Effectiveness of a vaccine recovery plan after the COVID-19 pandemic in the Siracusa Local Health Authority, Italy. Results of one year follow-up.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has strongly impacted on the immunization services around the world, threatening the gains made in the control of vaccine-preventable diseases. Methods: A vaccination recovery plan of missed vaccinations has been put in place in the LHA of Siracusa after the pandemic. We compared 2021 and 2020 vaccination coverage by age group and vaccine type after one year of follow-up of the recovery plan. The Chi-square test was executed on proportions for the years 2021 vs 2020. Results were considered statistically significant at a two-tailed p-value ≤ 0.05. Results: 36-month coverage rates were 92.5% for polio and 93.7% for measles-containing-vaccine, representing -0.3% and -1.8% decreases, respectively, as compared to 2020. By 8 years of age (booster doses), immunisation coverage was 80.7% for polio and 80.1% for measles, representing a -5.7% and -3.7%, respectively, compared to 2020. 36-month coverage was 56.6% for Men B (-5.0% as compared to 2020), 73.2% for Men ACW135Y/C (+1.1% as compared to 2020) and 86.9% for PNC vaccine (-1.7%, as compared to 2020). Regarding HPV vaccination, in 2021, vaccine coverage was 44.2% (-4.4% compared to 2020). Compared to the previous report, the VC difference among the cohorts narrowed for all almost vaccinations, except for the anti-men B and the anti-HPV vaccination, for which we recorded an increase in VC difference, and for men ACW135Y/C, for which a significant increase has been recorded. Conclusions: Despite the efforts to organize and realize an extensive and well-designed vaccination recovery, our data show that even after the 1-year follow-up, globally deficits in coverage for these routine vaccinations persist, although there has been a substantial and significant recovery of missed vaccinations, especially among younger children and for primary cycles.

Childhood immunization coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic in the province of Siracusa, Italy.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted routine immunization activities and a decline in vaccination coverage has been documented around the world. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the direct and indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on routine childhood vaccination coverage in the Province of Siracusa, Italy. Methods: We compared 2020 and 2019 vaccination coverage by age group and vaccine type. Results were considered statistically significant at a two-tailed p-value ≤ 0.05. Results: Our findings show that vaccination coverage rates for mandatory and recommended vaccinations decreased in 2020 compared with the previous year (range from -1.4% to -7.8%). Anti-rotavirus vaccination increased (+4.8%, as compared to 2019), while the reductions observed for polio vaccination (hexavalent) and human papillomavirus vaccination in males were not statistically significant. The reduction did not hit the population in the same manner, with the greater decreases observed for children aged > 24 months compared to the younger (-5.7% vs -2.2%) and for booster doses compared to the primary vaccinations (-6.4% vs -2.6%). Conclusions: This study found that vaccination coverage of routine childhood immunisations was negatively affected during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Province of Siracusa. It is of huge importance to put in place some catch-up programs to ensure vaccinations at the earliest of individuals who missed immunization during the pandemic.

Estimates of cancer burden in Sicily.

AIMS AND BACKGROUND: Estimates are complementary epidemiological measures which allow to present data on cancer burden, especially in geographical areas where measurements of cancer occurrence are not supported by exhaustive statistics on incidence, mortality and survival. The aim of this paper is to provide cancer incidence, mortality and prevalence estimates and projections for the major cancers in the period 1970-2015 for the entire region of Sicily. METHODS: The estimates were computed by applying the MIAMOD method, a statistical back-calculation approach to derive incidence and prevalence figures starting from mortality and relative survival data. Published data from the Italian cancer registries were modeled in order to estimate the regional cancer survival. RESULTS: In 2012 the most common cancers were breast cancer in women, colorectal cancer in both sexes, and prostate cancer in men, with about 4,000, 3,500 and 3,000 estimated new cases, respectively. The highest crude mortality rates were estimated for lung cancer in men (63.6 per 100,000) and breast cancer in women (30.8 per 100,000) and the lowest for skin melanoma (both sexes) and cancer of the cervix uteri. For colorectal, lung and stomach cancer and skin melanoma, all the indicators were higher in men than women. The prevalence figures in women were more than 9 times the incidence figures for breast cancer and more than 10 times the incidence figures for skin melanoma. The prevalence was twice the incidence for lung cancer in both sexes. The prevalence increased for all the considered cancers except cervical cancer. CONCLUSION: According to our analyses in Sicily we expect about 14,000 new diagnoses and 5,500 deaths for the major cancer types in a year, while about 92,000 persons with a diagnosis of the considered cancers were alive in 2012. We expect an increase in cancer survival and contemporary aging of the population: both expectations will inflate the cancer prevalence, causing more demand for oncology facilities.