Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

11 INFECTION CONTROL New variants could evade COVID-19 shot within a year, many epidemiologists say By Mackenzie Bean A bout two-thirds of epidemiologists say further mutation of the SARS- CoV-2 virus could render current COVID-19 vaccines ineffective within a year, according to a small survey the People's Vaccine Alliance released March 30. e People's Vaccine Alliance is a coali- tion of more than 50 organizations aiming to accelerate vaccinations in developing countries. e alliance surveyed 77 epide- miologists, virologists and infection disease specialists from 28 countries between Feb. 17 and March 25. Four survey findings: 1. In total, 66.2 percent of respondents said they thought it would be a year or less before the virus mutates enough for most first-gen- eration vaccines to be ineffective. 2. Eighteen percent said the world has two years or more before this occurs. 3. About 7.8 percent of respondents said mutations would never render current vaccines ineffective, and another 7.8 percent said they were not confident predicting this timeline. 4. Eighty-three percent of respondents said persistent low vaccine coverage in many countries would make it more likely for mutations to occur. "Unless we vaccinate the world, we leave the playing field open to more and more mutations, which could churn out variants that could evade our current vaccines and require booster shots to deal with them," Gregg Gonsalves, PhD, associate professor of epidemiology at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., said in a news release. n COVID-19 vaccines effective for pregnant women, likely protect their babies too: Study By Gabrielle Masson C OVID-19 mRNA vaccines are extremely effective at protecting pregnant and lactating women against the virus, and likely provide protection for their babies as well, according to a study published March 25 in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Wom- en's Hospital, both in Boston, examined data from 131 vaccine recipients, including 84 who were pregnant, 31 who were breastfeeding and 16 who weren't pregnant. At the time of publication, the study was the largest to date to examine the responses of pregnant and lactating women to COVID-19 vaccines. Participants received vaccines produced by either Pfizer or Moderna, both of which are mRNA vaccines. Researchers found pregnant and nursing women receive as much pro- tection from vaccines as non-pregnant women, and that vaccine-induced immune responses were significantly greater than the response to natu- ral infection. There was no sign their babies were harmed by the vaccine, and side effect profiles were virtually identical between pregnant and non-pregnant women, co-authors Galit Alter, PhD, professor of medicine at Boston-based Harvard Medical School, and Andrea Edlow, MD, member of the obstetrics and gyne- cology faculty at Harvard Medical School and maternal-fetal medicine spe- cialist at Massachusetts General Hospital, told USA Today. The babies born to mothers vaccinated during pregnancy had antibod- ies to COVID-19, Drs. Alter and Edlow told USA Today, adding that it isn't known what antibody levels protect against disease, but the babies likely had enough to be protected for at least some time. n Don't forget about Ebola guidelines, CDC warns healthcare organizations By Mackenzie Bean T he CDC is reminding U.S. health- care providers about its Ebola infection control guidelines in light of outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guinea, AHA News reported March 3. CDC resources include guidelines for screening patients, cleaning and disin- fecting patient care areas and emergen- cy procedures for people who've been in close contact with someone who may have Ebola, among other topics. In late February, the agency also imple- mented travel restrictions for people en- tering the U.S. from countries facing Ebo- la outbreaks. As of April 19, Guinea had reported 23 Ebola cases and 12 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. Con- go confirmed 11 cases and six deaths as of April 19. n

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