Vaccines against Covid should target only XBB variants, says WHO – 05/18/2023 – Health
[ad_1]
A World Health Organization (WHO) advisory group recommended on Thursday that this year’s Covid-19 booster vaccines be updated to target one of the currently dominant XBB variants.
The new formulations should produce antibody responses to the XBB.1.5 or XBB.1.16 variants, the group said, adding that other formulations that achieve neutralizing antibody responses against XBB lineages could also be considered.
The group suggested no longer including the original strain of Covid-19 in future vaccines, based on data that the original virus no longer circulates in humans and injections targeting the strain produce “undetectable or very low levels of neutralizing antibodies” against the strains. currently circulating.
Covid-19 vaccine makers such as Pfizer/BioNtech, Moderna and Novavax are already developing versions of their respective vaccines targeting XBB.1.5 and other strains currently in circulation.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA, its acronym in English), the health surveillance agency of the United States, should also hold a meeting of external experts in June to discuss the compositions of vaccines for the end of this year. Manufacturers are expected to update immunizers as soon as the strains are selected.
The bivalent booster vaccines developed and distributed last year targeted two different strains: the omicron variant and the parent virus.
The WHO advisory group, which recommends changes to the composition of future Covid-19 injections, said currently approved vaccines should continue to be used in accordance with the agency’s recommendations.
In late March, the WHO revised its Covid-19 vaccination recommendations and suggested that healthy children and adolescents may not necessarily need a shot, but older, high-risk groups should receive a booster between six and 12 months afterward. the last vaccine.
The latest recommendations come about two weeks after the WHO ended the global emergency status for Covid-19.
[ad_2]
Source link
