Latest news with #WER
Hans India
3 days ago
- Health
- Hans India
WHO calls for maternal vaccine, monoclonal antibody to protect babies against RSV
New Delhi: The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday recommended all countries to use both maternal vaccine and a monoclonal antibody to protect babies against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) -– the leading cause of acute lower respiratory infections in children globally. While the maternal vaccine -- RSVpreF -- can be given to pregnant women in their third trimester to protect their infant, the long-acting monoclonal antibody -- nirsevimab -- can be administered to infants from birth, just before or during the RSV season, stated the recommendations, published in the Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER). 'Every year, RSV causes about 100,000 deaths and over 3.6 million hospitalisations in children under the age of 5 years worldwide. About half of these deaths occur in infants younger than 6 months of age,' the WHO said. "The vast majority (97 per cent) of RSV deaths in infants occur in low- and middle-income countries where there is limited access to supportive medical care, such as oxygen or hydration," it added. Although RSV causes mild symptoms similar to the common cold, including runny nose, cough, and fever, it can lead to serious complications. This can include pneumonia and bronchiolitis -– in infants, young children, older adults, and those with compromised immune systems or underlying health conditions. Both RSVpreF and nirsevimab were recommended by the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation (SAGE) for global implementation in September 2024. In addition, the maternal vaccine received WHO prequalification in March 2025, allowing it to be purchased by UN agencies. While the vaccine can be given during routine antenatal care, nirsevimab is given as a single injection of monoclonal antibodies that starts protecting babies against RSV within a week of administration. It lasts for at least 5 months and can cover the entire RSV season in countries with RSV seasonality. The global health body recommends that infants receive a single dose of nirsevimab right after birth or before being discharged from a birthing facility. If not administered at birth, the monoclonal antibody can be given during the baby's first health visit. If a country decides to administer the product only during the RSV season rather than year-round, a single dose can also be given to older infants just before entering their first RSV season, the WHO said. The greatest impact on severe RSV disease will be achieved by administering the monoclonal antibody to infants under 6 months of age. However, there is still a potential benefit among infants up to 12 months of age, it added. 'RSV is an incredibly infectious virus that infects people of all ages, but is especially harmful to infants, particularly those born premature when they are most vulnerable to severe disease,' said Dr Kate O'Brien, Director of Immunisation, Vaccines, and Biologicals at WHO. 'The WHO-recommended RSV immunisation products can transform the fight against severe RSV disease, dramatically reduce hospitalisations, and deaths, ultimately saving many infants lives globally,' O'Brien added.
CBS News
21-04-2025
- Sport
- CBS News
Minnesota's new women's pro rugby team set for home opener at TCO Stadium
In March, the Women's Elite Rugby (WER) league launched six franchises across the country, including one in the Twin Cities: the TC Gemini. The team is preparing for their first home opener at Eagan's TCO Stadium this Friday, April 25, against the San Francisco Bay Breakers. It's a milestone moment for these athletes to train and compete at TCO because before this, many of these athletes had to find different avenues to play the sport they love. "It didn't become real until we walked out at this stadium, 'Wow, we're professional athletes,'" said teammember Mikey Williams. Williams started rugby as a hobby during Navy training school and never looked back. However, with limited options to play in the U.S., she moved to England where there were more opportunities — until now. "It's amazing to come home and do it in the U.S.," said Williams. Her passion for the sport is driven by the freedom to be physical. "Rugby is, 'you're not physical enough, you're not strong enough, keep going,'" said Williams. "And that's what I love about it." Sylvia Braaten is the head coach for the TC Gemini. "Rugby has grown so much since I started playing," said Braaten, who started her rugby career at Marquette University, then went on to compete in two World Cups representing Team USA. Now she's excited to pour into the next generation of women. "To have an opportunity to create something brand new and take part in this inaugural year is something that's really special," said Braaten. Before the WER, there was the Women's Premier League (WPL). It was a high level of rugby, but athletes had to pay to play, sometimes upwards of $10,000 for travel, field space and equipment. This new pro league provides all the resources they need. "Players can just focus on rugby. They have access to full-time coaches, full medical support and amazing facilities like here at TCO," said Braaten. Marisa Hall is a homegrown player on TC Gemini, originally from Cottage Grove. "Once I heard Minnesota had a team, I was pretty much focused on coming back here and be able to play. Just to have my family in the stands means so much to me," said Hall, who is also thrilled to be playing the game at the same facility where her favorite NFL team trains. "Hopefully we can get some Vikings [players] out to the games!" The next step to grow this league even more is to pay players. Right now, those who aren't still in school have full-time jobs in addition to playing.
Boston Globe
21-03-2025
- Sport
- Boston Globe
A new professional women's rugby team is coming to Boston. Here's what to know.
WER is the first professional women's rugby league in the United States. It's a six-team league that will compete in the 15s format, meaning each side will have 15 players on the field at any given time. The six teams competing in the inaugural season are the Boston Banshees, New York Exiles, Bay Breakers, Twin Cities Gemini, Chicago Tempest, and Denver Onyx. Related : The six markets were chosen because they were the sites of former Women's Premier League (WPL) teams. The WPL was an amateur, player-led, pay-to-play rugby league that was previously the highest level of women's rugby in the U.S. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Funding for the league comes from private investors and partnerships, and WER is currently wrapping up its seed round of fundraising, which began with a goal of $3 million. Advertisement Players will be paid, though the league chose not to disclose dollar amounts or pay structures. All travel costs will be covered by the league, and players will receive accident insurance. Why are they called the Boston Banshees? The name 'Banshees' is a nod to Boston's history of rebellion and its Irish roots, according to the league. A banshee is a female spirit of Irish and Celtic folklore whose shriek signals impending doom. The team's logo depicts a wailing banshee, and its colors are white, gray, maroon, and dark blue. Who is playing for the Boston Banshees? Players interested in competing in WER's inaugural season had from Sept. 23-Oct. 20 to declare their interest, which included a player survey, match film submission, and a medical questionnaire. Players had the option to indicate up to two preferred markets, though they were not guaranteed to be selected by their preferred teams. At the conclusion of the declaration period, WER had received 385 applicants to fill a total of 180 roster spots (30 per team). Coaches selected from the pool which players they wanted to fill out their teams. Advertisement Banshees coach Kittery Ruiz said she sought players who would mesh with her coaching style the lends itself to playing fast, exciting rugby with strong foundational skills. Abbey Savin, a Dartmouth graduate, is one of 30 players on the Banshees' roster. Greg Sabin/Courtesy of the Boston Banshees 'The benefit of being able to pick my athletes was that I could pick players I knew would succeed in that kind of environment,' said Ruiz, also an assistant coach at Brown. About half the Banshees were previously members of the Beantown RFC WPL team. The same is true in the five other markets, as many players from the local WPL teams made the jump to WER. Where and when will the Boston Banshees play? The Banshees will play two home games at Massachusetts Veterans Memorial Stadium in Quincy and three home games at The Stadium at Tidewater Landing in Pawtucket, R.I. All games will be free to watch on streaming platform DAZN. Here's the full schedule: March 22: Boston at New York, 3:30 p.m. March 29: Boston vs. Chicago, 7 p.m., Quincy April 6: Boston at Chicago, 1 p.m. April 19: Boston vs. New York, 2 p.m., Quincy May 4: Boston vs. Denver, 4 p.m., Pawtucket May 10: Boston at Bay (San Francisco), 5 p.m. May 17: Boston vs. Chicago, 2 p.m., Pawtucket May 24: Boston at Denver, 3 p.m. May 31: Bay at Boston, 2 p.m., Pawtucket June 13: Boston at Twin Cities, 8 p.m. Emma can be reached at
Boston Globe
21-03-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
By putting its players' needs first, Women's Elite Rugby wants to be the next big thing in pro sports
A new professional league, Women's Elite Rugby, is trying to solve that problem. 'I think we knew as leadership — and honestly, as someone who played in this country for a very long time — that this needed to be the next step if we wanted to compete on the world stage,' said Ruiz, an assistant coach at Brown and the head coach of the WER's Boston Banshees. 'We really need to have something in this country where our athletes are able to focus on honing their craft. We knew that this needed to happen, and that it was the only logical next step.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Related : Advertisement Born out of six of the top WPL clubs in cities from Boston to the Bay Area, WER begins its first season this weekend as the Boston Banshees travel to face the New York Exiles on Saturday at 3 p.m. All games will be available for free on streaming platform DAZN. Other teams competing in the league include the Bay Breakers, Twin Cities Gemini, Chicago Tempest, and Denver Onyx. Related : Though discussions about the future of women's professional rugby in the US started decades ago, planning for a professional league got serious in 2022 with the launch of a campaign called 'Ignite the Change.' A WPL external advising board was formed and met for the first time in April 2023, and one year later — almost to the day — In the months that followed, the league announced that six existing WPL markets would become the founding cities for WER, debuted branding and logos for all the teams, hired coaches and staff, and selected rosters of the top 15s rugby players in the US. Advertisement It's been a whirlwind process, per WER president and co-founder Jessica Hammond-Graf, but the timing was intentional. For one, players conservatively estimated they spent about $5,000 per WPL season on travel, insurance, gym memberships, and other fees, and Hammond-Graf wanted to remove that financial barrier as quickly as possible. Many WER players are also preparing for the 2025 Rugby World Cup, which will take place in England from August 22 through Sept. 27, and WER hopes to offer a dedicated training and competition space to help World Cup hopefuls prepare. 'Our goal is to continue to elevate and provide these elite-level opportunities for rugby players and give them a space to do it on US soil,' Hammond-Graf said. 'So many of our high-level athletes go overseas to play, and they've been doing that for a number of years, and we want to bring them home.' Boston Banshees coach Kittery Ruiz. Greg Sabin/Courtesy of the Boston Banshees Until recently, many American-born players had to seek out opportunities abroad if they wanted to compete for a spot on Team USA. While some played in the WPL, others relocated to Europe and Oceania, where women's rugby has historically had more funding and support. The league saw an opportunity this summer to capture national attention, announcing three of its inaugural six markets the day after Team USA Advertisement 'It was just a catalyst, right?' Hammond-Graf said. 'That was an amazing game — the success has really catapulted rugby in that way.' WER is funded through private investors and venture capital firms, beginning with a pre-seeding funding round in April 2024 that raised $500,000. The league is now wrapping up its seed round, which had an initial target of $3 million, and will embark on a series A round in the coming months. Related : The pay structure for players was not disclosed, though the league confirmed it will cover all travel costs and provide players with accident insurance. Most players plan to retain their day jobs, knowing they won't make a fortune on the rugby pitch — at least not in the league's early years — but they see the professionalization of their sport as a huge step forward. 'To have the WER formed and to take the administrative worries off of players' shoulders, take the financial burden off of players' shoulders, it is, as a player, so incredibly freeing that I just have to focus on being the best player that I can be,' said Caitlin Weigel, a Banshees prop who played at Harvard. The biggest concern — for the players and the league as a whole — is sustainability. A men's professional league called PRO Rugby cropped up in 2015 and by 2017 had folded completely. Five teams from Major League Rugby, which uses a franchise model, have folded since the league's inception in 2017. WER wants to avoid the same fate. 'The players deserve that sustainability,' Weigel said. 'The players deserve to know that they can keep playing here for years and years to come.' Advertisement Emma can be reached at
The Guardian
21-03-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Women's Elite Rugby: new league aims to boost US game and – finally
Kittery Wagner Ruiz went to two World Cups with the US Eagles and on Saturday will help make history as head coach of the Boston Banshees against the New York Exiles in Women's Elite Rugby, a six-team semi-professional league kicking-off its first season. But even illustrious careers have to start somewhere, and Wagner Ruiz's story is typical of the American game in all its unruly glory. 'In high school, I played basketball, softball and soccer, and unfortunately, or fortunately, I was a little too aggressive for some of those,' Wagner Ruiz said, before heading out for training. 'I had yellow cards, fallings out, all that kind of stuff. But I had a friend that said, 'There's this sport that you can actually hit people and you're not gonna get in trouble for it.' And clearly, I was an angry teenager, and needed that. And so I found rugby.' Her first club was a men's club: the Northern Colorado Flamingoes, a pink-clad band from Fort Collins, near the Wyoming line. 'I played with them for a little bit, just to run around and get an idea of what the heck was going on. And then I got to college and played … I never looked back. I played all over the country and all over the world.' Wagner Ruiz played hooker, winning 28 USA caps out of Beantown RFC in Boston, the club that now forms the backbone of the Banshees, and for Glendale in Colorado – aka RugbyTown USA – the team that now undergirds the Denver Onyx. She taught math too. 'I retired in 2014 and immediately started coaching the Gray Wolves – they were the Glendale Raptors then. I didn't leave teaching until 2017 when I started moving around the country with my late wife, who was a Marine.' Wagner Ruiz has spoken of Kandis Ruiz elsewhere, of her loss, and of support from the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, or TAPS, named for the bugle call played over military graves. 'There are people that I've met through my time with TAPS that I consider some of my closest friends,' she has said. 'We are bound by our losses, but can lean on each other to get through our hardest moments and celebrate our joyous moments as well.' Rugby players also treat each other as family. Ruiz played too, for clubs including Glendale and for the US Under-20s. Wagner Ruiz has coached Life University and Atlanta Harlequins; with Atavus, in Seattle; and at Brown, the Ivy League college in Providence, Rhode Island. Her 'full-time day job' is there, as an assistant, 'then I get to coach the Banshees at night.' That seems apt, given WER marketing. The Banshees are 'supernatural, otherworldly, bringing wails of fury … born of Celtic mythology and the New England history of rebellious women … harbingers of doom to our opponents.' But if training nights in Weymouth might turn a little harum-scarum, Wagner Ruiz hopes to stir up home game days too, first in Quincy, home to the New England Free Jacks of MLR, the men's pro league. Wagner Ruiz describes the daily challenge of switching between sevens, Brown's spring game, and WER's 15-a-side. But no one in women's rugby ever had it easy, and the new league simply wants to help its players have it better than before. In New York, Denver, the Bay Area, the Twin Cities and Chicago, all teams built on clubs from the amateur Women's Premier League, other coaches are working. The regular season will run for 10 games before playoffs in June. Wagner Ruiz is 'really excited. Not that right now there's a lot of money but … the stepping stone is now they get to just play. Players don't have to fundraise for their club, they don't have to pay the coaches, they don't have to find field space. The league has hired coaches and general managers. It should give the opportunity for athletes to hone their craft.' Wagner Ruiz has coached at national level, U20s and talent ID, giving her insight into players who might boost the Eagles at World Cups after the one in England this summer. The state of the college game, she said, 'speaks highly of what's happening in high schools, because the level of talent and the level of athlete that is looking to play rugby in college has grown. 'There are athletes who've played since they were eight, nine years old. So they they already know the laws. They already know how to catch-pass. They already are comfortable in contact. Those are the three big things we want them to have, and obviously then being able to read space and all those other things.' At mention of the writer Malcolm Gladwell, who devoted a chapter of his latest book to why women's rugby is growing in elite colleges, like many in US rugby Wagner Ruiz gives a rueful shake of the head. Maybe the simple fact an esteemed New Yorker writer noticed speaks for how the game, like women's sports in general, has begun to surge. Happier thoughts relate to the explosive success of Ilona Maher, the Quinnipiac University and USA sevens standout turned social media genius and reality TV star doing for women's rugby what the Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark has done for WNBA. Maher has just finished a stint in England with Bristol. Back home, she is chasing a World Cup place. To have such a role model on every fan's phone is simple good news. 'Ilona's from Vermont, right? A New Englander through and through. I think something with this league is, we're a bit on the coattails of the US bronze medal [in Olympic sevens, in Paris last year], and then yes, Ilona's success and being a very public figure definitely has brought more publicity in general. Young athletes seeing her as a beautiful, big, strong woman – I think about my [six-year-old] daughter, right? I hope kids see Ilona and realize, 'I can do anything.' That's what's great about rugby: everybody can play. It doesn't matter who you are, what you look like, shape, size, etc. It's a place for you.' Sign up to The Breakdown The latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week's action reviewed after newsletter promotion Wagner Ruiz's squad is built on Beantown but includes talent pulled from a process involving all six WER coaches. There are 'a few sevens Eagles, a few Olympians … five or six current [15s] Eagles, and then a handful that have been to national identification camps and have played along the pathways.' The center Emily Henrich, who had time in England with Leicester, is one established Eagle. The prop Lauren Ferridge, like Henrich out of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, is among those chasing a cap. 'The majority of players have day jobs,' Wagner Ruiz said. 'There are a select few that have decided to move here for the five months that we're training and stock up money or work remotely. But for the most part, people are keeping some semblance of a nine to five … In three to five years, if that is a thing of the past, and we're training midday, and athletes can come to the facility, whatever that looks like, and can be there to train and then lift and then do a recovery session, that's kind of my vision.' After two games in Quincy, the Banshees will play three home games in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. It's down to logistics. Wagner Ruiz speaks warmly of the relationship with the Free Jacks. They have won two MLR titles in a row, success recognized with the hoisting of championship banners at Logan Airport in Boston, alongside honors for the Celtics (NBA), Bruins (NHL), Red Sox (MLB), and New England Patriots (NFL). Rugby is gaining a presence. Asked what success for the Banshees and WER might look like, Wagner Ruiz said: 'I think success is putting on a good show. I want us to have a team that it plays good rugby, and the athletes to be good ambassadors for the sport.' To the average US sports fan, rugby has a somewhat 'traditional' appeal, a sport for non-conformists but very social too. Wagner Ruiz speaks as enthusiastically about a game in which 'you beat the crap out of each other, and then you hang out afterwards, and have a good meal together' as she does about elite performance. 'We all really want this league to succeed. And for that to happen, we need good rugby. We need good games. We need to be fun and exciting and fast-paced, very close scorelines, things that make people want to come watch. How many rugby games have we watched that were, like, all right? We know so-and-so is going to win, or it's going to be a blowout. Then it's boring rugby. 'We want to be something that's exciting, that really makes our fanbase want to come back year after year after year. And that, to me, is success.' WER will stream live and on-demand for free on DAZN
