Vaccine News

With warm Caribbean waters and beautiful beaches, The Bahamas is a tourist favorite in 2025. Last year, over 11 million people visited the various islands in The Bahamas.

To ensure visitors departing from the United States are appropriately forewarned about risks 60 miles east of Florida, the State Department recently updated its Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution.

As of March 31, 2025, this Advisory stated that crime can occur anywhere in The Bahamas, with frequent reports in Nassau and Freeport on New Providence and Grand Bahama islands. Additionally, visitors should stay alert in the "Over the Hill" area in Nassau, south of Shirley Street.

And stay alert in vacation rental properties, especially where private security is not present.

Furthermore, boating is not well-regulated, as sexual assaults, injuries, and deaths have occurred. Moreover, never swim alone and beware of jet skis or other watercraft operating close to shore. 

Due to these risks, U.S. government employees are prohibited from using jet skis and personal watercraft rented from independent operators on New Providence and the Paradise Islands.

And be aware of your surroundings and stay alert in public restrooms, as sexual assaults have occurred on and near downtown Nassau beaches.

For local assistance, the U.S. Embassy Nassau is located at 42 Queen Street, Nassau, The Bahamas. You can enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program to receive digital messages from the Embassy and make locating you in an emergency easier.

From a health risk perspective, the U.S. CDC recommends various routine and travel vaccinations before visiting the Bahamas in 2025. Unlike its Caribbean neighbors, no mosquito-transmitted, vaccine-preventable Chikungunya or Dengue cases were reported in 2025 or 2024.

Travel vaccines are offered at various clinics and pharmacies in the U.S.

The Republic of Uganda's Ministry of Health today confirmed it is the 19th country in Africa to introduce an approved malaria vaccine into routine immunisation.

The R21/Matrix-M™ vaccine includes Novavax AB's proprietary saponin-based Matrix-M adjuvant, will initially target 1.1 million children under two years in 105 high- and moderate-transmission districts across Uganda, with plans to expand nationwide.

About 2.278 million doses of malaria vaccines were distributed.

As of April 2, 2025, a malaria vaccination campaign was launched in Apac District, northern Uganda, with support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and Alliance partners UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO), PATH, and CHAI.

The Minister of Health, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero, commented in a GAVI press release, “The vaccine's introduction marks a significant milestone in our fight against malaria. It is expected to prevent at least 800 cases of severe malaria among children daily and ease the financial burden on families, saving them approximately UGX 15,000 per case that would have been spent on treating severe malaria."

According to the WHO, despite the expenditure of $4 billion per year, malaria deaths and cases have not substantially changed over the last decade. An estimated 263 million malaria cases and 597,000 related fatalities occurred worldwide in 2023.

Recently, Uganda's tourism sector has experienced a significant increase, with thousands of international visitors arriving monthly.

As of April 2025, malaria vaccines are not offered in the United States.

As the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) season diminishes in 2025, most European adults are gaining access to an innovative vaccine.

Pfizer Inc. today announced that the European Commission (EC) has issued a decision amending the marketing authorization for ABRYSVO®, the company’s bivalent RSV prefusion F vaccine, to extend the indication to include prevention of lower respiratory tract disease (LRTD) caused by RSV in individuals 18 through 59 years of age.

This action by the EC expands the previous authorization for individuals aged 60 and older, and ABRYSVO now offers the broadest RSV vaccine indication in the EU.

“We are thrilled that ABRYSVO is now approved in the EU to help prevent RSV in adults aged 18 and older, which causes approximately 158,000 adult hospital admissions annually from RSV disease, a common respiratory virus with symptoms that can be severe or even life-threatening,” said Alexandre de Germay, Chief International Commercial Officer, Executive Vice President, Pfizer, in a press release on April 1, 2025.

In Europe, RSV is a common respiratory virus that causes mild, cold-like symptoms. However, in infants under six months of age, people over 65, and people with a compromised immune system, RSV can cause severe illness and death.

According to the ECDC on April 2, 2025, RSV activity peaked in the EU/EEA in week 52, 2024, and has since decreased, but has remained elevated, with considerable variation between countries.

Before visiting Europe, travel clinics and pharmacies in the United States offer RSV vaccination services.

As the global outbreak of the Chikungunya virus continues to expand in India, Brazil, and La Réunion, European adolescents can now receive an effective vaccine that protects them from this mosquito-transmitted disease.

On April 1, 2025, Valneva SE announced that the European Commission (EC) has granted marketing authorization in Europe for Valneva’s single-dose vaccine, IXCHIQ®, for the prevention of disease caused by the chikungunya virus in individuals 12 years of age and older.

With this approval, IXCHIQ® will become available for adolescents in the EU, Norway, Liechtenstein, and Iceland.

In addition to the EC's approval in adolescents and adults in the EU, it has been approved in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom to prevent diseases caused by the chikungunya virus in individuals 18 and older. Similar label extension applications for adolescents were also submitted in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.

Dr. Richard Hatchett, Chief Executive Officer of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, commented in a media release, “Cases of chikungunya are increasing around the world, making populations of all ages vulnerable to the disease’s long-term debilitating effects, such as prolonged joint pain and inflammation."

"EC’s marketing authorization for use of IXCHIQ® in adolescents in the EU is an important stepping stone that could help accelerate the approval of the vaccine in this age group in other regions, including areas where the disease is endemic.”

In the United States, IXCHIQ is commercially available at most travel clinics and pharmacies and is recommended by the U.S. CDC for people visiting Chikungunya endemic areas in 2025.

Following the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988, the number of paralytic poliomyelitis cases was reduced by about 99% globally, with wild-type PV1 remaining endemic in only Afghanistan and Pakistan.

However, the World Health Organization recently reconfirmed that the spread of the poliovirus remained a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. For example, the U.S. CDC identified polio outbreaks and poliovirus detections in 39 countries in 2025.

To address these concerns, a recent study highlighted the benefits of an innovative polio vaccine candidate.

According to a study published by NPJ Vaccines on March 31, 2025, the success of the poliovirus (PV) vaccines has enabled the near-eradication of wild PV. Their continued post-eradication use poses concerns due to the 'potential for virus escape during vaccine manufacture.'

While the current generation of PV vaccines has achieved great success, the continued use of oral PV has facilitated the continued appearance of circulating vaccine-derived PV (cVDPV), which now outnumbers wild PV cases yearly. 

These researchers wrote, 'Recombinant virus-like particles (VLPs) that lack the viral genome remove this risk.'

They demonstrate the production of PV VLPs for all three serotypes by controlled fermentation using Pichia pastoris.

The cryo-EM structure of a new PV2 mutant, SC5a, was determined compared to PV2-SC6 b VLPs described previously, and the immunogenicity of PV2-SC5a VLPs was investigated.

Finally, a trivalent immunogenicity trial using bioreactor-derived VLPs of all three serotypes in the presence of Alhydrogel adjuvant showed that these VLPs outperform the current IPV vaccine in the standard vaccine potency assay, offering the potential for dose-sparing.

Overall, 'these results provide further evidence that yeast-produced VLPs have the potential to be a next-generation polio vaccine in a post-eradication world.'

'The most important pre-requisite of any next-generation PV vaccine is that it elicits the same long-lasting immunity against disease as the current vaccine.'

Over the past few years, PT Biofarma has produced the type 2 novel oral polio (nOPV2) vaccine, derived from the live, infectious virus and 'triple-locked.' The nOPV2 vaccine is reported to be more genetically stable than previous oral polio vaccines, with a lower risk of reversion to neurovirulence.

It has been administered over 1.1 billion times, mainly in Africa.

Since 2000, the IPV has been the standard polio vaccine offered in the United States, and booster doses are suggested when visiting poliovirus outbreak areas.

Nipah virus, one of the deadliest pathogens known to infect humans, lacks a preventive vaccine. To accelerate the development of a Nipah vaccine candidate, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) provides up to $13.38 million in funding for a pioneering self-amplifying mRNA (saRNA) vaccine candidate.

Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Limited developed this innovative solution and is teaming up with Houston Methodist Research Institute, a Texas-based institution.

They will use their cutting-edge AI technology to optimise the properties of proteins derived from the virus that could stimulate the immune system and serve as optimal vaccine targets for Gennova to investigate.

“Wi"h no vaccines or specific therapeutics approved for human use against Nipah, CEPI is leading the charge to protect the world against this deadly virus committing over $100 million to its Nipah programmes and advancing the first ever Nipah vaccine candidates into Phase 1 studies and through to completion," said Dr. Kent Kester, Executive Director of Vaccine Research and Development at CEPI, in a press release on March 30, 2025. 

“Gennova will not only help establish the suitability of the saRNA platform for use against Nipah but also its suitability as part of a wider group of RNA technologies that could enable rapid responses to future Disease X threats, potentially within 100 days of identification.”

I" August 2023, CEPI initially provided up to $3.6 million to support the optimization of Gennova' sRNA-platform technology to develop vaccine candidates against unknown pathogenic threats known as Disease X.

The initial tranche of funding was part of CEPI's program to support novel RNA vaccine platform technologies for emerging and select endemic infectious diseases. These technologies could offer substantial advantages over existing mRNA technologies, such as multivalency, improved immunogenicity, storage and stability, productivity, response time, and cost-of-goods.

To help guide a path forward, the WHO's roadmap for Nipah virus research priorities (2024–29) outlines ambitious milestones for advancing diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines.

As of March 31, 2025, Nipah outbreaks have been confined to South and Southeast Asia. However, the fruit bat vector is found in large geographical areas across the globe, covering a population of more than 2 billion people. 

According to the U.S. CDC, around 40%–70% of people infected with the Nipah virus may die.