Trending News Today: More Than Half of Pregnant Women Not Receiving Flu, Pertussis Vaccines

New data from the CDC suggest that a significant amount of pregnant women are not receiving an important pair of vaccines during their pregnancies, STAT reported. According to the article, an online survey conducted last spring showed that just more than half of pregnant women had received flu and pertussis-containing vaccines, and only 35% received both. Additionally, only approximately 75% of pregnant women reported having received a recommendation from their physician to get the 2 vaccines, indicating an important role for health care providers in counseling patients on immunizations, the article reported.

Findings from a phase 2 study showed positive results for pemigatinib in patients with previously-treated, advanced cholangiocarcinoma, The American Journal of Managed Care reported. According to the article, the results, which were from the FIGHT-202 study, showed that pemigatinib demonstrated an overall response rate of 36% and median progression-free survival of 6.9 months following a median of 15 months of follow-up in patients with fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 fusions or rearrangements. Preliminary data on overall survival (OS) showed a median OS of 21.1 months, the article reported.

A recently-released CDC report indicates that sexually transmitted disease (STD) cases rose to a record high last year in the United States, Reuters reported. According to the article, approximately 2.46 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, and other STDs were reported in 2018, with approximately 1300 cases of congenital syphilis in newborns. The rate of infection climbed steadily between 2014 and 2018, increasing the number of syphilis cases by 71%, the number of gonorrhea cases by 63%, and the number of chlamydia cases by 19%, the article reported.