Knowledge, attitude and practices of malaria preventive measures among mothers with children under five years in a rural setting of Ghana
18% Of South Carolinians Are Vaccinated For The Flu, Upstate Sees 22 Deaths
GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - The South Carolina Department of Public Health reports that 18% of eligible patients in the state are vaccinated for the flu. This number is down from 22% in 2023-2024.
DPH report as of Jan. 25 2024-2025 flu season:
Dr. Carey Gully from Blue Ridge Pediatrics says she is seeing large numbers of flu cases in her office in Seneca.
"On Monday and Tuesday we ran 62 molecular tests for the flu and 47 of them were positive," Dr. Gully said. "None of the people who got the flu, with one exception of one child, were vaccinated."
She said the one child who did test positive was vaccinated in September and had milder symptoms.
Doctors say if you believe you have the flu contact your doctor. It is best to take an antiviral medication within 72 hours of sickness.
Copyright 2025 WHNS. All rights reserved.
Real-world Study: RSV Vaccine 78% To 80% Effective Against Infection, Severe Illness In Older US Veterans
The estimated effectiveness of the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) among older US veterans in the 2023-2024 respiratory virus season against infection, emergency department/urgent care (ED/UC) visits, and hospitalization was 78%, 79%, and 80%, respectively.
The findings, published this week in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, come from a target trial emulation study led by researchers at the Veterans Affairs Portland Health Care System in Oregon. The observational study was designed to fill in knowledge gaps remaining after clinical trials (eg, vaccine effectiveness (VE) in people with weakened immune systems, effects on healthcare use for infection).
Vaccine uptake lowThe researchers used electronic health records at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to emulate a target trial comparing a single dose of RSV vaccine (RSVPreF3 [Arexvy] or RSVpreF [Abrysvo]) with no vaccination in veterans aged 60 years and older from September through December 2023, with follow-up until March 2024.
By the end of the 2023–24 respiratory illness season, only 24% of eligible adults in the USA had received an RSV vaccine.
The 146,852 vaccine recipients were matched with as many as four unvaccinated controls (582,936 total) in four monthly nested sequential trials. Of all participants, 94.0% were men, and the median age was 75.9 years. A total of 41.5% of participants had cardiovascular disease, 30.2% had chronic lung disease, and 5.2% had weakened immune systems. Of all vaccinees, 69.2% received Abrysvo, and 29.9% received Arexvy.
"In June, 2023, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended a single dose of RSV vaccine in adults aged 60 years and older, using shared clinical decision making," the study authors noted. "By the end of the 2023–24 respiratory illness season, only 24% of eligible adults in the USA had received an RSV vaccine."
Findings support current recommendationsEstimated VE was 78.1% (95% confidence interval [CI], 72.6% to 83.5%) against RSV infection, 78.7% (95% CI, 72.2% to 84.8%) against RSV-related ED/UC visits, and 80.3% (65.8% to 90.1%) against hospital admission.
Among high-risk subgroups, estimated VE against RSV infection was 72.3% (57.9% to 84.6%) in veterans aged 80 years and older and 71.6% (55.4% to 85.2%) in those with weakened immune systems.
During a median follow-up of 124 days, the incidence of RSV infection was 1.7 events per 1,000 person-years (88 total infections) among vaccinated participants and 7.3 per 1,000 person-years (372 infections) among the unvaccinated.
Extended follow-up over subsequent respiratory illness seasons is needed to assess the duration of the protective effect of vaccination.
In total, there were 66 ED/UC visits (1.3 per 1,000 person-years) in the vaccinated group and 289.3 (5.7 per 1,000 person-years) in the unvaccinated group. There were 15 hospitalizations (0.3 per 1,000 person-years) and 80.3 (1.6 per 1,000 person-years) in the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups, respectively.
There were no intensive care unit (ICU) admissions in the vaccinated group and 0.2 per 1,000 person-years among the unvaccinated. No vaccinated participants died, versus 0.1 per 1,000 person-years in unvaccinated participants.
The rates of RSV infections from day 14 among unvaccinated and vaccinated groups, respectively, were highest among those with weakened immune systems (19.9 vs 5.8 events per 1,000 person-years) and those with the highest VHA Care Assessment Need scores (16.1 vs 4.0 events per 1,000 person-years).
"These findings support current recommendations for RSV vaccination among individuals aged 60 years and older," the researchers wrote. "Extended follow-up over subsequent respiratory illness seasons is needed to assess the duration of the protective effect of vaccination."
Several questions remainIn a related commentary, Harish Nair, MBBS, PhD, and Thomas Williams, MB BChir, both of the University of Edinburgh, cautioned that veterans are not representative of the United States as a whole.
"Moreover, the median follow-up was only 4.1 months, compared with data from over two seasons available from the vaccine trials," they wrote. "Therefore, several questions that were unanswered by the RSV vaccine RCTs remain, and new questions have arisen."
More research is needed to determine the optimal RSV vaccination schedule, VE in women in a real-world setting, and VE against post-RSV ICU admissions, complications, and death, "all of which are likely to feed into the cost-effectiveness models that are needed to inform expanding RSV vaccination to broader age groups," Nair and Williams wrote.
"It is likely that several more such studies will need to be conducted using diverse databases over a range of geographies in the next few years to answer these questions and guide immunisation policies," they concluded.
7 In 10 US Adults Favor School Vaccination Mandates, But Support For Opt-outs Rising
Seven in 10 US adults support requiring schoolchildren to be vaccinated against infectious diseases such as measles, and over half also say states should ban students unvaccinated students from attending public or private schools, although support for this prohibition has been eroding since before the COVID-19 pandemic, a new survey reveals.
Results of the survey, completed by 538 adults earlier this month for the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania, were compared with those from a survey of 2,344 participants in spring 2019, roughly a year before the pandemic began.
"We find a significant drop in support for states prohibiting unvaccinated children (for non-medical reasons) from attending public or private schools," the authors wrote. "Further, the new survey finds increased support for state policies allowing parents to opt out of vaccinating their children for medical, religious, and personal or philosophical reasons."
Differences by political affiliationAll US states and Washington, DC, require certain vaccinations for students to attend school, a mandate that 52% of respondents said they support for both public and private schools to protect children who can't be vaccinated for medical reasons, down from 71% in 2019, across all political groups.
The APPC cited the National Council of State Legislatures in saying that all states have exemptions from school vaccination for medical reasons, while 30 states and Washington, DC, allow exemptions for religious reasons, and 13 states allow them for personal or philosophical reasons.
The growing support for parental opt-outs is universal across political party for medical exemptions, while religious and personal exemptions are seen to lesser degrees among self-described Democrats or political independents.
A total of 73% of respondents said they back mandatory childhood vaccinations, compared with 77% in 2019. An analysis showed partisan differences, with 86% of Democrats agreeing with such a mandate, while only 62% of Republicans and 72% of independents concurred.
From 2019 to 2025, support for states allowing medical opt-outs for childhood vaccinations rose from 36% to 63%. At the same time, backing of medical opt-outs grew from 38% to 69% among Republicans, 38% to 66% among independents, and 31% to 53% among Democrats. The proportion of those who opposed these opt-outs declined from 47% to 20% of Republicans, 51% to 32% of Democrats, and 41% to 17% of independents.
Support for states allowing religious opt-outs for childhood vaccinations nearly doubled from 2019 to 2025, from 20% to 39%. Republicans' favor for religious opt-outs grew from 24% to 52%, while independent support rose from 22% to 42% and Democrat support didn't change. Over the same period, opposition to these opt-outs dropped from 62% to 29% among Republicans and from 58% to 34% among independents, while the change among Democrats was not statistiscally significant.
From 2019 to 2025, support for states offering personal or philosophical opt-outs for childhood vaccines spiked to 35% from 17%. Republican support grew from 16% to 44%, while Democrat support climbed from 12% to 22%, and independent backing rose from 22% to 38%. During the same period, Republican opposition dropped to 41% from 71%, and independent opposition fell to 42% from 61%; Democrat opposition was unchanged.
Growing universal support for medical exemptions"The growing support for parental opt-outs is universal across political party for medical exemptions, while religious and personal exemptions are seen to lesser degrees among self-described Democrats or political independents," the APPC wrote.
Also, the proportion of those who "strongly support" school-related vaccination mandates has dropped from 47% of adults in 2019 to 24% in the new survey. But 66% say they are closer to the view that healthy children should be required to be vaccinated because of the potential risks. Another 21% say they are closer to the belief that parents should decide whether to vaccinate their children who attend public schools, even if their decision creates health risks for other children and adults.
Yet more than 8 in 10 respondents (84%) said they would back their state using public funds to provide free or discounted measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines, up from 81% in 2019.
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