BackgroundGender remains a recognized but relatively unexamined aspect of the potential challenges for treatment programmes for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). We sought to explore the role of gender in access to treatment in the Uganda National Neglected Tropical Disease Control Programme.Methodology/Principal FindingsQuantitative and qualitative data was collected in eight villages in Buyende and Kamuli districts, Eastern Uganda. Quantitative data on the number of persons treated by age and gender was identified from treatment registers in each village. Qualitative data was collected through semi-structured interviews with sub-county supervisors, participant observation and from focus group discussions with community leaders, community medicine distributors (CMDs), men, women who were pregnant or breastfeeding at the time of mass-treatment, and adolescent males and females. Findings include the following: (i) treatment registers are often incomplete making it difficult to obtain accurate estimates of the number of persons treated; (ii) males face more barriers to accessing treatment than women due to occupational roles which keep them away from households or villages for long periods, and males may be more distrustful of treatment; (iii) CMDs may be unaware of which medicines are safe for pregnant and breastfeeding women, resulting in women missing beneficial treatments.Conclusions/SignificanceFindings highlight the need to improve community-level training in drug distribution which should include gender-specific issues and guidelines for treating pregnant and breastfeeding women. Accurate age and sex disaggregated measures of the number of community members who swallow the medicines are also needed to ensure proper monitoring and evaluation of treatment programmes.

Background: A resurgence of pertussis cases among both vaccinated and unvaccinated people raises questions about vaccine effectiveness over time. Our objective was to study the effectiveness of the pertussis vaccine and characterize the effect of waning immunity and whole-cell vaccine priming. Methods:We used the test-negative design, a nested case-control study with test-negative individuals as controls. We constructed multivariable logistic regression models to estimate odds ratios (ORs). Vaccine effectiveness was calculated as (1 -OR) × 100. We assessed waning immunity by calculating the odds of developing pertussis per year since last vaccination and evaluated the relative effectiveness of priming with acellular versus whole-cell vaccine.Results : Between Dec. 7, 2009, and Mar. 31, 2013, data on 5867 individuals (486 testpositive cases and 5381 test-negative controls) were available for analysis. Adjusted vaccine effectiveness was 80% (95% confidence interval [CI] 71% to 86%) at 15-364 days, 84% (95% CI 77% to 89%) at 1-3 years, 62% (95% CI 42% to 75%) at 4-7 years and 41% (95% CI 0% to 66%) at 8 or more years since last vaccination. We observed waning immunity with the acellular vaccine, with an adjusted OR for pertussis infection of 1.27 (95% CI 1.20 to 1.34) per year since last vaccination. Acellular, versus whole-cell, vaccine priming was associated with an increased odds of pertussis (adjusted OR 2.15, 95% CI 1.30 to 3.57). Interpretation:We observed high early effectiveness of the pertussis vaccine that rapidly declined as time since last vaccination surpassed 4 years, particularly with acellular vaccine priming. Considering whole-cell vaccine priming and/or boosters in pregnancy to optimize pertussis control may be prudent. AbstractSee also www.cmaj.ca/lookup