Around the globe : Morning MEDtalks with Dr K K Aggarwal

New Delhi, August 21, 2018 :

Around the globe

“There have been a number of spontaneous reports of sudden unexpected death soon after the administration of Infanrix hexa (combined diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis, hepatitis B, inactivated poliomyelitis and Haemophilus influenza type B vaccine). The manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), submits confidential periodic safety update reports (PSURs) on Infanrix hexa to the European Medicines Agency (EMA). The latest is the PSUR 19. Deaths acknowledged in the PSUR 16 were deleted from the PSUR 19. The number of observed deaths soon after vaccination among children older than one year was significantly higher than that expected by chance once the deleted deaths were restored and included in the analysis”. (Indian J Med Ethics. 2018 Jan-Mar;3(1):43-47)
Infanrix-hexa is a combination vaccine that protects infants from six diseases. This vaccine requires three doses, at 6 weeks, 3 months and 5 months of age, to be fully effective and to induce long-lived immunity.
Treatment-resistant depression in adults: In patients with mild to moderate treatment-resistant major depression, augment the initial antidepressant with a second drug and/or psychotherapy, rather than switching antidepressants or switching from pharmacotherapy to psychotherapy. In an open label trial, more than 1500 patients with treatment resistant depression were randomly assigned to one of three treatment strategies: augment the current antidepressant with aripiprazole, augment with bupropion sustained release, or switch to bupropion. At 12 weeks, remission was more likely in the augment-aripiprazole group than the switch group, but the clinical difference was small (29 versus 22 percent) (JAMA. 2017;318(2):132).
In Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, Dr. Jacob Puliyel, Head of Pediatrics, St. Stephen’s Hospital and C Sathyamala, Public Health Physician and Epidemiologist, examined sudden infant deaths following vaccination with GlaxoSmithKline’s hexavalent (6 in 1) “Infanrix hexa” vaccine. The authors point out that their analysis of the data submitted by GlaxoSmithKline to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in a confidential report (2012) reveals that 83 % of the reported infant deaths have taken place within the first 10 days after vaccination with “Infanrix hexa” vaccine. Only 17% occurred in the next 10 days. They point out that: If this were simply coincidental deaths then it would not all cluster immediately after vaccination but would have been distributed uniformly over the 20 day period. The authors point out, that Hexavac – a similar vaccine manufactured by Sanofi Pasteur, had been introduced in the market in 2000 and it was removed from the European market in 2005, after it was found to have increased deaths of children within two days of vaccination.(ahrp.com, 2017)
A new research in 14th August, 2018 in JAMA has shown that a new combination drug may have the potential to revolutionize hypertension treatment worldwide. This drug referred to as ‘triple pill’ contains telmisartan (20 mg), amlodipine (2.5 milligrams) and chlorthalidone (12.5 mg).
In a new article published in the July issue of Trends in parasitology, researchers have outlined their learnings while developing vaccines for human parasites. According to authors, there have been no parallel advances in the product and clinical development sciences that may be needed to take these candidate vaccines into human trials.
Phase 3 trial results of the US FDA approved drug ibalizumab were published in the August 16 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The results showed that when ibalizumab is added to the regimen, 83% of the participating patients witnessed a reduction in the amount of HIV in their body.
In an original research published in the July issue of BMJ, the researchers showed that women with abnormal prenatal biochemical screening results, especially for dimeric inhibin-A, may be at higher risk of cardiovascular disease.
A moderate carb diet may hold the key to longevity, says a study published August 16 in the Lancet Public Health journal, which showed that moderate consumption of carbohydrates (50 to 55% of calories) was associated with the lowest risk of early death.
A new research has shown that preferring evening activities, going to bed late, and not getting enough sleep may lead to weight gain among people with prediabetes. The study published on August 15 in the journal Frontiers in Endocrinology, has shown that in patients with prediabetes, more evening preference was directly associated with higher BMI and indirectly through insufficient sleep duration, while social jetlag did not mediate the relationship between composite Scale of Morningness and BMI.