Vaccine
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Near real-time vaccine safety surveillance (NRTVSS) using electronic health records is increasingly used to rapidly detect vaccine safety signals. NRTVSS has not been fully implemented in the UK. We assessed the feasibility of implementing this surveillance using the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD). ⋯ CPRD is a potential data source to implement NRTVSS to exclude large increases in the risk of rare outcomes after seasonal influenza and lower increases in risk for more frequent outcomes.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
A randomized lot-to-lot immunogenicity consistency study of the candidate zoster vaccine HZ/su.
The risk of developing herpes zoster (HZ) increases with age and is thought to be associated with a decrease in cell-mediated immunity in older adults. The adjuvanted varicella-zoster virus (VZV) glycoprotein E (gE) recombinant subunit vaccine (HZ/su) showed >90% efficacy in the prevention of HZ when administered in adults ≥50 years of age. Here we aim to evaluate immunogenicity consistency of 3 different HZ/su vaccine lots and to assess safety of these lots. ⋯ The three HZ/su manufacturing lots demonstrated consistent immunogenicity. No safety concerns were identified. Clinical trial registry number: NCT02075515 (ClinicalTrials.gov).
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Case Reports
Episode of Kasabach-Merritt phenomenon following Japanese encephalitis vaccination: Case report.
Kasabach-Merritt phenomenon (KMP) is a rare potentially life-threatening consumptive coagulopathy characterized by thrombocytopenia and hypofibrinogenemia occurring associated with the vascular tumors kaposiform hemangioendothelioma (KHE) and tufted angioma (TA). A 10-month old male infant, diagnosed with KHE on his left leg, underwent a rapid increase of the lesion and severe thrombocytopenia, one day after the first dose of inactivated Japanese encephalitis (JE) vaccination. ⋯ KMP is a rare complication of vaccination that physicians should be aware of. Giving up the following vaccination to provide the recurrence of KMP is not recommended.
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Adult influenza and pneumococcal vaccination rates in Singapore are low, and factors influencing knowledge and attitudes of seniors towards influenza, pneumonia and their respective vaccines are not well-known. Our study aims to understand the barriers and facilitators towards getting influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations among seniors in Singapore, and subsequently inform the conduct of a relevant community-based educational intervention, as well as evaluate the intervention outcomes. ⋯ Our formative research identified knowledge gaps among community-dwelling seniors which affected their attitudes towards vaccination uptake. Key findings were taken into consideration when implementing the educational intervention. Our community-based intervention was effective in improving knowledge and attitudes, and could be used as a cue to action for short-term behaviour changes.
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Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is one of the most frequent cancers worldwide and is associated with poor survival and significant treatment morbidity. The immune profile in patients with HNSCC is immunosuppressive and presents cytokine-mediated adaptive immune responses, triggered apoptosis of T cells, and alterations in antigen processing machinery. Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) immunotherapy has been used successfully as a treatment for several types of cancer. ⋯ In addition, coculture with BCG-activated PBMCs reduced FaDu proliferation and increased cytotoxicity and apoptosis in parallel with an increase in caspase-3 activity and p53 expression. Finally, conditioned medium from BCG-activated PBMCs reduced the levels of the angiogenic factors vascular endothelial growth factor and angiopoietin-2 produced by human aortic endothelial cells (HAECs), and inhibited their proliferation and differentiation into capillary-like structures. Taken together, these results demonstrate that BCG vaccination induces antitumor responses in an HNSCC in vitro model and suggest that the BCG vaccine could be an effective alternative therapy for the treatment of HNSCC.