Impact of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine on pneumonia hospitalization and mortality in children and elderly in Ecuador: Time series analyses.

BACKGROUND: Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV) reduce the burden of invasive pneumococcal disease and pneumonia hospitalizations. However, there is limited evidence of the effect of PCVs on pneumonia mortality in children. It is anticipated that indirect effects resulting from PCV use among children might further reduce the remaining burden of adult pneumococcal disease caused by pneumococcal serotypes contained in PCV. Whether this will result in reduced pneumonia mortality in children and adults is still not known. METHODS: We investigated the impact of PCV on pneumonia hospitalization and mortality in in Ecuador, where PCV was introduced in 2010, considering national data from secondary data sources from 2005 to 2015. Time series analysis using regression models were used to evaluate the decline in the number of all-cause pneumonia hospitalizations and deaths in the period post-PCV introduction. The target populations were children under 5 years and adults aged 50 years and over. Outcomes of interest were hospitalizations and mortality in which the main cause of hospital admission and death, respectively, were coded as ICD10 codes J12-18 (pneumonia). Three different models were fitted. RESULTS: We demonstrate a sizeable impact of PCV in pneumonia hospitalization in children < 1 year (27% reduction, 95%CI 12-42%), and < 5 years of age (33% reduction, 95%CI 11-43%). The estimated impact of PCV in pneumonia mortality was a reduction of 14% in < 1 year (95%CI 0-33%), 10% in < 5 years (95%CI 0-25%), and 22% (95%CI 7-34%) in adults aged 50-64 years. Little evidence of a change was detected in elderly ≥ 65 years. CONCLUSION: This study is the first to report on the impact of PCV in pneumonia morbidity and mortality in children and older adults, being relevant to policy makers and global donors. Findings were consistent when using different models. Additional studies on the indirect effect of PCV in older adults are needed.

Vaccination Week in the Americas, 2011: an opportunity to assess the routine vaccination program in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

BACKGROUND: Vaccination Week in the Americas (VWA) is an annual initiative in countries and territories of the Americas every April to highlight the work of national expanded programs on immunization (EPI) and increase access to vaccination services for high-risk population groups. In 2011, as part of VWA, Venezuela targeted children aged less than 6 years in 25 priority border municipalities using social mobilization to increase institution-based vaccination. Implementation of social communication activities was decentralized to the local level. We conducted a survey in one border municipality of Venezuela to evaluate the outcome of VWA 2011 and provide a snapshot of the overall performance of the routine EPI at that level. METHODS: We conducted a coverage survey, using stratified cluster sampling, in the Venezuelan municipality of Bolivar (bordering Colombia) in August 2011. We collected information for children aged <6 years through caregiver interviews and transcription of vaccination card data. We estimated each child's eligibility to receive a specific vaccine dose during VWA 2011 and whether or not they were actually vaccinated during VWA activities. We also estimated baseline vaccination coverage, timeliness and 95% confidence intervals (CI), and used chi-square tests to compare coverage across age cohorts, taking into account the sampling design. RESULTS: We surveyed 839 children from 698 households; 93% of children had a vaccination card. Among households surveyed, 216 (31%) caregivers reported having heard about a vaccination activity during April or May 2011. Of the 528 children eligible to receive a vaccine during VWA, 24% received at least one dose, while 13% received all doses due. Overall, baseline coverage with routine vaccines, as measured by the survey, was >85%, with a few exceptions. CONCLUSION: Low levels of VWA awareness among caregivers probably contributed to the limited vaccination of eligible children during the VWA activities in Bolivar in 2011. However, vaccine coverage for most EPI vaccines was high. Additionally, high vaccination card availability and high participation in VWA among those caregivers aware of it in 2011 suggest public trust in the EPI program in the municipality. Health authorities have used survey findings to inform changes to the routine EPI and better VWA implementation in subsequent years.

Diversidad antigénica de las vacunas antiparotiditicas / Antigenic diversity of vaccines againts mumps

La parotiditis es una enfermedad infecciosa inmunoprevenible  causada por el virus de la parotiditis, miembro del género Rubulavirus, familia Paramyxoviridae, del cual se conocen 12 genotipos confirmados, designados como A-L y otro nuevo genotipo designado como M. Las vacunas anti-parotiditis por lo general,  se fabrican empleando virus vivo atenuado de alguno de estos genotipos y están  disponibles como monovalente (parotiditis) y trivalente (sarampión-rubéola-parotiditis). A pesar de los programas de vacunación implementados por muchos países, se han presentado brotes de parotiditis en forma epidémica en la cual se ha detectado co-circulación de genotipos entre poblaciones vacunadas. Entre las posibles explicaciones  están: el fracaso primario a la vacunación, pérdida de efectividad secundaria e infección por virus heterólogos. Como consecuencia la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) ha recomendado estudios moleculares epidemiológicos, que incluya la genotipificación de cepas circulantes del virus de la parotiditis, como parte del programa de vigilancia. Esto permitirá una mayor información de la distribución de los genotipos en todo el mundo, contribuyendo a la vigilancia de la parotiditis y posiblemente en la reformulación de vacunas más eficaces. Esta revisión muestra la importancia que tiene la caracterización molecular  o genotipificación del virus de la parotiditis, con el propósito de comprender y explicar el comportamiento epidemiológico de esta enfermedad que ha sido ampliamente controlada por la aplicación sistemática de la vacuna a nivel mundial.

Mumps is a vaccine-preventable infectious disease, caused by mumps virus, member of Rubulavirus genus, Paramyxoviridae family, has been classified into 12 confirmed genotypes, designated as A-L and one proposed genotype, M. Usually the anti-mumps vaccines are manufactured using attenuated live virus genotypes and any of these are available as monovalent (mumps) and trivalent (measles-mumps-rubella). Although vaccination programs implemented by many countries, there have been outbreaks of mumps in epidemic form, in which has been detected co-circulation of genotypes among vaccinated populations. Possible explanations are: the primary vaccination failure, loss of high effectiveness and heterologous virus infection. Because of this, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended molecular epidemiological studies, including genotyping of circulating strains of mumps virus as part of the monitoring program. This information will allow greater distribution of genotypes worldwide, contributing to monitoring and possibly mumps reformulating more effective vaccines. This review shows the importance of molecular characterization and genotyping of mumps virus, in order to understand and explain the epidemiological behavior of the disease has been largely controlled by the systematic application of the vaccine worldwide.