$460m pledged for vaccine initiative aimed at preventing global epidemics

A coalition of governments, philanthropists and business is pledging to put money and effort into making vaccines to stop the spread of diseases that could threaten mankind – and to prevent another outbreak as devastating as the Ebola epidemic.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Norwegian, Japanese and German governments, the Wellcome Trust and the Gates Foundation announced they were putting in $ 460 million – half of what is needed for the first five years of the initiative. Three diseases will initially be targeted: Lassa, Mers and Nipah. All three are caused by viruses that have come from animals to infect humans and could trigger dangerous global epidemics.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/18/nipah-fearsome-virus-that-caught-the-medical-and-scientific-world-off-guard

Ebola virus had been known since it first infected humans in 1976, but the outbreaks were relatively small and, although deadly, did not greatly trouble most of the world until the disease hit cities, spread across west Africa and cases were seen in the USA and Europe.

Experts are determined to do everything they can to prevent such unexpected disasters. Ebola killed more than 11,000 people and devastated the healthcare systems and economies of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) will direct money into research for vaccines for infectious diseases that afflict low and middle-income countries and are not research priorities for pharmaceutical companies because there is not a lucrative market for them. One of the key aims of CEPI will be to ensure the vaccines are affordable and accessible to all who need them.

Jeremy Farrar, chief executive of the Wellcome Trust, said changes in the environment, in people’s interactions with animals and urbanisation were all factors that could trigger an outbreak in humans of a new infectious disease. Of the series of epidemics in the last couple of decades he said: “That is not going to stop. It is the way the world is structured now.”

There had been a tendency, though, to forget about the dangers once an outbreak has ended, noted Farrar. “Sars is the best example. The epidemic faded away and then interest went on to other things,” he said.

Ebola was different, said Farrar. “It was on TV screens and many people witnessed it for themselves. There was a feeling that this can never happen again. It was horrific. Many thousands of lives were lost. But also there was the optimism and hope that maybe for the first time in history, a vaccine was found to be safe and effective. We can dare to dream and can change the way things happen.”

CEPI aims to develop two promising vaccines against each of the first three diseases so that they are available before any epidemic breaks out.

Sir Andrew Witty, chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), which is involved in the initiative, said: “We are not really learning the lessons from the previous pandemic. We are never really changing our level of readiness.” GSK was asked by the World Health Organisation in the summer of 2014 to try to develop an Ebola vaccine and had it ready to trial by the following January. That time could have been much shorter if there had been something on the shelf.

The company intends to create a “biopreparedness organisation”, based permanently at its research facility in Rockville in the USA, to work on a no-profit, no-loss basis to develop vaccines for diseases that could potentially pose public health threats.

Epidemics, said Erna Solberg, prime minister of Norway, “ … can ruin societies on a scale only matched by wars and natural disasters. They respect no borders and don’t care if we are rich or poor. Protecting the vulnerable is protecting ourselves. This is why we all must work together to be better prepared – and why my government is fully committed to ensure that CEPI achieves its mission.”

$460m pledged for vaccine initiative aimed at preventing global epidemics

Marlboro advertising campaign aimed at youthful people, anti-tobacco report says

Advert from Marlboro’s ‘Don’t Be a Maybe’ campaign, which is stated to target youthful folks. Photograph: Guardian

An advert in Switzerland exhibits a barefoot youthful female on a large parapet overlooking a city as the sun sets. “A Perhaps never reached the leading”, says the caption.

“Maybe in no way wrote a song”, runs the caption on an additional billboard in Germany, beside the image of a laughing young woman performer, hair dishevelled, cigarette in hand. Other posters display younger males riding stunt bikes and motorbikes.

Every single advert in the “Never be a Possibly” campaign ends with the command: “Be Marlboro”.

Anti-tobacco campaigners on Wednesday published a report accusing Philip Morris International, the makers of Marboro cigarettes, of breaching its own ethical code in embarking on a substantial-profile international marketing and advertising campaign meant to recruit new younger smokers.

The campaign has been rolled out across 50 nations, featuring billboards, adverts and promotional events like music concerts. The posters demonstrate youthful folks apparently acting in radical, decisive and adventurous ways. “Perhaps by no means fell in enjoy – Be Marlboro” runs the banner on a poster of two younger individuals kissing in a dark street.

That advert ran in Germany in 2011. In October 2013, Germany banned the promotional images, ruling they were developed to encourage youngsters as youthful as 14 to smoke. PMI has mentioned it will appeal. Meanwhile the campaign has taken off in other nations, this kind of as Indonesia, Brazil and the Philippines, the place the laws on cigarette promoting are not as stringent as in some European nations, which includes the Uk.

In a joint report, seven anti-tobacco organisations warned that PMI is striving to recruit a new generation of youngsters, many of whom risk turning out to be hooked on tobacco for lifestyle. The report, “You’re the Target”, was issued by Corporate Accountability Worldwide, Campaign for Tobacco-Free of charge Kids, Alliance for the Control of Tobacco Use, Tobacco Control Alliance, Framework Convention Alliance, InterAmerican Heart Foundation, and Southeast Asia Tobacco Manage Alliance.

The campaign “exploits adolescents’ search for identity by suggesting that – in the encounter of uncertainty – they need to be a Marlboro smoker”, says the report. “Despite the fact that PMI claims that ‘Be Marlboro’ only targets legal-age smokers, campaign commercials from around the globe plainly focus on youth-oriented photographs and themes that appeal to youngsters and function young, attractive models partying, falling in adore, journey traveling and typically getting ‘cool’.”

Anti-tobacco campaigners have filed compliants in Brazil, Colombia and Switzerland, as well as Germany, claiming the adverts breach local laws. It also says that PMI is violating its own ethical code, which states: “We do not and will not marketplace our items to minors, which includes the use of photographs and material with specific appeal to minors.”

The organisations get in touch with on PMI to finish the campaign quickly and urge governments to employ tougher anti-tobacco promoting laws. “Not only is Philip Morris International violating tobacco handle laws in many of the nations it operates this campaign, it is undertaking so in conjunction with its global campaign of litigation and intimidation aimed at stopping, watering down and delaying lifestyle-saving public health measures,” mentioned John Stewart, Challenge Massive Tobacco campaign director at Corporate Accountability Global.

He added: “This report shines a light on the often unlawful and often unethical techniques PMI uses to continue to addict individuals to its deadly items.”

A spokesman for PMI mentioned: “Our Marlboro campaign, like all of our marketing and advertising and marketing, is aimed exclusively at grownup smokers and is performed in compliance with local laws and inner marketing and advertising policies. Allegations to the contrary are unfounded and based on a subjective interpretation.”

Marlboro advertising campaign aimed at youthful people, anti-tobacco report says