The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, rising fuel costs, manufacturing concerns and the ripple of other global events have led to supply chain issues across the world that, in the United States, has been most recently highlighted by a shortage of baby formula.
Infection with adenovirus, a common childhood virus, is the leading hypothesis for recent cases of severe hepatitis of unknown origin in children that have led to at least six deaths, U.S. health officials said on May 20.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Sanofi’s Dupixent (dupilumab) 300 mg weekly to treat patients with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) aged 12 years and older, weighing at least 40 kg. With this approval, Dupixent is the first and only medicine specifically indicated to treat EoE in the United States.
COVID-19 is on the rise again in the Americas as many countries have abandoned measures like masking and social distancing and many lag in vaccination rates, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said on May 18.
U.S. House Democrats on May 17 unveiled a bill to provide $28 million in emergency funds to the Food and Drug Administration to help the regulatory agency respond to a nationwide shortage of infant formula and strengthen supervision of the industry.
Top baby formula makers Reckitt Benckiser and Nestle ramped up supplies to the United States to resolve a shortage that has emptied shelves and caused panic among parents. Leading U.S. manufacturer Abbott Laboratories on May 16 announced an agreement with the Food and Drug Administration to resume production of baby formula at the company’s Michigan plant, marking a major step towards resolving the nationwide shortage.
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control said the number of unusual pediatric hepatitis cases reached 450, double the number reported two weeks earlier.
President Joe Biden on May 12 commemorated the death of 1 million people in the United States from COVID-19, marking what he called “a tragic milestone” and urging Americans to “remain vigilant” amid the ongoing pandemic.
North Korea reported the country’s first COVID-19 outbreak on May 12, calling it the “gravest national emergency” and ordering a national lockdown, with state media saying an Omicron variant had been detected in the capital, Pyongyang.
Patients diagnosed with cancer more than a year before contracting COVID-19 and those not receiving active treatment may be no more vulnerable to worse COVID outcomes than those without cancer, according to a new study. Additionally, researchers warned that passengers are still at risk of coronavirus infection while traveling on airplanes and also in airports.
