ABUJA — The Federal Government has taken steps to expedite local vaccine manufacturing and halt its importation.

To achieve this,  government has reviewed and validated the draft national plan for vaccine research and development in the country.

The plan, which was developed in 2021, is the first of its kind in Africa and highlights roles of relevant stakeholders in the vaccine landscape.

This was the fallout of a meeting organised by the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development, NIPRD, in Abuja, weekend.

Speaking at the review and validation meeting, the  Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Tunji Alausa, disclosed that the efforts of the Federal Government over the years to commence local vaccines production was already yielding the expected results.

Represented by Dr. David Atuwo, the minister noted that the review and validation meeting was timely because it provided critical stakeholders and policymakers the opportunity to address critical healthcare issues, as well as enhance entry of the pharmaceutical sector into the larger African market.

The review and validation of the draft roadmap, the minister stressed, would fast-track the achievement of the  vaccine policy objectives of the federal government.

“With this initiative, I am confident that the government prioritization as regards local vaccine production will begin to yield the desired result within the shortest possible time, and the reliance on importation of this important public health tool will be drastically reduced.

“The Federal Ministry of Health and Social  Welfare will continue to provide the necessary oversight and work with NIPRD, partners and stakeholders at the various levels to ensure that the desired results of sustainable vaccine R&D and local production in Nigeria are achieved,” he said.

‘Progress made’

Speaking on the government’s level of preparation to kick-start local vaccine manufacturing, the minister said: “Despite the various challenges militating against local production of vaccines, I want to state that appreciable progress has been achieved in these past few years.:

“Nigeria has recently attained Maturity Level Three (ML3) for regulatory oversight and this includes the area of vaccines.

“With this and other ongoing reforms in the health sector, vaccines produced as a result of this process will not only satisfy national needs, but will also be available for international procurement.

“Whilst the government is taking steps to provide the needed infrastructure requisite for the implementation of local vaccines’ production, it is commendable that NIPRD, in line with its mandate, continues to set the pace for responsive innovation in this area.

“This high-level meeting is intended to bring together relevant stakeholders in order to synthesize ideas and solutions for a robust and contextual base plan to achieve sustainable local manufacturing of vaccines in Nigeria.

“This approach will provide a strong foundation that is underpinned by empirical evidence. The adoption of this bottom-up strategy in developing this plan ensures that innovative ideas embedded in this framework are designed to stimulate local vaccines R&D and vaccines production in Nigeria.”

In his remarks, the Director General of NIPRD, Dr. Obi Adigwe, explained that the meeting was the first step to unlocking the health value chain plan which would not only save lives but also address critical socio-economic indices, such as job creation, capacity building, revenue generation and technology transfer.

Dr Adigwe, however, stressed that Africa no more cherished what he described as tokenistic interventions such as fill-finish products.

“Africa no longer has an interest in tokenistic interventions such as fill-finish products, but has become interested in building dependable, equitable, and veracious partnerships that will enable the Continent to undertake full R&D for the production of vaccines,” he stressed.

Source : Vanguard

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On World Mental Health Day, October 10^th, the American Heart Association, a global force for healthier lives for all, shares new survey findings that may help employers reduce burnout and improve workforce well-being by up to 40%.

The World Health Organization defines burnout as a workplace mental health phenomenon resulting from chronic, unmanaged workplace stress that is characterized by feelings of exhaustion, disengagement and negativity related to one’s job, and reduced professional performance.^[1]

“Chronic exposure to stress can increase your lifetime risk of conditions like heart disease and stroke and is also linked to anxiety disorders and major depression. With burnout rates continuing to rise, we must acknowledge that this is not a passing problem, but a serious and ongoing workforce mental health challenge,” shared Eduardo J. Sanchez, M.D., M.P.H., FAHA, chief medical officer for prevention at the American Heart Association. “This survey gives a reassuring glance at how employers can make a positive impact on the mental health and well-being of their workforce with a few intentional changes.”

Employees are not the only ones paying the price for burnout. Excessive workplace stress can result in up to an estimated $190 billion in health care costs each year and is linked with higher absenteeism and job dissatisfaction.^[2], ^[3] Research shows that employers can help mitigate these costs and support better business outcomes by championing employee well-being. A 2019 study found that the stock prices of organizations that prioritized employee health and safety appreciated by 115% over four years, outperforming the S&P 500 (+69%) and companies with lower reported internal health support (+44%).^[4]

The survey of 5,055 U.S. working adults was conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of the American Heart Association, with the aim of understanding how employees are impacted by nine evidence-based best practices to combat burnout and promote employee mental health. Despite positive measures of workforce well-being, more than three quarters (82%) of respondents reported experiencing burnout at least sometimes, with parents, frontline or essential workers, women, younger workers (Generation Z and millennials) and LGBTQIA+ workers particularly likely to report feeling burned out often or always.

What can employers do to help?

All nine policies analyzed in the survey were found to be associated with increased workplace well-being as reported by employees, and seven were also associated with decreased burnout:

• Assess alignment between skillset and job tasks
• Establish clear roles and responsibilities
• Regularly assess workloads
• Design job roles with employee input
• Establish a training path to develop employee skills
• Assess if employees feel supported to lead a healthy life
• Promote overall employee well-being
• Discourage work-related technology use after hours
• Promote employee support (resource) groups

In companies with none of these policies in place, only 51% of employees reported positive workplace well-being, as compared to 91% of employees in companies with all nine policies in place. Notably, even the implementation of one of these policies made employees more likely to be satisfied with their benefits, have positive feelings about their current role and job responsibilities, and report feeling supported by their manager.

The American Heart Association’s Workforce Well-being Scorecard offers employers a comprehensive assessment of their culture of health and well-being based on leading best practices, including policies to support mental health and combat burnout. Visit heart.org/workforce to view the full survey report and complete the Scorecard.

Survey Methodology

The research was conducted online in the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of the American Heart Association among 5,055 US adults aged 18+ who are employed full time or part time. The survey was conducted between April 13 and May 10, 2023. Data are weighted separately by race/ethnicity and where necessary by education, age by sex, region, household income, size of household, marital status, work status, and propensity to be online to bring them in line with their actual proportions in the population. The groups were then combined into a proportional total by race/ethnicity.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in our surveys. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within + 1.9 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. This credible interval will be wider among subsets of the surveyed population of interest. All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to other multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including, but not limited to coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments.

Source : News Room

The post 9 Policies Companies Should Implement to Reduce Burnout, According to Employees appeared first on Policy Print.

Nipah, a deadly RNA virus that can spill over from bats to humans, has infected six people and killed two in the Indian state of Kerala since August. The virus can cause encephalitis — inflammation of the brain — which manifests as fever, headaches, vomiting and respiratory distress. It has a fatality rate of 40–75%, depending on the strain.

This is the fourth Nipah spillover event in Kerala in the past six years. Before the 2023 outbreak, one in 2018 also spread between people and caused at least 17 deaths. The other two, in 2019 and 2021, were limited to single cases.

At present, Nipah spreads between humans through contact with bodily fluids, so it is unlikely to cause a pandemic. But the virus is poorly understood, and no approved vaccines or treatments are available. Each outbreak gives the virus the chance to adapt and produce a strain that could spread more effectively.

Based on my experience as one of the leaders of the Nipah surveillance team in Kerala during the 2018 and 2023 outbreaks, more scientific and policy work on Nipah is needed. As a key first step, all countries likely to have Nipah virus reservoirs should have early detection systems.

That starts with knowing better where the risks lie. The strain in Kerala’s outbreaks originated from Bangladesh in 2001. Health systems have missed this strain because its mortality rate is so high that it often causes small outbreaks or single cases. Outbreaks in Bangladesh in 2001 and 2003 were only detected later, when antibodies against Nipah were found in stored samples.

To reach Kerala, the virus must have spread undetected over more than 2,000 kilometres, from Bangladesh or the neighbouring Indian state of West Bengal. It is highly probable that many places in southeast Asia have Nipah virus reservoirs and could experience spillovers: Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, southern China, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and many Indian states all lie a similar distance from Bangladesh and are home to fruit bats. Bat populations in many Indian states harbour serological evidence of exposure to Nipah virus (M. Gokhale et al. Comp. Immunol. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. 85, 101800; 2022).

In Kerala’s 2018 outbreak, the virus spread mainly in hospitals simply because people were most likely to be there when they were highly infectious. In areas with endemic Nipah, hospitals should screen anyone with sudden symptoms of encephalitis or respiratory distress for the virus, unless there is a clear alternative diagnosis. They should also follow strict infection-control protocols, including proper room ventilation, mask wearing for health-care workers, and isolation of patients. In India, it is common for friends and family members to accompany people to the hospital, but these bystanders were affected the most in both the larger outbreaks.

Lack of treatments for Nipah is another concern. Drug trials are difficult, because outbreaks typically last for only a few days. Kerala’s experience is that using antivirals not specific to Nipah might have helped some people infected near the end of the outbreaks in 2018 (R. Chandni et al. Clin. Infect. Dis. 71, 152–157; 2020) and 2023. More research is needed, as is wider distribution of general antivirals.

The development of monoclonal antibodies from Nipah survivors in Kerala is also a priority. These will be specific to the local variant and could be given to people with early symptoms and to high-risk contacts, such as frontline health-care workers, potentially saving lives. The International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, in Dhaka is already studying about 50 survivors of Nipah.

According to Gavi, the vaccine alliance, several candidate vaccines for Nipah are in clinical trials, including one based on messenger RNA, one based on a viral vector and one containing the protein subunit of Hendra virus, which closely resembles Nipah.

Because Nipah is an RNA virus that is prone to mutate, studying the virological factors contributing to severity is important for monitoring its pandemic potential. It is also crucial to study variation in immunological mechanisms known to affect people’s susceptibility to Nipah. Hospital camera footage in Kerala revealed that some individuals were not infected despite close, unprotected contact with someone who was.

But prevention is always better than treatment. Public-awareness campaigns are a first step to preventing the spillover of Nipah from bats to humans. These should happen wherever fruit bats could serve as natural viral reservoirs. In Kerala, we are teaching people not to eat bat meat, fallen fruits or the nectar of banana flowers, which could contain bat saliva. In Bangladesh, spillover was attributed to people eating date-palm sap contaminated with bat secretions, but this was not the case for the 2023 outbreak in Kerala. People also need to be made aware that destroying bat habitats during a Nipah outbreak can cause infected animals to migrate to human-populated locations and increase the chance of human–bat interactions.

After the 2018 outbreak, the Keralan government developed a system to detect infections early, by analysing samples from people suspected to have Nipah; to contain outbreaks; and to save lives by treating symptoms. It is also establishing a research centre to investigate spillover mechanisms. But the wider world must take note. The past few years have made it clear that bolstering countries’ defences against viral diseases benefits us all.

Source : Nature

The post Nipah Virus is Deadly — but Smart Policy Changes Can Help Quell Pandemic Risk appeared first on Policy Print.