Beneficial Effect Of Vaccination Research Articles

Effects of Silirum®-Based Vaccination Programs on Map Fecal Shedding and Serological Response in Seven French Dairy Herds.

(1) Background: paratuberculosis is an important disease in ruminants, causing worldwide economic losses to the livestock industry. Although vaccination is known not to prevent transmission of the causative agent Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (Map), it is considered an effective tool for paratuberculosis in infected herds. The objectives of this controlled field study were to evaluate the effects of the whole-cell heat-killed Silirum® vaccine on Map fecal shedding and serological status in dairy herds infected with paratuberculosis. (2) Methods: The serological status (ELISA) and fecal shedding (qPCR) of 358 vaccinated cows were assessed over 3 years in 7 infected dairy herds in the Meuse department, France. Within each herd, cows from the last non-vaccinated birth cohort (n = 265) were used as controls. The probability and level of Map fecal shedding and the serological status were modeled using multivariable mixed general linear regression models. (3) Results: Overall, 34.7% of cows tested positive at least once on fecal qPCR, with significant differences between herds, but high shedding levels were observed in only 5.5% of cows. Compared to non-vaccinated seronegative cows, a statistically significant reduction in the probability of Map shedding was found only in cows vaccinated before 4 to 5 months of age that tested negative for Map antibodies throughout the study period (odds ratio = 0.5, 95% confidence interval: 0.3-0.9, p = 0.008), but no significant effect of vaccination on the amount of Map shedding could be evidenced. Finally, the younger the cows were when vaccinated, the less they tested positive on the serum ELISA. (4) Conclusions: a beneficial effect of vaccination on Map fecal shedding may exist in cows vaccinated before 4 to 5 months of age. The variability of the serum ELISA response in vaccinated cows remains to be investigated.

Knowledge and Acceptance of COVID-19 Vaccination among Women of Reproductive Age Group

Background: The acceptability of COVID vaccine by reproductive age group women remains unknown. Hence the study was conducted to define the knowledge about the COVID-19 vaccine and its acceptance in a sample of women who were planning to get pregnant. Method: This is a prospective study conducted at Chettinad Hospital and Research Institute, Chennai, India on 157 women of reproductive age group during August-September 2022. Data were collected using a face-to-face questionnaire administered to women who attended the Obstetrics and Gynaecology OPD. Data were analysed using SPSS. Results: Of the 157 respondents, nearly half were in the age group of 20-32 years, and almost 72% of them were educated with the minimum qualification being higher secondary education. In the given study, 70.7% were urban and semi-urban residents and 29.3% were rural women. About 66% of them were employed and the rest were unemployed. Gravidity status showed no significant differences regarding awareness. Overall awareness was about 74.5% and acceptance was 70.7%. Conclusion: Though women are aware of the vaccines, there is hesitancy prevailing. Literacy plays an important role in vaccine awareness and acceptance. Women of reproductive age should be made aware that the COVID vaccine is safe for use. The side effects, if any, will also be mostly minor. Although vaccine trials have not been conducted on pregnant women, the beneficial effects of vaccination far outweigh the negligible risk, if any, to the foetus and the women were made aware of this information.

A novel method to monitor COVID-19 fatality rate in real-time, a key metric to guide public health policy

An accurate estimator of the real-time fatality rate is warranted to monitor the progress of ongoing epidemics, hence facilitating the policy-making process. However, most of the existing estimators fail to capture the time-varying nature of the fatality rate and are often biased in practice. A simple real-time fatality rate estimator with adjustment for reporting delays is proposed in this paper using the fused lasso technique. This approach is easy to use and can be broadly applied to public health practice as only basic epidemiological data are required. A large-scale simulation study suggests that the proposed estimator is a reliable benchmark for formulating public health policies during an epidemic with high accuracy and sensitivity in capturing the changes in the fatality rate over time, while the other two commonly-used case fatality rate estimators may convey delayed or even misleading signals of the true situation. The application to the COVID-19 data in Germany between January 2020 and January 2022 demonstrates the importance of the social restrictions in the early phase of the pandemic when vaccines were not available, and the beneficial effects of vaccination in suppressing the fatality rate to a low level since August 2021 irrespective of the rebound in infections driven by the more infectious Delta and Omicron variants during the fourth wave.

Influenza as a threat to cardiovascular health and the role of vaccination in risk reduction

The different types of cardiovascular diseases, including coronary heart disease, cardiac arrhythmias and heart failure are highly prevalent in the society. Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of mortality. Although the influenza is forced out from the mainstream of thinking nowadays because of the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, it still has its serious epidemiological significance. The seasonal influenza epidemic often contributes to mortality mainly, but not exclusively among old, multi-morbid patients. There are a vast number of scientific publications and evidence which prove and emphasize the synergic health-destroying and mortality-increasing effect of co-existing cardiovascular disease and influenza. Moreover, the beneficial effect of vaccination against influenza infection and its major role in prevention is also well documented. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic enforces the importance of influenza vaccination because both viruses can lead to severe or often fatal disease, especially among old and frail patients. In addition, the younger population can be far more vulnerable against the novel coronavirus in the case of a co-existing influenza infection. International guidelines recommend influenza vaccination for patients having heart disease, like for other high-risk populations. Despite the nationally reimbursed, cost-free vaccines, the influenza vaccination rate of the society is still low not just in Hungary but also internationally. The authors review the effect of influenza infection on heart diseases, and draw attention to the role of influenza vaccination in decreasing cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.

Progression of COVID-19 in six South American countries with different vaccination coverage

COVID-19 seems to have progressed under two general assumptions: a) every new variant of SARS-Co V-2 should bear the worst consequences, thus justifying extension of government-mandated lock-downs, school and border closures, face mask wearing and other restrictive measures and b) that hastily developed experimental vaccines employing novel technologies would quickly and efficiently stop the pandemic by protecting from infection or, at the very least, by preventing complications and death. We tested these two hypotheses by analyzing the epidemiological data officially released by the governments of six countries in South America. We found that vaccination failed to prevent contagion by Omicron or by previous variants of SARS-Co V-2. Mortality has decreased with time since the start of global COVID-19 in early 2020 with Omicron showing the lowest mortality to date. This finding cursorily agreed with a beneficial effect of vaccination in each individual country but failed when countries with similar mortalities and different vaccination rates were analyzed. Thus, the slight but continued reduction in mortality through the duration of the pandemic and sharp decrease with Omicron do not correlate with the level of national vaccination among the countries studied. A more plausible explanation for the decrease in mortality through time is the natural attenuation of SARS-Co V-2 from successive passage through millions of susceptible and healthy hosts, as dictated by well-established principles of virology, immunology, and vaccinology dating at least from the mid 1950’s. The failure to prevent infection or to substantially reduce mortality as reported here should raise questions about the value of the massive vaccination campaigns in South America, particularly, considering the potential risks of adverse reactions (still to be fully determined) to experimental vaccines and the considerable cost to the stressed national economies of the region.

Of variants and vaccines

In this issue of Cell, Bushman et al. show how more transmissible variants, even if they do not escape immunity, can be strongly selected during the early pandemic. This explains the dynamics of past SARS-CoV-2 variants, but as immunity increases, it is difficult to predict what will emerge next.

COVID vaccination efficiency in nursing homes: from nursing home-centred to resident-centred

Abstract Background Korian® group is specialized in care and support for fragile people. Its data warehouse manages 304 French nursing homes (NH). The transmissions' table (TT), daily-fed by caregivers, contains key data about residents' care and health. Following GDPR rules, we could still build residents' life trajectories and detail all the residents' health events using indexes. In the past, we designed syndromes such as falls, flu, and last year, COVID with the standard query language. Now we want to combine ‘hard' data such as sociodemographic profiles and COVID vaccines with ‘soft' textual data such as COVID and emergency calls syndromes to get a better residents vaccine monitoring. Methods First, we selected all residents with at least one transmission, from December 21, to January 11, just before the COVID vaccination start, from 34 NH chosen for their variety of size and geographic location. We followed them for eleven weeks starting January 4, 2021. We selected the residents' age, sex, autonomy level, comorbidities and risks and then, vaccinations (0, 1 or 2), syndromes, hospitalizations and deaths date events. We searched for sample data inconsistencies by filtering COVID textual information in the TT and comparing it with the vaccination table. We described the sample according to the NH size, and then according to the number of vaccinations. Finally, we assessed COVID syndromes, falls, hospitalizations, emergency calls and deaths according to vaccinations followed by Poisson and logistic regressions. Results We built a 2,051 residents cohort with 1,401 vaccinated at least once and 650 not yet vaccinated. Data corrections then added 60 vaccinations. Residents in big structures were more masculine (72,9% vs 75,1%), more vaccinated (77,2% vs 67,2%), younger (86,7 vs 87,5), more autonomous (2,6, vs 2,4). Vaccination rates were also greater among those with comorbidities and risks. Conclusions By focusing on the TT resident's health events, we improved health modelization Key messages By using all the COVID information available in the database, we were able to show both, the beneficial effect of vaccination and the nefarious effect of COVID in a same model with machine learning. Aggregating hard categorical and numerical data with soft textual information about the resident’s health events, dates included, gives a precise and complete resident’s profile and health trajectory.

Willingness to Vaccinate (WTV) and Willingness to Pay (WTP) for Vaccination Against Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) in Mali.

PPR remains a major challenge to smallholder farmers in Mali. To understand the drivers of low adoption of vaccination by farmers, we analyzed the socio-economic factors influencing farmer WTV during and in the absence of vaccination campaigns. Given that the costs associated with vaccination are largely borne by farmers, we assessed factors that associated with farmer willingness to pay (WTP) more than the current price (150 XOF per dose) by considering two attributes of improvement of the vaccines empirically highlighted as potential leverage points for intervention: access of farmers to vaccines (reducing the distance to the vaccine) and availability of information about the quality of the vaccine (introducing a vaccine viability detector). Data were collected in Mopti and Sikasso regions from 304 producers. Overall (n = 304), 89 percent of respondents vaccinated their herds during official vaccination campaigns. They are associated with receiving information on the campaign calendar more quickly if information is relayed at places of worship and if they have an awareness of the benefits of vaccination, including the protection of third parties. Only 39 percent of respondents vaccinate outside vaccination campaigns. They are positively linked to the credibility of private veterinarians and a recognition of the vital importance of vaccines but are negatively associated with ignorance of vaccination needs and concern about vaccine side-effects. Both distance-effects and quality-tracker effects are associated with farmer willingness to pay more than the current vaccine prices. Farmers practicing semi-intensive production systems are willing to pay 20 percent more than the current vaccine prices, as are users who believe in the beneficial effects of vaccination, users who consider the prices of vaccines as fair, and those who believe that some vaccines are more important than others. Factors that discourage producers from vaccinating or from paying more for vaccination would be more effectively managed with better communication on vaccine benefits through targeted information dissemination campaigns by Malian authorities. Greater price transparency throughout the vaccine production and deployment chain is critical, while timely availability of vaccine tested for viability would increase the willingness to vaccinate while improving access.

The impact of vaccination on gender equity: conceptual framework and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine case study

BackgroundAlthough the beneficial effects of vaccines on equity by socioeconomic status and geography are increasingly well-documented, little has been done to extend these analyses to examine the linkage between vaccination and gender equity. In this paper, evidence from the published literature is used to develop a conceptual framework demonstrating the potential impact of vaccination on measures of gender equity. This framework is then applied to human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in three countries with different economic and disease burden profiles to establish a proof of concept in a variety of contexts.MethodsWe conducted a literature review examining evidence on the linkage between health outcomes and dimensions of gender equity. We utilized the Papillomavirus Rapid Interface for Modelling and Economics (PRIME) model to estimate cervical cancer incidence and deaths due to HPV types 16/18 by age in each country. We estimated labor force participation and fertility effects from improvements in health, and converted these into inputs consistent with those used to calculate the United Nations Gender Inequality Index to assess gender equity.ResultsIn our case study, we found that HPV vaccination among girls could help narrow socioeconomic gender disparities by quantifying the main pathways by which HPV vaccination improves health, which enables improvement in gender equity indicators such as labor force participation and maternal mortality ratios. While these improvements are small when averaged over the entire population, the components measured – labor force participation and maternal mortality ratio – account for 50% of the index scores.ConclusionsThis proof of concept model is a starting point to inform future health and economic analyses that might incorporate the impact of gender equity as an additional impact of vaccination in improving the health and well-being of the population.

Vaccine hesitancy for childhood vaccinations in slum areas of Siliguri, India.

Despite evidence regarding the beneficial effects of vaccines, vaccination uptake has not been up to the mark across the globe in various sociocultural and sociodemographic groups. Logistics and workforce have been issues of concern to public health managers, but the latent issue of vaccine hesitancy leading to vaccine delays and refusals has not been widely addressed particularly in the Indian context. The present study was conducted to find out the proportion and factors contributing to vaccine hesitancy for childhood vaccinations in slums of Siliguri, India. A cross-sectional study was carried out among 194, 0-59 months' children residing in slums of Siliguri in 2016. Data were collected at the household with interviews of mothers/primary caregivers using a predesigned pretested interview schedule developed based on the validated version of vaccine hesitancy survey questionnaire originally developed by the World Health Organization Strategic Advisory Group of Experts working group on vaccine hesitancy. Associations were analyzed using logistic regression. Majority 161 (83%) of the families were vaccine-hesitant and only 33 (17%) were not hesitant. Nuclear families and mothers of lower educational status had significantly higher odds of vaccine hesitancy. Reluctance to vaccinate (26.1%) and to be unaware/having no reliable information (20.5%) were the major reasons cited for vaccine hesitancy. Most of the families of the children were vaccine-hesitant in the area. Uniformity in schedules in different health facilities in slum areas, appropriate antenatal information, and counseling regarding childhood vaccinations, widespread awareness, and improving mothers' education can address the issue of vaccine hesitancy.

Staphylococcus aureus-dependent septic arthritis in murine knee joints: local immune response and beneficial effects of vaccination.

Staphylococcus aureus is the major cause of human septic arthritis and osteomyelitis, which deserve special attention due to their rapid evolution and resistance to treatment. The progression of the disease depends on both bacterial presence in situ and uncontrolled disruptive immune response, which is responsible for chronic disease. Articular and bone infections are often the result of blood bacteremia, with the knees and hips being the most frequently infected joints showing the worst clinical outcome. We report the development of a hematogenous model of septic arthritis in murine knees, which progresses from an acute to a chronic phase, similarly to what occurs in humans. Characterization of the local and systemic inflammatory and immune responses following bacterial infection brought to light specific signatures of disease. Immunization of mice with the vaccine formulation we have recently described (4C-Staph), induced a strong antibody response and specific CD4+ effector memory T cells, and resulted in reduced bacterial load in the knee joints, a milder general inflammatory state and protection against bacterial-mediated cellular toxicity. Possible correlates of protection are finally proposed, which might contribute to the development of an effective vaccine for human use.

Effect of Preventive Chlamydia abortus Vaccination in Offspring Development in Sheep Challenged Experimentally

Ovine enzootic abortion, caused by Chlamydia abortus, leads to important economic losses worldwide. In addition to reproductive failures, infection may impact lamb growth during the first weeks after birth, yet this effect has not been well characterized. Vaccination can help to control the disease but variable efficacy values have been described, possibly related with factors associated with the host, the vaccine, the parameter used for efficacy determination, and the challenge conditions. In this context, we evaluated the efficacy of an inactivated standard commercial vaccine and a 1/2 diluted dose in pregnant sheep challenged with C. abortus by examining multiple indicators of vaccine effect (including incidence of reproductive failures, bacterial excretion, and evolution of weight gain of viable lambs during the first month of life). Three groups of ewes [control non-vaccinated, C (n = 18); vaccinated with standard dose, SV (n = 16); and vaccinated with 1/2 dose, DV (n = 17)], were challenged approximately 90 days post-mating and tested using direct PCR (tissue samples and vaginal swabs) and ELISA (serum) until 31 days post-reproductive outcome. There were not significant differences in the proportions of reproductive failures or bacterial shedding after birth/abortion regardless the vaccination protocol. However, a beneficial effect of vaccination on offspring growth was detected in both vaccinated groups compared with the controls, with a mean increase in weight measured at 30 days of life of 1.5 and 2.5 kg (p = 0.056) and an increase in the geometric mean of the daily gain of 8.4 and 9.7% in lambs born from DV and SV ewes compared with controls, respectively. Our results demonstrate the effect of an inactivated vaccine in the development of the offspring of C. abortus-infected ewes at a standard and a diluted dose, an interesting finding given the difficulty in achieving sufficient antigen concentration in the production of enzootic abortion of ewes-commercial vaccines.

Dendritic cell-based cancer vaccination: quo vadis?

Dendritic cells (DCs) play a central role in the initiation and regulation of primary immune responses. DCs loaded with tumor-associated antigens induce anti-tumoral cytotoxic T cells in vitro and in vivo. However, clinical trials using ex vivo-generated DCs have failed to demonstrate clinical efficacy. This review summarizes recent advances in concepts and techniques that are providing new impulses to DC-based cancer vaccination. Improvements in protocols for ex vivo-generation of DCs, innovations in immunomonitoring, strategies to overcome tumor-induced immunosuppression and insights into the mutual beneficial effects of vaccines and chemotherapy are all considered. Furthermore, we highlight novel developments in cell-free vaccines targeting DCs in vivo.

An inactivated bovine virus diarrhoea virus (BVDV) type 1 vaccine affords clinical protection against BVDV type 2

This study was designed to answer to two distinct questions. Firstly, is it possible to reproduce clinical signs of acute bovine virus diarrhoea virus (BVDV) type 2 infection including signs of haemorrhagic disease under experimental conditions in cattle at 20 weeks of age? Secondly, what is the extent of the protection afforded by vaccination with an inactivated BVDV type 1 vaccine against BVDV type 2 infection? Calves were vaccinated at 12 and 16 weeks of age with a commercially available inactivated BVDV type 1 vaccine (Bovilis® BVD). At 20 weeks they were challenge infected with BVDV type 2 virus together with unvaccinated control calves. The unvaccinated animals developed typical signs of respiratory disease, diarrhoea with erosions and haemorrhages along the whole length gastro-intestinal tract, and depletion of lymphocytes in lymphatic organs. These signs were either absent or markedly less severe in the vaccinated animals. The beneficial effects of vaccination were most striking in the haematological parameters thrombocytopenia and leukopenia. It can be concluded that vaccination with Bovilis® BVD affords cross-protection against clinical effects of a challenge-infection with heterologous type 2 BVDV.

Attempts to ControlFlexibacter columnarisEpizootics in Pond-Reared Channel Catfish by Vaccination

Evaluation of bacterins for the immunization of channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus against Flexibacter columnaris was carried out over 5 years. Groups of 60,000–100,000 pondreared channel catfish, weighing an average of 1.5–4.1 g, were vaccinated each year with formalininactivated Flexibacter columnaris bacterins by immersion. Bacterins were prepared from isolates of the preceding year's epizootic. Equal numbers of nonvaccinated channel catfish reared under similar conditions served as controls. Fish were vaccinated during May each year when water temperatures ranged from 16 to 18°C. Data were recorded daily from early June through midSeptember as water temperatures rose to 24–26°C. Deaths were recorded daily, and the number of hours required for antibiotic treatments were monitored. Analysis of the data indicated a general trend toward a beneficial effect of vaccination, particularly for larger fish. Mortality and hours of antibiotic treatment were significantly higher for most control groups than for vaccinated groups.