A safe acellular pertussis vaccine may be in your patients' future. Here's the latest on how this vaccine's effectiveness and side effects compare with those of its whole cell counterpart.
[A comparative study of live and inactivated influenza vaccines: the organization of the observation and the results of a study of their reactogenicity and immunogenicity].
Schoolchildren of 30 to 34 schools of Novgorod were vaccinated over a three-year period with Russian live cold-adapted attenuated vaccine for children and whole-virus inactivated vaccines and placebo for comparative field study of the vaccines properties and efficacy. In control trials both bi- and trivalent live attenuated vaccines were well tolerated and areactogenic. A whole-virus inactivated trivalent vaccine induced mild and moderate fever and local reactions in 2-4% of the vaccinees. Special observations are necessary to establish the possibility of use and to determine a dose of this inactivated vaccine for immunization of children, especially those of 7-10 years of age. All the vaccines induced HI antibody production in 50-80% and antineuraminidase in 50-70% of seronegative children. The pattern of the results was similar to that in revaccinated children with preexisting antibody at a level of 1:20, but much lower in children with the initial titre above 1:20. After the 3rd year of vaccination the immune response of the vaccinees was similar, most of the results depending on the initial antibody titre and also on the change of vaccine strains. This raises a question of the expediency of annual influenza revaccination of the same person after 2 years of successful immunization and of the necessity of vaccine strains replacement after 2-3 years of use.
[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.
Active hospital-based surveillance for meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine adverse events after an emergency mass immunization program, Edmonton, Alberta.
The word deals with the results obtained in the study of the reactogenicity and immunological activity of concentrated and inactivated tissue-culture tick-borne encephalitis vaccine, manufactured by the Chumakov Institute of Poliomyelitis and Viral Encephalitides, in the immunization of children and adolescents. The vaccine proved to be moderately reactogenic and exhibited pronounced immunological activity. In 91.5% of the immunized children the fourfold increase of the antibody level was observed. On the basis of the data obtained in this study the tick-borne encephalitis vaccine was recommended for use in medical practice for the prophylaxis of tick-borne encephalitis among children and adolescents.
Published data related with comparison studies of safety, efficiency and some other properties of cold-adapted live influenza vaccine (LIV) and of inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV) are analyzed. LIV and IIV do not differ by systemic reactions after administration; however, it is not ruled out that there can be unfavorable reactions in vaccination of persons with allergy to the chicken-embryo proteins as well as in cases of persistence/reversion of cold-adapted strain observed in vaccination of persons with primary impairments of the immune system. There are no convincing data, up to now, on that LIV is superior to IIV in coping with influenza pandemics. The efficiency of LIV and IIV for children aged 3 years and more and for healthy adults is virtually identical. Additional controllable field comparative studies of LIV and IIV efficiency in immunization of elderly persons are needed. Limited data on LIV efficiency for children aged 2 months and more were obtained. The need in a 2-stage vaccination of all age group with the aim of ensuring responses to all 3 LIV components is, certainly, a LIV disadvantage. In case of IIV, the 2-stage vaccination is needed only for persons who were not ill with influenza. The intranasal LIV administration has, from the practical and psychological standpoints, an advantage before the IIV administration by syringe. The ability of LIV to protect from the drift influenza-virus variations could be its advantage before IIV; still, more research is needed to verify it. Transplantable cell lines meeting the WHO requirements could be an optimal substrate for the production of LIV and IIV. Children are the optimal age group for influenza prevention by cold-adapted LIV, whereas, IIV fits better for vaccination of adults and elderly persons.
When the diseases we try to prevent through vaccination are rare, we tend to focus more on the associated risks. Vaccination has led to unfortunate consequences, mainly due to production failure and inadequate control in earlier years. The requirements for vaccine control are now so rigorous that the risk for such occurrences is close to zero. Local and mild systemic reactions to vaccines are rather common, and are usually well known and described in detail when a vaccine is licensed. Some vaccine reactions are however so rare that they only will be discovered through surveillance after the vaccine has become available for routine use. Suspicion of adverse events will now normally arise through the official notification systems for adverse events. Large epidemiological studies are often necessary to decide whether there is a causal relationship or only a coincidence. Recording of adverse events following vaccination and transparency about their existence, are important issues in the work to maintain the credibility of vaccines.
