anthrax vaccine (GC 1109 / GC1109)

Participatory Epidemiology of Major Camel Diseases and Their Management in Somalia: The Case of Banadir and Lower Shabelle Regions.

Salah Omar O, Sh Hassan Yasin Y, Yusuf Mohamed M, AbdiNB Hassan H

This study investigates major camel diseases, their community-perceived epidemiological characteristics, and management practices in the Banadir and Lower Shabelle regions of Somalia. Data were collected from 17 key informants through semistructured interviews and from 18 participants across three focus group discussions (FGDs). Semistructured interviews captured key camel diseases, their local names, disease impacts, coping mechanisms, and locally used disease management approaches, while FGDs were used to conduct participatory exercises to rank and characterize diseases based on severity and clinical signs. Kendall's W was used to assess consensus among participants, revealing the strength of the agreement across groups. Ten diseases were most frequently reported, including trypanosomosis, mastitis, pneumonia, ringworm, camelpox, mange, tetanus, wry neck, parasite infection, and anthrax. For disease management practices, about 15 out of 17 respondents reported using both modern medicines and traditional practices such as burning, administering Dobera glabra seeds, and applying camel hump ghee. In addition, 13 out of 17 informants indicated that farmers do not conduct regular animal health checkups. Preventive measures included isolation, relocation, and recitation of the Holy Quran. Regarding veterinary consultation, 10 out of 17 respondents reported poor veterinary consultation, citing limited awareness and poor accessibility as potential causes. Of the eight diseases assessed by pairwise ranking, farmers rated anthrax (Kud) as the most severe (mean 6.67 ± 0.58 out of 7), followed by tetanus (Taagow, 6.00 ± 1.00), with strong, statistically significant agreement across the focus groups (Kendall's W = 0.849; p = 0.013). Wry neck and trypanosomosis were rated moderately severe, while pneumonia, mange, mastitis, and camelpox scored lowest. Matrix scoring showed strong, statistically significant agreement among the three informant groups across all disease signs (Kendall's W = 0.74-1.00; p < 0.05). The strongest associations were dyspnea and nasal discharge with pneumonia (mean scores 15.00 ± 1.00/20 and 16.67 ± 2.08/20), odor change with trypanosomosis (15.00 ± 3.00/20), and fever with camelpox and trypanosomosis. The findings also revealed clear seasonal variation in camel diseases, with most conditions peaking during the rainy seasons of spring (Gu) and autumn (Dayr). In contrast, trypanosomosis, tetanus, and mange occurred throughout the year, while anthrax was predominantly associated with the dry Jiilaal season. Major challenges reported include limited veterinary services, high treatment costs, and inadequate feed and drug supplies. These findings reflect substantial indigenous knowledge and point to the need for integrated interventions including improved veterinary services, affordable drugs and vaccines, and farmer capacity building to strengthen camel health in the region.

First mRNA Cancer Vaccine Succeeds in Phase III Trial.

Adding the mRNA-based individualized neoantigen vaccine intismeran autogene to the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab following surgery for melanoma reduced the risk of disease recurrence or death by 42%, according to the results of the phase III INTerpath-0001 trial. The data were presented at the ESMO Congress 2026, held October 23-27, in Madrid, Spain.

Innovative vaccine strategies for sustainable control and eradication of peste des petits ruminants virus.

Bello Muhammad Bashir MB, Hameed Sodiq A SA, Abdullahi Adama Musa AM, Lawal Nafi'u N et al.

A Carriage-Structured Model of Meningococcal Meningitis: Backward Bifurcation, Seasonal Recurrence, and the Reach of Conjugate-Vaccine Strategies in the African Meningitis Belt.

Gatyeni Siphokazi Princess SP

Epidemic meningococcal meningitis in the African meningitis belt recurs on two timescales: a sharp annual dry-season peak and irregular multi-annual epidemics five to twelve years apart, whose mechanistic origin remains unsettled. Invasive disease is a rare, dead-end outcome of asymptomatic nasopharyngeal carriage, so susceptible-infectious templates misrepresent community transmission. We ask how carriage structure shapes bifurcation, seasonal recurrence, and the reach of conjugate-vaccine strategies. We formulate a deterministic carriage-structured model in which only carriers transmit, immunity against re-acquisition is leaky, and a conjugate vaccine is imperfect and wanes. We use the Castillo-Chavez-Song centre manifold method, numerical continuation, Floquet and eigenvalue analysis, and scenario simulations of abstract rate- and pulse-type interventions parameterised from published belt ranges. The basic reproduction number R0 is a property of carriage transmission, decoupled to first order from disease incidence. Backward bifurcation at R0=1 is governed by a threshold ε∗ on carriage-blocking immunity; only the untreated fatality hazard and treatment capacity are absent from the local condition. It is impossible without vaccination and, with any positive routine coverage, persists across the plausible coverage range, giving vaccine-induced bistability. Continuation confirms a fold at R0,c≈0.946 (φ=0.12yr-1, weak carriage immunity), but not at baseline immunity. Under seasonal forcing, dynamics converge to a simple annual cycle throughout the region searched; we found no multi-annual recurrence, although damped eigenmodes of the unforced system have periods overlapping the observed interval. Within this deterministic, single-strain model, irregular recurrence likely requires additional structure, with stochastic amplification of damped cycles a natural next step. Whether sustained immunisation eliminates epidemics or merely postpones them may depend on the same carriage-efficacy threshold that governs the bistability result.