Aptamil maker Danone SA stepped up shipments of infant formula from Europe to address a shortage in the United States, according to U.S customs data and an analysis of ocean cargo data by shipping consultancy Ocean Audit for Reuters.
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.
The United States will allow baby formula imports from foreign makers that do not usually sell their products here, the Food and Drug Administration said on May 16, as it tries to ease a nationwide shortage that has left parents scrambling to feed their babies.
While Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech have submitted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) requests for their COVID-19 vaccines, the data so far suggest the benefits of a fourth shot may be modest.
The Omicron variant of the coronavirus is causing a dramatic rise in cases of croup, a dangerous respiratory condition usually seen in babies and toddlers, new data suggest. Additionally, new research sheds light on how a tuberculosis vaccine might help protect against COVID-19.
One in four children with COVID-19 symptoms develop “long COVID,” according to data pooled from 21 earlier studies conducted in Europe, Asia, Australia and South America. Also, according to a study reported on March 14 in JAMA Pediatrics, women who wish to pass protective antibodies induced by COVID-19 vaccines to their babies via breast milk should opt for the mRNA shots from Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech.
With the Omicron surge waning – at least in the United States – there is speculation that the COVID-19 pandemic may be in its end stages, although some experts warn that this could be premature.
Merck & Co. and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics announced they have supplied about 3.1 million courses of their antiviral drug against COVID-19, molnupiravir, to the U.S. government. In other news, a study funded by the National Institutes of Health found that vaccination against COVID-19 not only protects pregnant women against the disease but their babies as well.
Covid-19 antibodies passed from infected mothers to their breastfeeding newborns provide more benefit to the baby than researchers expected to see, according to a report published on November 3 in JAMA Network Open. In other research, among people with impaired immune systems, some get less benefit than others from the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines while new data help clarify the differences and supports the need for extra shots.
Americans had the lowest number of babies in more than four decades during 2020, mirroring a slump in European birth rates, as the Covid-19 pandemic forced more people to take care of sick family members or deal with job losses. Birth rate in the United States fell 4 percent in 2020 to about 3.6 million babies, the sixth straight annual decline and the lowest since 1979, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
