[A comparative study of the inoculation properties of live recombinant and inactivated influenza vaccines made from strain A/Philippines/2/82 (H3N2) in 8- to 15-year-old children].
This study was carried out to compare reactogenicity, immunogenicity, and efficacy of live attenuated and inactivated influenza vaccines prepared from influenza A/Philippines/2/82-like virus strains. Schoolchildren of a boarding school of Moscow were randomly divided into three groups: (1) vaccinated with a live attenuated vaccine, (2) vaccinated with inactivated influenza vaccine, and (3) given placebo. Both vaccines were well tolerated by the children, with practically no severe general or local reactions. The inactivated vaccine was found to be superior to the live one in its capacity to stimulate humoral immunity studied by HI, EIA, and microneutralization tests. In 69.7% of the children given the inactivated vaccine, seroconversion to the vaccine strain was detected by two or three methods of antibody titration used. Only 35.4% seroconversions were demonstrated in children immunized with the live influenza vaccine. Enzyme immunoassay was found to be a more sensitive but less specific method for antibody titration as compared with HI test whereas microneutralization proved to be more specific but less sensitive for titration of antibodies to influenza A (H3N2) viruses.
[A comparative study of the protective properties of live recombinant and inactivated influenza vaccines made from strain A/Philippines/2/82 (H3N2) in 8- to 15-year-old children].
A limited controlled comparative study for the evaluation of the epidemiological efficacy of live recombinant and inactivated virion vaccines from A/Philippines/2/82-like strains of influenza A (H3N2) virus was carried out in schoolchildren of 8 to 15 years of age. During the influenza epidemic of 1987-1988 caused by influenza A/Sichuan/2/87 (H3N2)-like strains and by influenza B virus in 8.2-17% of cases, a statistically significant efficacy index for live influenza vaccine was 1.8 for the laboratory confirmed A (H3N2) cases. In the group vaccinated with the inactivated vaccine the number of serologically diagnosed A (H3N2) cases was 1.6 times lower than in the group receiving placebo, this difference being statistically significant. Thus, under the conditions of significant difference in the antigenic structure of the vaccine and epidemic A (H3N2) strains, both vaccines produced some diminished but statistically significant preventive effect in vaccinated children although its level was below the optimal. Revaccination of some children with a live influenza vaccine from a new A/Sichuan/2/87-like variant of A (H3N2) virus in the autumn of 1988 with reisolation of the vaccine strain also revealed the presence of some, though weak, resistance to this strain in the children vaccinated with both vaccines.
Active hospital-based surveillance for meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine adverse events after an emergency mass immunization program, Edmonton, Alberta.
Screening of hemocontact viral infections (HVI) (HIV, hepatitis B and C) was conducted among patients of the emergency thoraco-abdominal surgery unit. During the 8 years of the study the HVI detection had increased on 57.4%. Gender analysis showed greater HVI prevalence among men. Medico-social criteria of HVI risk-groups among patients of the emergency thoraco-abdominal surgery unit were stated.
A significant progress in the management of controllable infections achieved by the early XXI century made it possible eliminate poliomyelitis across the nation, and practically eliminate measeles by vaccinating 96-99% of the children without raising the complication rate. The list of counterindications was shortened significantly, the Calendar of immunoprophylaxis was supplemented by inoculations against hepatitis B, rubella, flu, and type b Haemophilis influenzae infections. Morbidity of controllable infections in Russia decreased substantially compared with that in the 1990s. Nevertheless, the public health services are faced with the necessity of speedy application of new vaccines (including combined ones) allowing the inoculation impact on the child to be reduced. A rationale for the use of vaccines against pneumococcal and meningococcal infections, hepatitis A, varicella and for scaling up anti-pertussis vaccination coverage is proposed. Equally important is more extensive vaccination against papillomavirus infection as a means of cervical cancer prevention and introduction of the rotavirus vaccine to control most viral diarrheas.
Antiviral prophylaxis is recommended for the control of institutional influenza A outbreaks. In long-term-care institutions other than nursing homes, neither the seriousness of influenza nor the risks and benefits of antiviral prophylaxis is clearly understood. We studied the severity of illness due to influenza among adults residing in a center for the developmentally disabled and assessed adverse reactions to amantadine and oseltamivir prophylaxis.
Data were collected from the charts of consenting residents. Complications of upper respiratory tract illness were recorded. Potential adverse events were documented during amantadine and oseltamivir therapy, and during a baseline period with neither medication.
The median age of the 287 participants was 46.4 years. Only 15 (5%) were older than 65 years, and 69 (24%) had chronic underlying medical illness placing them at high risk for influenza. Of the 122 residents with an upper respiratory tract infection, 16 (13%) developed pneumonia, 12 (9.8%) were hospitalized, and 5 (4%) died. Twenty-eight (25%) of 112 residents had an adverse neurologic event while receiving amantadine prophylaxis, compared with 3 (2.7%) receiving no antiviral medication and 5 (4.5%) receiving oseltamivir (P