Vaccine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
The effect of various types of patients' reminders on the uptake of pneumococcal vaccine in adults: A randomized controlled trial.
Invasive pneumococcal disease is one of the most important vaccine-preventable diseases threatening the adult community due to missed opportunities for vaccination. This study compares the effect of three different types of patient reminder system on adulthood Streptococcus pneumoniae immunization in a primary care setting. ⋯ Use of electronic text reminders via e-mails and mobile phones seems to be a feasible and sustainable model to increase pneumococcal vaccination rates in a primary care center.
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Observational Study
Medicaid provider reimbursement policy for adult immunizations.
State Medicaid programs establish provider reimbursement policy for adult immunizations based on: costs, private insurance payments, and percentage of Medicare payments for equivalent services. Each program determines provider eligibility, payment amount, and permissible settings for administration. Total reimbursement consists of different combinations of Current Procedural Terminology codes: vaccine, vaccine administration, and visit. ⋯ Medicaid reimbursement policy for adult vaccines impacts provider participation and enrollee access and uptake. While programs have generally increased reimbursement levels since 2003, each program could assess whether current policies reflect the most effective approach to encourage providers to increase vaccination services.
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Rotavirus diarrhea is one of the most important vaccine-preventable causes of severe diarrhea in children worldwide. There are two live-attenuated virus vaccines licensed, Rotarix (RV1) a monovalent vaccine by GlaxoSmithKline and a pentavalent vaccine, RotaTeq(RV5), by Merck & Co., with similar results. This study aim was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the utilization of RV1 compared with RV5 in Argentina. ⋯ Both RV1 and RV5 schedules dominate the no vaccination strategy and RV5 was dominated by RV1. This information is a valuable input regarding the incorporation of this kind of vaccines into the national vaccination programs.
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RSV is an important cause of lower respiratory tract infections in children, the elderly and in those with underlying medical conditions. Although the high disease burden indicates an urgent need for a vaccine against RSV, no licensed RSV vaccine is currently available. We developed an RSV vaccine candidate based on the low-seroprevalent human adenovirus serotypes 26 and 35 (Ad26 and Ad35) encoding the RSV fusion (F) gene. ⋯ Cotton rats were also completely protected against challenge with a RSV B strain (B15/97) after heterologous prime-boost immunization. Lungs from vaccinated animals showed minimal damage or inflammatory infiltrates post-challenge, in contrast to animals vaccinated with formalin-inactivated virus. Our results suggest that recombinant human adenoviral Ad26 and Ad35 vectors encoding the RSV F gene have the potential to provide broad and durable protection against RSV in humans, and appear safe to be investigated in infants.
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A major limitation in the development and testing of new tuberculosis (TB) vaccines is the current inadequate understanding of the nature of the immune response required for protection against either infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) or progression to disease. Genome wide RNA expression analysis has provided a new tool with which to study the inflammatory and immunological response to mycobacteria. To explore how currently available transcriptomic data might be used to understand the basis of protective immunity to MTB, we analysed and reviewed published RNA expression studies to (1) identify a "susceptible" immune response in patients with acquired defects in the interferon gamma pathway; (2) identify the "failing" transcriptomic response in patients with TB as compared with latent TB infection (LTBI); and (3) identify elements of the "protective" response in healthy latently infected and healthy uninfected individuals.