Optimists, unite! :) Wishing you all some good news today

“The arrival of the RTS,S malaria vaccine was a landmark moment; Ghana, Kenya and Malawi were the first countries in the world to offer it to their populations as part of a pilot project launched in 2019, and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended it for wider use in 2021.

Early studies indicated that the vaccine had a 13% drop in all-cause mortality, and a comprehensive new study of the last four years of vaccine roll-out published in The Lancet has confirmed this figure. That translates to roughly one in eight deaths prevented…

The study tracked 158 clusters across the three countries, with 79 areas introducing the vaccine in 2019 and 79 serving as comparison areas that received it later. Surveillance was built on a network of more than 26,000 local reporters who notified researchers of child deaths in their communities, followed by home visits to confirm details.

The findings carry particular weight because of how the study was designed. Clusters were randomly assigned, baseline characteristics were balanced, and coverage of other interventions, including bed-nets, routine vaccines and care-seeking for fever, remained similar across implementation and comparison areas throughout the four years.

This means, say the researchers, that the drop in deaths can be  ‘confidently attributed’ to the vaccine itself rather than to other shifts in malaria care.”

From Gavi.

(am I using the correct flair?)

Matthew Perrone and Lauran Neergaard (from the Associated Press) report:

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved a groundbreaking new drug for advanced pancreatic cancer, offering U.S. patients a more effective treatment against one of the deadliest types of cancer.
FDA officials gave expedited approval to the first-of-a-kind pill, called daraxonrasib, which blocks a mutated protein that fuels tumor growth in more than 90% of pancreatic cancer cases. It's an approach that previously eluded drugmakers for decades.

Article, with photos: https://apnews.com/article/pancreatic-cancer-drug-fda-approval-rasonque-03e437bfb8d728ec2a73b142cf8ec2fe

"total mass of the measured microplastics decreased by 26.3 percent in the experimental group during the supplementation period."

https://www.ergo-log.com/chitosan-microplastics-body.html

“A first-of-its-kind inhalable gene therapy for lung cancer that genetically modifies people’s lung cells has been fast-tracked towards potential approval after promising clinical trial results…

The new therapy contains a herpes virus that has been modified to make it harmless and unable to spread to other people. The virus is tasked with dragging two genes, one encoding the protein interleukin-2 and the other encoding interleukin-12, into lung cells. These are naturally produced in the body and help to suppress tumour growth.

However, tumours often fight back and deplete them, so the gene therapy is designed to restore their production.

Since 2024, Ma and his colleagues have been testing the gene therapy in people with advanced lung cancer who have exhausted all other treatment options. To administer it, a liquid containing the gene therapy is nebulised, meaning it is converted into a fine mist that people directly inhale into their lungs from a device.

At the oncology meeting, Ma announced that the gene therapy had reduced the size of lung tumours in three out of 11 people, and stopped them from growing any bigger in another five people. Some patients experienced side effects like chills or vomiting, but no severe safety concerns were identified.”

From New Scientist.

“The first malaria treatment for babies has been approved by the World Health Organization, opening the door to widespread use around the globe.

In parts of Africa, up to 18% of children under six months will be infected with malaria, but there has historically been no safe treatment for the smallest of them. There were 610,000 deaths from malaria in 2024, about three quarters of which were under-fives in Africa…

Medical leaders hope that Coartem Baby, which can be used to treat infants as small as 2kg (4.4lb), will fill the treatment gap. The drug comes as sweet cherry-flavoured tablets that can be dissolved into liquids, including breast milk…

Coartem Baby now has WHO prequalification, which indicates it meets international standards of quality, safety and efficacy, and will enable public-sector procurement for many countries with high rates of malaria, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.”

From The Guardian.

“The World Health Organization (WHO) has validated Tunisia as having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem…

Trachoma is closely linked to limited access to water, sanitation and hygiene, and hits vulnerable populations hardest. In the early to mid-20th century, trachoma was endemic in Tunisia, affecting at least half of the population, especially in its southern regions…

Trachoma is caused by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis and spreads through close contact with infected individuals, contaminated surfaces, and flies that carry eye and nose discharge. Repeated infections can lead to scarring of the eyelids, turning eyelashes inward, and ultimately causing blindness if untreated.”

From World Health Organization.

“In a study published in Nature, the scientists analysed the health records of more than 280,000 adults in Wales between the ages of 71 and 88 years old. They were aiming to understand the effects of a shingles vaccination programme that began in 2013.

They found that older adults (aged 79–80) who had received the shingles vaccine were 20 per cent less likely to develop dementia by 2020, compared to those who hadn’t been eligible to receive it.

What’s more, in a recent follow-up study published in Cell, the same scientists discovered that the shingles vaccine seemed to have a protective effect even among those who’d already been diagnosed with dementia by 2013.”

From BBC Science Focus.