Mass vaccination against COVID-19 may require replays of the polio vaccination drives

Blockchain Powered Vaccine Efficacy for Pharma Sector

Infectious and contagious diseases exist in humanity for many centuries which causes a curb in the growth of the population. Immunization plays a vital role to prevent mortality and morbidity against infectious diseases. COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage the urgency of developing a vaccine that should ensure the safety, efficacy, swift and fair deployment, implementation, and monitoring of vaccines across the globe. In the present context, the vaccine production to immunization campaign is a critical challenge. Therefore, an effective vaccine supply chain mechanism is required to address issues such as counterfeit vaccines, reduce vaccine wastages, and vaccine record fraud. In this paper, a blockchain-enabled vaccine supply chain is proposed to ensure the correctness, transparency, trust, and immutable log and improve the efficiency of vaccine distribution in the cold chain. The uniqueness of the proposed system is to provide distributed system to verify the reliability and efficacy of the vaccine from production to end beneficiaries' feedback about the vaccine. Our proposed system gives a clear view to the users as well as to the healthcare provider about the vaccination and ensures the anticounterfeit vaccine. The proposed system minimizes counterfeit vaccines and records, provides transparent communication between stakeholders in the supply chain, and improves the security of the vaccine supply chain and immutable feedback system about the vaccine.

What India can learn from globally successful malaria elimination programmes

India is targeting malaria elimination by 2030. Understanding and adopting the strategies employed by countries that have successfully eliminated malaria can serve as a crucial thrust in this direction for a geographically diverse country like India. This analysis is based on extensive literature search on malaria elimination policies, strategies and programmes adopted by nine countries (China, El Salvador, Algeria, Argentina, Uzbekistan, Paraguay, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Armenia) which have attained malaria-free status over the past decade. The key points which India can learn from their journey are mandatory time-bound response in the form of case reporting and management, rapid vector control response, continuous epidemiological and entomological surveillance, elevated community participation, more training and capacity building, private sector involvement, use of quality diagnostics, cross-border collaborations, inclusion of prevention of re-establishment programmes into the elimination plans, higher investment in research, and uninterrupted funds for successful implementation of malaria elimination programmes. These learnings would help India and other South Asian countries steer their programmes by devising tailor-made strategies for their own regions.

Potential of Microneedle Systems for COVID-19 Vaccination: Current Trends and Challenges

To prevent the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and aid restoration to prepandemic normality, global mass vaccination is urgently needed. Inducing herd immunity through mass vaccination has proven to be a highly effective strategy for preventing the spread of many infectious diseases, which protects the most vulnerable population groups that are unable to develop immunity, such as people with immunodeficiencies or weakened immune systems due to underlying medical or debilitating conditions. In achieving global outreach, the maintenance of the vaccine potency, transportation, and needle waste generation become major issues. Moreover, needle phobia and vaccine hesitancy act as hurdles to successful mass vaccination. The use of dissolvable microneedles for COVID-19 vaccination could act as a major paradigm shift in attaining the desired goal to vaccinate billions in the shortest time possible. In addressing these points, we discuss the potential of the use of dissolvable microneedles for COVID-19 vaccination based on the current literature.

Untapping host-targeting cross-protective efficacy of anticoagulants against SARS-CoV-2

Responding quickly to emerging respiratory viruses, such as SARS-CoV-2 the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, is essential to stop uncontrolled spread of these pathogens and mitigate their socio-economic impact globally. This can be achieved through drug repurposing, which tackles inherent time- and resource-consuming processes associated with conventional drug discovery and development. In this review, we examine key preclinical and clinical therapeutic and prophylactic approaches that have been applied for treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection. We break these strategies down into virus- versus host-targeting and discuss their reported efficacy, advantages, and disadvantages. Importantly, we highlight emerging evidence on application of host serine protease-inhibiting anticoagulants, such as nafamostat mesylate, as a potentially powerful therapy to inhibit virus activation and offer cross-protection against multiple strains of coronavirus, lower inflammatory response independent of its antiviral effect, and modulate clotting problems seen in COVID-19 pneumonia.

Evaluation of a prototype decontamination mobile unit (UMDEO) for COVID-19 vaccination: A cross-sectional survey in France

AIM OF THE STUDY

In the context of the worldwide vaccination campaign against COVID-19, France has been deploying multiple sites for mass vaccination. This study aimed to assess the perceived usefulness of a prototype decontamination mobile unit (UMDEO) for COVID-19 vaccination among both the patient and healthcare providers perspectives.

METHODS

This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted in Toulouse over two days. UMDEO is a fully comprehensive, versatile solution that was deployed as a 5-row vaccination unit. A written questionnaire was distributed from March 6th-7th, 2021 among all patients presenting for vaccination at the mobile center, as well as the team participating in the vaccination campaign.

RESULTS

Among the vaccinated patients (n = 1659), 1409 participants (84.9%) filled out the survey, as well as 68 out of 85 (80%) within the UMDEO team. The maximum patient rate was 98 people per hour. The majority of participants and caregivers (1307 [93.2%] and 67 [98.5%] respectively) agreed that the mobile unit increased access to vaccination. A total of 91.3% patients (n = 1281) and 95.6% caregivers (n = 65) believed that it would speed up the overall vaccination campaign.

CONCLUSION

The majority of the vaccinated population and of the team participating in the survey were satisfied with the usefulness of UMDEO as a vaccination center. Toulouse is currently the only city to have used such a structure for vaccination, but it could be used as a basis for planning other mobile units to increase vaccination access.

Blockchain Enabled Transparent and Anti-Counterfeiting Supply of COVID-19 Vaccine Vials

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected almost all facets of peoples’ lives, various economic areas and regions of the world. In such a situation implementation of a vaccination can be viewed as essential but its success will be dependent on availability and transparency in the distribution process that will be shared among the stakeholders. Various distributed ledgers (DLTs) such as blockchain provide an open, public, immutable system that has numerous applications due the mentioned abilities. In this paper the authors have proposed a solution based on blockchain to increase the security and transparency in the tracing of COVID-19 vaccination vials. Smart contracts have been developed to monitor the supply, distribution of vaccination vials. The proposed solution will help to generate a tamper-proof and secure environment for the distribution of COVID-19 vaccination vials. Proof of delivery is used as a consensus mechanism for the proposed solution. A feedback feature is also implemented in order to track the vials lot in case of any side effect cause to the patient. The authors have implemented and tested the proposed solution using Ethereum test network, RinkeyBy, MetaMask, one clicks DApp. The proposed solution shows promising results in terms of throughput and scalability.

Epidemiological profiles and associated risk factors of SARS-CoV-2 positive patients based on a high-throughput testing facility in India

We describe the epidemiological characteristics and associated risk factors of those presenting at a large testing centre for SARS-CoV-2 infection. This is a retrospective record review of individuals who underwent SARS-CoV-2 testing by reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) at a high-throughput national-level government facility located in the north of India. Samples collected from 6 April to 31 December 2020 are included in this work and represent four highly populous regions. Additionally, there was a prospective follow-up of 1729 cases through telephone interviews from 25 May 2020 to 20 June 2020. Descriptive analysis has been performed for profiling clinic-epidemiological aspects of suspect cases. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was undertaken to determine risk factors that are associated with SARS-CoV-2 test positivity and symptom status. A total of 125 600 participants' details have been included in this report. The mean (s.d.) age of the participants was 33.1 (±15.3) years and 66% were male. Among these tested, 9515 (7.6%) were positive for COVID-19. A large proportion of positive cases were asymptomatic. In symptomatic positive cases, the commonest symptoms were cough and fever. Increasing age (groups 20–59 and ≥60 years compared to age group less than 5 years), male sex, history of international travel, symptoms for SARS-CoV-2, and participants from Delhi and Madhya Pradesh were positively associated with SARS-CoV-2 test positivity. Having co-morbidity, risk behaviours and intra-familial positivity were associated with a positive odds ratio for exhibiting SARS-CoV-2 symptoms. Intensified testing and isolation of cases, identification of both asymptomatic and symptomatic individuals and additional care of those with co-morbidities and risk behaviours will all be collectively important for disease containment in India. Reasons for differentials in testing between men and women remain an important area for in-depth study. The increased deployment of vaccines is likely to impact the trajectory of COVID-19 in the coming time, and therefore our data will serve as a comparative resource as India experiences the second wave of infection in light of newer variants that are likely to accelerate disease spread.

A nationwide survey of the potential acceptance and determinants of COVID-19 vaccines in Ghana

PURPOSE

Safe and effective vaccine together with better treatment remains one of the strategic exist of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. As in many other countries worldwide, the government of Ghana has expressed its commitment to procuring globally approved and accepted vaccines. This preliminary study aims to analyses these factors that could impact the choice of the vaccine in Ghana.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1,000 Ghanaian respondents from the 14th October to the 12th of December 2020. A structured questionnaire after a series of literature review and was transcribed unto google forms. Dataset was extracted using Excel ver. 2016 (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, USA) and imported into IBM SPSS ver. 22.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) for analysis. Descriptive statistics, cross-tabulations and logistic regression analyses were conducted at p-value <0.05.

RESULTS

The results showed that 541 (54.1%) of the respondents would opt for the vaccines, 907 (90.7%) trusted the healthcare system and 388 (38.8%) had a high-risk perception of acquiring COVID-19. Our inferential analysis found that being married (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 2.29; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.10-4.78), salary worker (private: aOR, 2.24; 95% CI, 0.85-5.89; government: aOR, 42.58; 95% CI, 14.09-128.61), and high-risk perception (aOR, 5.35; 95% CI, 3.24-8.82) had a higher OR of accepting COVID-19 vaccine.

CONCLUSION

As the government of Ghana prepares to secure COVID-19 vaccines, it is important to understand the state of mind and determinants of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in the general population. Policymakers and stakeholders should focus on evidence-based community messaging to improve uptake and break the transmission dynamics.

COVID-19, a tale of two pandemics: novel coronavirus and fake news messaging

The emergence of COVID-19, caused by novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, became a pandemic in just 10 weeks. Without effective medications or vaccines available, authorities turned toward mitigation measures such as use of face masks, school's closings, shelter-in-place, telework and social distancing. People found refuge on the internet and social media apps; however, there was a proliferation of instant messaging containing hoaxed, deliberate misleading information: fake news messaging (FNM). The aim of this study was to assess FNM through content analysis and to discriminate them in a proposed taxonomy structure. A sample of convenience of messages, memes, tweets or cartoons in several languages was selected from the most popular social media outlets, i.e. Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter etc. More than 300 FNM were identified. Descriptive statistics were used for highlighting potential relationships between variables. Content analysis determined that FNM could be divided into Health- and non-health-related types. There are several sub-types considering, but not limited to, religious beliefs, politics, economy, nutrition, behaviors, prevention of the infection, the origin of the disease and conspiracy theories. The parallel FNM pandemic affected the response from an already debilitated public health system through the confusion created in the community and the erosion in the credibility of genuine media. Public health practitioners had to face people's unpredictable behaviors, panic, tensions with the communities and, in some cases, a hostile climate toward frontline workers. Public health practitioners must adjust ongoing and future health promotion and education interventions including plans to neutralize fake news messages.

Overlaying COVID-19 mitigation plans on malaria control infrastructures

To counter the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, each country must design sustainable control plans given the inherent disparities in wealth and healthcare systems. Most malaria-endemic countries run well-entrenched malaria control programs via their established frameworks for diagnosis, case management, treatment and overall surveillance. We propose that the malaria control infrastructures can be partially co-opted for launching sustainable COVID-19 mitigation plans.

Comparative evaluation of integrated purification pathways for bacterial modular polyomavirus major capsid protein VP1 to produce virus-like particles using high throughput process technologies

Modular virus-like particles and capsomeres are potential vaccine candidates that can induce strong immune responses. There are many described protocols for the purification of microbially-produced viral protein in the literature, however, they suffer from inherent limitations in efficiency, scalability and overall process costs. In this study, we investigated alternative purification pathways to identify and optimise a suitable purification pathway to overcome some of the current challenges. Among the methods, the optimised purification strategy consists of an anion exchange step in flow through mode followed by a multi modal cation exchange step in bind and elute mode. This approach allows an integrated process without any buffer adjustment between the purification steps. The major contaminants like host cell proteins, DNA and aggregates can be efficiently removed by the optimised strategy, without the need for a size exclusion polishing chromatography step, which otherwise could complicate the process scalability and increase overall cost. High throughput process technology studies were conducted to optimise binding and elution conditions for multi modal cation exchanger, Capto™ MMC and strong anion exchanger Capto™ Q. A dynamic binding capacity of 14 mg ml⁻¹ was achieved for Capto™ MMC resin. Samples derived from each purification process were thoroughly characterized by RP-HPLC, SEC-HPLC, SDS-PAGE and LC-ESI-MS/MS Mass Spectrometry analytical methods. Modular polyomavirus major capsid protein could be purified within hours using the optimised process achieving purities above 87% and above 96% with inclusion of an initial precipitation step. Purified capsid protein could be easily assembled in-vitro into well-defined virus-like particles by lowering pH with addition of calcium chloride to the eluate. High throughout studies allowed the screening of a vast design space within weeks, rather than months, and unveiled complicated binding behaviour for Capto^TM MMC.