection in the past. “These findings highlight the urgent need to better characterize how being immunocompromised due to HIV impacts a person’s chances of becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2, and their ability to clear the infection and fully recover,” Andriesen said.
Session type: Oral presentation. Late Breaker Track C.
Date, time, location: Tuesday, Aug. 2, 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., Room 517d/Channel 2.
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“We found in the antibody-mediated prevention (AMP) studies that a broadly neutralizing antibody could prevent HIV infection, but only if the infecting strain was very susceptible to the antibody,” said first author and presenter Dr. Stephen R. Walsh, an infectious diseases specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “To improve on this, we are testing newer antibodies that cover more strains of HIV, and we are testing combinations of these antibodies to try to get broader coverage of global HIV diversity. One antibody we are testing is called VRC07-523LS, and it covers more strains of HIV than the AMP antibody. The VRC07-523LS antibody has a half-life in the human body of about 55 days which means we wouldn’t have to give it to people as often as the AMP antibody. When we combined VRC07-523LS with other anti-HIV antibodies, the half-life in the human body was about 52 days, which really isn’t any different. This is important because it shows that the level of VRC07-523LS in the body is unchanged if it’s given alone or in combination with other anti-HIV antibodies.”
Session type: E-poster.
Date, time, location: Sunday, July 31, beginning at 3:30 p.m., on the conference website and in the Palais des Congrès, second floor.
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First author and presenter Dr. Zoe Moodie, a senior staff scientist in the vaccine and infectious disease division at Fred Hutch, said this study addresses the critical question of whether the immune responses that correlated with HIV in the RV144 Thai trial also apply to other vulnerable populations. “Although the related vaccine regimen studied in HVTN 702 in South Africa did not prevent participants from getting HIV, the trial gives us a unique opportunity to answer this important question and hints about why the vaccine regimen did not work,” she said. The study showed that among vaccinees with a certain type of high binding antibody response, vaccine-specific CD4+ T-cell responses were associated with 51%-60% lower vulnerability to HIV. On the other hand, among those with low binding antibody responses, CD4+ T-cell responses were associated with a 2.2- to 3.6-fold higher vulnerability to HIV. “Our findings are in line with the correlates results from RV144, raising the possibility that vaccination needs to induce high binding antibody responses, along with strong CD4+ T-cell responses, to achieve protection from HIV,” Moodie said.
Session type: Poster. Late Breaker Track A.
Date, time, location: Saturday, July 30, 9 a.m.
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Immune correlates analysis of the Imbokodo HIV-1 vaccine efficacy trial
First author and presenter Avi Kenny, a PhD student in biostatistics at the University of Washington, said this presentation is on the Imbokodo clinical trial (HVTN 705) that enrolled 2,600 women in sub-Saharan Africa and was designed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a novel Ad26 vector-based HIV vaccine. “Although the vaccine did not show significant efficacy to prevent HIV-1 acquisition, a secondary analysis assessed whether any of a prespecified set of antibody and T-cell biomarkers were associated with risk of HIV acquisition or vaccine efficacy. While there were no statistically significant associations, the subgroup of vaccine recipients with highest levels of a specific biomarker measuring antibodies that bind to the surface of an HIV envelope protein had the lowest rate of HIV-1 acquisition,” Kenny said. “This hypothesis-generating finding provides a useful direction for future vaccine research, indicating a goal post to favor candidate vaccines that generate more frequent and higher levels of the specific biomarker.”
Session type: Oral presentation. Late Breaker Track A.
Date, time, location: Saturday, July 30, 11:47 a.m., Room 511/Channel 7.
==
COVID-19 and HIV: Community engagement lessons learned and applied from two pandemics
Lessons learned about community engagement from the past 20 years of HVTN trials informed the success of similar efforts in support of COVID-19 vaccine research. Now that the COVID-19 vaccine studies are reaching their conclusions, what lessons can be applied back to HIV vaccine research as those studies resume? The presenters will share how the COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN) built on prior community engagement successes in the HVTN, the success of these efforts in COVID-19 vaccine studies, including enrollment of BIPOC communities, engagement of faith-based organizations and Native American or Indigenous communities, the use of a participant screening registry, and the use of infographics and video for social media and marketing campaigns. As HIV vaccine studies begin to resume, the presenters will also share how these COVID-19 successes are being applied back to HIV research, addressing pre-pandemic challenges with slow study enrollment. This Global Village session will be presented and moderated by Gail Broder, associate director of HVTN’s Social Behavioral Science & Community Engagement Unit, and Dr. Stephaun Wallace, director of External Relations at HVTN. Additional participants and panelists will include HTVN community engagement project managers Rafael Gonzalez, U.S. and Puerto Rico; Kagisho Baepanye, eastern and sub-Saharan Africa; Luciana Kamel, Argentina and Brazil; and Patricia Segura, Mexico and Peru.
Session type: Global Village Session.
Date, time, location: Sunday, July 31, 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., Global Village Channel/Room 2.
==
Interfaith Preconference: Taking Action to Overcome HIV Stigma and Discrimination
Ahead of AIDS 2022, Dr. Ulysses W. Burley III, founder of UBtheCURE LLC, will co-facilitate a two-day event featuring workshops, networking opportunities and presentations by and for faith leaders targeting HIV-related stigma and discrimination. Among session topics are:
- Recommendations of persons and communities affected, in dialogue with faith leaders.
- Theological principles that guide faith groups to overcome stigma and discrimination.
- Leveraging trust and access to sustain epidemic control and advance prevention.
- Innovations to tackle HIV stigma and discrimination.
- The impact of new testing tools and methodologies.
- How optimal HIV pediatric treatment is paving the way to end stigma among children.
- Long-acting injection to treat HIV.
- PREP and PEP: essential tools to end stigma.
- Monitoring and evaluation frameworks that can be adapted to faith interventions to address stigma and discrimination.
UBtheCURE is a Chicago-based consulting company at the intersection of faith, health, and human rights, with expertise in HIV/AIDS and COVID-19. Although Burley’s formal training is in immunology and cancer epidemiology, his primary work has been in HIV and AIDS education, awareness, advocacy, and capacity-building in the context of faith.
Session type: Preconference event.
Date, time, location: Wednesday, July 27, and Thursday, July 28, from 8 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. both days, Montreal’s La Plaza Centre-Ville-EVO.
==
Documentary Film Screening: ‘My Faith, My Story: HIV in the U.S. South’
Dr. Ulysses W. Burley, also will host a screening of the documentary “My Faith, My Story: HIV in the U.S. South” on behalf of the U.S. HIV/AIDS Faith Coalition and National Faith HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. Burley is a co-founder of both the organization and the recognition event. He and Khadijah Abdullah, executive director of Reaching All HIV+ Muslims in America (RAHMA), co-produced the film, and W. Imara Canady, national director of Communications & Community Engagement for AIDS Healthcare Foundation, is featured. All three are HVTN faith ambassadors. The Global Village screening will begin at 3:25 p.m. on Sunday, July 31.
==
HVTN experts will discuss a variety of other subjects at AIDS 2022
Among other subjects covered by HVTN professionals: recruitment strategies in a global preventive HIV vaccine study, broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibody studies, mRNA technology, strengthening industry engagement in vaccine research, ethical and community considerations in experimental medicine trials in Africa, and COVID-19’s impact on vaccine research and development. HVTN will also host an exhibition booth – HIV Vaccine Trials Network: Help End HIV – in the Global Village.
About Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
At Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, home to three Nobel laureates, interdisciplinary teams of world-renowned scientists seek new and innovative ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer, HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening diseases. Fred Hutch’s pioneering work in bone marrow transplantation led to the development of immunotherapy, which harnesses the power of the immune system to treat cancer. An independent, nonprofit research institute based in Seattle, Fred Hutch houses the nation’s first National Cancer Institute-funded cancer prevention research program, as well as the clinical coordinating center of the Women’s Health Initiative and the international headquarters of the NIAID-funded HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) and COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN).
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Health
Bird flu virus found in grocery milk as officials say supply still safe – The Washington Post
The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that it had been testing milk samples throughout the dairy production process and confirmed the detection of viral particles “in some of the samples,” but it declined to provide details.
The presence of genetic fragments of the virus in milk is not unexpected. Pasteurization typically works to inactivate pathogens, said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health. It generally does not remove genetic material, Nuzzo said, but typically renders pathogens unable to cause harm to people.
The greater concern, however, “is that it’s showing up in a lot more samples, meaning the infection is more widespread in dairy herds than we thought,” said one public health official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share information not yet made public.
In a four-page statement, the FDA said some of the samples collected have “indicated the presence” of the bird flu virus based on testing that detects viral particles but does not distinguish whether they are active or dead. The finding of virus “does not mean that the sample contains an intact, infectious pathogen,” the agency’s statement said.
Additional laboratory testing is underway to grow the virus in cells and in fertilized eggs, the latter being the “gold standard” for sensitive detection of active, infectious virus, the FDA said. “Importantly, additional testing is required to determine whether intact pathogen is still present and if it remains infectious, which determines whether there is any risk of illness associated with consuming the product,” the FDA statement said.
FDA officials said results are expected in the next few days to weeks.
“To date, we have seen nothing that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe,” the agency said in its statement.
Officials and experts did not have additional details about the number of milk samples that were positive for particles of bird flu or where the samples originated.
Although this strain of avian flu has been circulating for more than 20 years, its leap into cows is of substantial concern, surprising even longtime observers of the virus. More than two dozen livestock herds in at least eight states have been infected with avian flu since March 25, prompting investigations by federal and state officials.
For weeks, key federal agencies have expressed confidence in the safety of the commercial milk supply, including pasteurized products sold at grocery stores. The FDA has highlighted data showing pasteurization inactivates other viruses and pointed to studies showing that the pasteurization process for eggs — which occurs at a lower temperature than what is used for milk — deactivates the highly pathogenic avian influenza.
The International Dairy Foods Association, which represents the nation’s dairy manufacturing and marketing industry, said that viral fragments are “nothing more than evidence that the virus is dead.”
“Milk and milk products produced and processed in the United States are among the safest in the world,” spokesman Matt Herrick wrote in an email, adding that “viral fragments are simply indicative of pasteurization doing its job effectively and protecting our commercial milk supply.”
In recent weeks, multiple experts expressed confidence that the pasteurization process ensures there is no threat to the safety of the nation’s milk supply but said the federal government should still perform tests to confirm that is the case.
Flu is a “fairly wimpy virus,” meaning it is “fairly readily inactivated,” said Richard J. Webby, a virologist at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. “But that’s something that has to be tested.”
One case of avian flu has been reported in a Texas farmworker in recent weeks, only the second human case ever of bird flu in the United States.
So far, the virus has not acquired the ability to spread efficiently in people.
But as it is able to jump from animal to animal, prospects increase for it mutating to cause sustained person-to-person transmission — a development that could fuel a pandemic.
State health officials have tested 23 people with flu-like symptoms, but only the dairy worker in Texas has tested positive during the current outbreak. Ongoing surveillance of emergency department visits and flu tests in regions where bird flu has been detected has not flagged unusual trends in flu-like illnesses, or eye inflammation, the only symptom experienced by the dairy worker, according to officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who say the risk to the general public of bird flu remains low.
The lack of more human cases is a good sign, health officials say.
The key to containing the outbreak resides in livestock herds. Testing of cows is voluntary. U.S. Department of Agriculture protocols restrict testing to cows with specific symptoms and limits the number of tests per farm.
Health
Avian influenza spread: WHO gives public health warning as FDA calms food safety concerns – Food Ingredients First
23 April 2024 — The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the ongoing spread of avian influenza poses a “significant public health concern” and urged health authorities, especially in the US, to closely monitor infections in cows. However, the US FDA maintains that the virus is not currently a concern to consumer health and downplayed its impact on commercial milk production.
Earlier this month, the largest producer of fresh eggs in the US halted production at a Texas plant after bird flu was detected in its chickens. Cal-Maine Foods said that about 3.6% of its total flock was destroyed after the infection.
However, the virus, also known as H5N1, has now been found in at least 26 dairy herds across eight US states, marking the first time this strain of bird flu has been detected in cattle, according to officials.
At least 21 states have restricted cattle importations from states where the virus is known to have infected dairy cows.
The US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service strongly recommends minimizing the movement of cattle, but has not issued federal quarantine orders.
Public health threat
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed this month that a dairy worker in Texas, who reportedly had exposure to dairy cattle presumed to have had avian influenza, contracted the virus and is now recovering.
“This infection does not change the H5N1 bird flu human health risk assessment for the US general public, which CDC considers to be low,” the agency said in a press release, while acknowledging that people who come into more frequent contact with possibly infected birds or other mammals have a higher risk.
Meanwhile, WHO’s chief scientist, Dr. Jeremy Farrar, told reporters recently in Geneva, Switzerland, that H5N1 has had an “extremely high” mortality rate among the several hundred people known to have been infected with it to date.
US health officials have downplayed the impact of bird flu on food safety and industry production.However, no human-to-human H5N1 transmission has yet been recorded.
“H5N1 is an influenza infection, predominantly started in poultry and ducks and has spread effectively over the course of the last one or two years to become a global zoonotic — animal — pandemic,” said Farrar.
“The great concern, of course, is that in doing so and infecting ducks and chickens — but now increasingly mammals — the virus now evolves and develops the ability to infect humans.
“And then critically, the ability to go from human-to-human transmission.”
Concerns with cattle
US health officials have stressed that bird flu’s risk to the public is low, and the country’s food supply remains safe and stable.
“At this time, there continues to be no concern that this circumstance poses a risk to consumer health or that it affects the safety of the interstate commercial milk supply,” the FDA said in a statement.
According to officials, farmers are being urged to test cows that show symptoms of infection and separate them from the herd, where they usually recover within two weeks.
US producers are not permitted to sell milk from sick cows, while milk sold across state lines must be pasteurized or heat-treated to kill viruses, including influenza.
A dairy worker in Texas reportedly contracted the virus after exposure to cattle.
“We firmly believe that pasteurization provides a safe milk supply,” Tracey Forfa, director of the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, told a webinar audience last week.
However, WHO’s Farrar has urged further caution by public health authorities “because it [the virus] may evolve into transmitting in different ways.”
“Do the milking structures of cows create aerosols? Is it the environment which they’re living in? Is it the transport system that is spreading this around the country?” he said.
“This is a huge concern, and I think we have to…make sure that if H5N1 did come across to humans with human-to-human transmission that we were in a position to immediately respond with access equitably to vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics.”
According to a new European Food Safety Authority report, outbreaks of avian influenza continue to spread in the EU and beyond.
By Joshua Poole
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York Region Public Health is reminding residents to keep up to date on their vaccinations as National Immunization Awareness Week begins.
The regional municipality said it is important to stay up to date on recommended vaccinations to ensure protection from contagious diseases. That includes updated COVID-19 vaccinations for vulnerable populations, recommended as part of a spring vaccination campaign.
“We know vaccines are safe and the best way to stay protected against vaccine-preventable disease,” the region said in a news release.
National Immunization Awareness Week runs from April 22 to 30, with this year’s theme being “Protect your future, get immunized.”
This spring, the region is still doing COVID-19 vaccinations. While walk-ins are no longer available as of April 2, you can book an appointment to visit a York Region clinic.
The spring COVID-19 vaccination campaign is aimed at more vulnerable groups who have received a COVID-19 vaccine before. Those include seniors, those living in seniors living facilities like long-term care homes, immunocompromised individuals and those in Indigenous households who are 55 or older. Public health also recommends the COVID-19 vaccine for those who have not yet received one.
York Region Public Health is also reminding residents of the need for other vaccines.
Measles cases have sprung up in Ontario and York Region recently. The region is recommending that people ensure they previously raised two valid doses of the measles vaccine. The region will also start providing measles vaccines April 29 for those overdue and for who do not have access to the vaccine through a health-care provider.
School-aged vaccinations are also available for free for children in junior kindergarten to Grade 12.
You can access immunization information at york.ca/immunziations or by contacting Access York at 1-877-464-9675.
“Vaccination helps protect everyone in our families, communities and schools,” the region said. “ By continuing to stay up to date on your immunizations, you help protect infants who are too young to be vaccinated and those not able to get vaccinated due to medical conditions.”
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