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The PsA-TT vaccine elicited a stronger response to group A antibody than the PsACWY vaccine. (Funded by the Meningitis Vaccine Project through a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Controlled-Trials.com numbers, ISRCTN78147026 and ISRCTN87739946.).

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Abstractobjective Dengue fever is globally considered underestimated. This study provides expansion factors (EFs) for dengue endemic selected countries and highlights critical issues in the use of EFs. results Cohort studies differed in case definition, laboratory test used and surveillance methods. The information on SEARO, PAHO and WPRO websites differed in terms of dengue epidemiological variables, population denominators and completeness. The highest incidence was reported by PAHO countries followed by WPRO and SEARO countries. EFs may vary for the different variables and denominators used for calculation. EFs were the highest in SEARO countries and lowest in PAHO countries. A trend for lower local EFs was observed.conclusions The use of EFs for quantifying dengue underreporting may be problematic due to lack of uniformity in reporting dengue both active and passive surveillance data. Quality dengue surveillance data are urgently needed for a better estimate of dengue disease burden and to measure the impact of preventive intervention.

Primary hepatocellular carcinoma is the commonest cancer in The Gambia. The Gambia Hepatitis Intervention Study (GHIS) was established in 1986 to evaluate the protective effectiveness of infant hepatitis B immunization in the prevention of chronic liver disease, particularly, hepatocellular carcinoma and cirrhosis later in adult life. This program was designed based on a series of assumptions. Here, we used data from observational and epidemiologic studies developed since 1986 to examine the validity of these assumptions. We found that (a) hepatitis B vaccine coverage was 15% more than originally assumed, (b) protection against hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection was not dependent on the number of vaccine doses received, (c) perinatal infection with HBV was of negligible importance, and (d) the HBV attributable risk of hepatocellular carcinoma at age <50 was 70% to 80%, lower than initially assumed. Based on these data, the final outcome of the GHIS should be measurable from 2017, sooner than originally assumed. The GHIS strategy takes into account-specific patterns of virus epidemiology and natural history of hepatocellular carcinoma in Africa and provides a model for integrating and evaluating new vaccines into the Expanded Programme of Immunization of sub-Saharan African countries. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2008;17(11):3216 -23)

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