Vaccine: X

BackgroundReduced influenza transmission during the COVID-19 pandemic prompted concern about waning of population immunity that could lead to subsequent surges in circulation. We evaluated this by comparing longitudinal influenza antibody titers in Michigan and Hong Kong, two regions with reduced influenza transmission during the COVID-19 pandemic. MethodsIn two prospective cohort studies (HIVE, Michigan; EPI-HK, Hong Kong), we analyzed longitudinal serum samples collected from 2020 through 202...

IntroductionCommunity health workers are essential to frontline health outreach throughout low- and middle-income countries, including programming for early childhood immunization. The World Health Organization estimates a projected shortage of 18 million health workers by 2030. Understanding how community health workers are engaged for successful early childhood vaccination among countries who showed success in immunization coverage would support evidence-based policy guidance across contexts. ...

Most countries use tally sheets across immunization programmes for health workers to mark vaccine doses administered to every person, alongside home-based records, yet their design and use is poorly understood at the global level. This paper presents a multi-country analysis on routine childhood immunization tally sheet content and design sourced from the annual electronic WHO/UNICEF Joint Reporting Form on Immunization (eJRF), which collected these forms for the first time in 2024 (for 2023). O...

In 2019, Madagascar experienced the nations largest documented measles outbreak ever. From September 2018 to January 2020, nearly 225,000 individuals were infected, slightly more than 1,000 of whom died. Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world with one of the least funded health systems. Here, we present the experience of how Madagascars Ministry of Health (MoH) partnered with a non-governmental organization, PIVOT, to rapidly respond to a measles outbreak in the rural district o...

A key driver in biopharmaceutical investment decisions is the probability of success of a drug development program. We estimate the probabilities of success (PoS) of clinical trials for vaccines and other anti-infective therapeutics using 43,414 unique triplets of clinical trial, drug, and disease between January 1, 2000, and January 7, 2020, yielding 2,544 vaccine programs and 6,829 non-vaccine programs targeting infectious diseases. The overall estimated PoS for an industry-sponsored vaccine p...

INTRODUCTIONVaccination averts an estimated 2-3 million deaths annually. Although vaccine coverage improvements across Africa and South Asia have remained relatively stagnant and below global targets, several countries have outperformed their peers with significant increases in routine immunization coverage. Examining these countries vaccination programs provides an opportunity to identify and describe critical success factors that may have supported these improvements. METHODSWe selected three...

IntroductionThe essential components of a vaccine delivery system are well-documented, but robust evidence on how and why the related processes and implementation strategies prove effective at driving coverage is not well-established. To address this gap, we identified critical success factors associated with advancing key policies and programs that may have led to the substantial changes in routine childhood immunization coverage in Zambia between 2000 and 2018. MethodsWe conducted mixed-metho...

Diarrhoeal diseases are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among children under five years in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) with Shigella and Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC), both targets of ongoing vaccine development, playing major roles. To inform the introduction of vaccines against these pathogens in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Malawi, we assessed evidence needs for technical policy decisions and community engagement in national policy development processes. Using in-dep...

This case study examines the implementation of a results-based management (RBM) approach in a childhood vaccination program across rural Egypt. The project, initiated in 2020, aimed to address the persistently low immunization rates in remote areas by restructuring healthcare delivery and resource allocation. The study details how the RBM framework was applied to set clear, measurable objectives, develop key performance indicators, and establish a robust monitoring and evaluation system. It hig...

BackgroundChildhood vaccination, family planning, healthcare access, and womens empowerment are goals targeted by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Barriers to healthcare access impede vaccination, and tackling goals holistically could create larger gains than siloed efforts. We studied Nepal, Senegal, and Zambia to test the association between childhood vaccinations and other SDG indicators to identify clustered deprivations. We quantified how children with few - or no - vaccines and the...

1.Mathematical models hold the potential to generate valuable evidence for shaping vaccination policies. However, maximizing their impact requires a deeper understanding of how modelling efforts can be aligned with the real-world priorities of policymakers and health officials. This study explores how structured engagement with stakeholders can help co-identify decision-relevant questions that are amenable to quantitative modelling. The focus is the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination program...

BackgroundProvincial decisions to fund a new immunization program are generally made on a case-by-case basis, without systematic consideration of how the new immunization program may fit within the larger provincial immunization portfolio. AimThe goal of this study was to develop evidence and tools to guide policy-makers in making fiscally and ethically responsible decisions on which adult immunization programs to include in their portfolio under various constrained budgetary scenarios. Method...

BackgroundCatch-up HPV vaccination is challenging in many low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Pay-it-forward offers an individual a subsidized vaccine, then an opportunity to donate to help others access vaccinations. Our randomized control trial assessed the effectiveness of pay-it-forward in improving HPV vaccination among girls aged 15-18 years in China. Methods and findingsEligible participants were randomly assigned to either the pay-it-forward arm or standard-of-care arm (self-paid v...

BackgroundCOVID-19 vaccine information - including source, content, and tone - may be an important determinant of vaccination, but this dynamic is not well-understood in low-income countries where COVID-19 vaccine uptake remains low. We assessed the COVID-19 vaccine information environment in Malawi, and its correlation with vaccine uptake. MethodsA survey was administered among 895 adult ([≥]18 years) clients at 32 Malawian health facilities in mid-2022. Respondents reported their COVID-19 ...

IntroductionSince the declaration of the first case of Covid-19 on March 12, 2020, in Guinea, the number of COVID-19 cases has been increasing day by day despite the state of health emergency and the barrier measures decreed by the Guinean government. This present study aimed to assess the early impact of COVID-19 on vaccine activities by comparing current trends to trends over the past year when vaccine coverage of major antigens (BCG, OPV, DTP-HepB-Hib, MMR, IPV, and Td) had improved considera...

IntroductionTo address the health needs of a population, it is essential to integrate several indicators that are expressed on non-comparable scales. Vaccination is a crucial aspect of public health, and prioritizing vaccination needs through immunization registries can help allocate resources and funding to integral approaches. ObjectiveTo propose and implement an index of vaccination needs (VNI) based on national administrative data on tracer vaccines for children, born between 2019 and 2022,...

BackgroundBangladesh first reported Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) in 1977 and has seen regular cases since, however, no JEV vaccination program currently exists. A barrier to the use of JEV vaccines has been a limited understanding of the underlying burden. MethodsWe conducted a nationally representative serological community study in 70 communities in individuals of all ages (N=2,938, October 2015-January 2016). Serum samples were tested for IgG antibodies against JEV. We developed spatial...

COVID-19 vaccinations began globally at the end of 2020. By the end of 2021, 9.8 million doses were given in Finland. Regarding safety, most vaccine-related adverse reactions have been mild, but serious and lethal ones have also occurred. Autopsies in post vaccination deaths may give insight to the extent of fatal health conditions with potential COVID-19 vaccine etiology and provide new hypotheses of possible causalities between vaccination and severe health conditions. We searched the complete...

BackgroundA large and increasing number of people are forcibly displaced worldwide because of war, food insecurity, and other crises. Streptococcus pneumoniae (the pneumococcus) likely causes a substantial health burden in crisis-affected populations, but pneumococcal vaccines (PCVs) are rarely used in humanitarian responses. We evaluated the potential impact of logistically feasible PCV campaigns in such settings. MethodsWe conducted a pneumococcal carriage, malnutrition and social contact sur...

BackgroundFrom 2020, influenza activities were largely affected by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic at the global scale. The B/Yamagata lineage has become extinct since 2020, raising concerns regarding the quadrivalent influenza vaccine. Evaluating vaccine effectiveness (VE) against influenza infections is important to guide future influenza vaccine programs. MethodsA test-negative case-control study was conducted in five tertiary hospitals in Hangzhou, the capital city of Zhejiang p...