“Researchers at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in partnership with Baylor College of Medicine report encouraging results from a phase 2 clinical trial evaluating a candidate vaccine to prevent hookworm infection – one of the world’s most common parasitic diseases.

The findings, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, show that a formulation of the investigational vaccine significantly reduced the intensity of infection in healthy adult volunteers exposed to the parasite under carefully controlled conditions…

• Participants who received the Na-GST 1/Al–CpG vaccine showed a dramatically lower intensity of infection after exposure: maximal hookworm egg count was median 0.0 eggs per gram of feces compared with the placebo group (median 66.7 eggs)
• Peak eosinophil levels – a blood marker linked to parasitic infection – were significantly lower in the Na-GST-1/Al–CpG group of participants.
• This group of participants also produced the highest levels of anti–Na-GST-1 antibodies, suggesting these antibodies may help protect against infection.”

From Newswise.

“Four doses of an experimental vaccine to protect against Lyme disease reduced the number of tick-borne infections by more than 70 percent, according to Pfizer and Valneva, the pharmaceutical companies developing the shot.

Pfizer said in a statement the companies are ‘confident in the vaccine’s potential’ and plan to submit the data to regulatory authorities, even though it missed a statistical cutoff for success. If approved, it could become the only Lyme disease vaccine available for people — although it would not be the first.”

From Washington Post.

“Sleeping sickness is a notorious disease — immortalized in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. A single bite from a tsetse fly carrying the parasite is all it takes to infect someone. Without treatment one form of the illness can progress from mild symptoms to death in a matter of weeks.

Now, a new drug holds the promise of helping the World Health Organization meet its goal of eliminating the disease by 2030. A committee of the European Medicines Agency has given an important green light to the first single-dose treatment — a medication called acoziborole, which could be in use by early next year.

Acoziborole is especially notable because it is taken as three pills swallowed together in a single dose, replacing long-used earlier treatments that included intravenous drugs known to cause a ‘burning’ sensation in the veins as well as being fatal for nearly one in 20 patients. Even the current first-line oral treatment, fexinidazole, must be taken for 10 days and comes with severe side effects such as nausea, vomiting and heart-rhythm disturbances. By contrast, clinical trials of acoziborole found just one significant side effect: mild to moderate headache.

‘For decades, available treatments were difficult to use,’ says Dr. Gerardo Priotto, who leads the World Health Organization’s efforts against sleeping sickness and was not part of the new drug’s development team. Therapies required staff, equipment and reliable infrastructure, he says. ‘These challenges were especially severe in remote, rural areas, where most cases occur and health services are limited.’

The new drug, acoziborole, removes just about all of these barriers.”

From NPR.

“Zimbabwe, one of southern Africa’s hardest‑hit countries, is taking a bold step in HIV prevention. The nation has now joined Zambia, Kenya and Eswatini in deploying Lenacapavir — an injection taken just twice a year to help protect communities most at risk.”

From DW.