Lancet reports on a new vaccine for Chikungunya fever (MV-CHIK) demonstraing excellent safety, tolerability and good immunogenicity, independent of pre-existing immunity against the vector. MV-CHIK is a promising vaccine for the prevention of chikungunya fever.

The current MMWR reports that arthritis is seen in nearly one-third of adults with prediabetes and that more than half of such patients are obese and not engaged in regular physical activity.

Doctor-diagnosed arthritis affects 54.4 million in the U.S. and the CDC expects this to rise to 78.4 million by 2040.

Methotrexate has been shown to reduce cardiovascular (CV) deaths in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Given that inflammation underlies the pathogenesis of atherothrombosis, Dr. Paul Ridker and colleagues studied the value of low dose methotrexate (MTX) in preventing cardiovascular events.

JAMA reports on a randomized clinical trial of 202 adults with acute low back pain showing the addition of intensive patient education failed to improve pain outcomes.

This randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial recruited patients from general practices in Sydney, Australia, between 2013 - 2015. Patients had to have acute low back pain of fewer than 6 weeks’ duration.