No abstract

Approximately 10 years after vaccination with the recombinant zoster vaccine (RZV), an interim analysis of this follow-up study of the ZOE-50/70 trials demonstrated that efficacy against herpes zoster remained high. Moreover, the safety profile remained clinically acceptable, suggesting that the clinical benefit of the RZV in ≥50-year-olds is sustained up to 10 years.

fIn this study, we assessed the effects of the prevaccination titer and age on the immunogenicity of a low dose of influenza vaccine in children less than 4 years of age. A total of 259 children received two vaccine doses (0.1 ml for 0-year-olds and 0.2 ml for children 1 year of age or older) 4 weeks apart during the 2005/2006 season. The hemagglutination inhibition antibody titers were measured before vaccination and 4 weeks after the first and second doses. The geometric mean titer, mean fold rise, seroresponse proportion (>4-fold rise in titer), and seroprotection proportion (titer >1:40) were calculated for the prevaccination titer and age categories. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed using the seroresponse and seroprotection proportions as dependent variables and the prevaccination titer and age as explanatory variables. As for the seroresponse against the H1 antigen after the first dose, the adjusted odds ratios of the prevaccination titers (versus <1:10) were 2.2 (95% confidence interval, 0.8 to 5.8) at 1:10 to 1:20 and 0.14 (0.04 to 0.49) at >1:40. The corresponding figures for ages were 0.03 (0.01 to 0.07) for the 0-year-olds and 0.17 (0.08 to 0.34) for the 1-year-olds compared with the 2-to 3-year-olds (P trend < 0.001). Similar results were also obtained for the H3 and B strains. Significantly elevated odds ratios for seroprotection were observed with greater prevaccination titers and older ages for all strains. The prevaccination titer and age were independently associated with the antibody response in young children. The immune response was weaker in the younger children and those without preexisting immunity. Influenza is a vaccine-preventable disease. The rate of seasonal influenza infection is highest among children, and children less than 2 years of age are at high risk of influenza-associated hospitalization (1, 2). The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices routinely recommends that children 6 months to 8 years of age receive two doses of influenza vaccine during their first season of vaccination in order to optimize the immune response (3). This recommendation is based on data showing that vaccine effectiveness and immunogenicity are lower among young children treated with one dose of the vaccine, whereas two doses of vaccine provide substantial protection against influenza-like illness (ILI) (4-6) and induce a protective level of antibodies, even in young children (7-15).The factors affecting low immune responses to the influenza vaccine among children are supposed to include immature immunity function due to age, infrequency of opportunity for exposure to influenza virus through vaccination and/or infection, thus resulting in a lack of induced priming, and a low-volume dose of the vaccine. As the subjects get older, it has been reported that their prevaccination titer (pretiter) increases (16-19), but there has been very little detailed research that considered the predictive factors in the immune response (20,21).In this report, we present the immunogenicity o...

In Japan, a nationwide prevention program against mother‐to‐infant infection by hepatitis B virus (HBV) started in 1985. This program consists of double screenings of pregnant women and prophylactic treatment to the infants born to both hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) positive mothers. These infants are treated with two injections of hepatitis B immune globulin (HBIG) and at least three injections of plasma derived hepatitis B vaccine. We sent questionnaires about the numbers of each procedure or examination during nine months of investigation period to each local government in 1986 and 1987. 93.4% pregnant women had the chance to be examined for HBsAg, and the positive rate was 1.4 to 1.5%. The HBeAg positive rate in HBsAg positive was 23 to 26%. The HBsAg positive rate in neonates and in infants before two months were 3% and 2% respectively. Some problems may arise, because 27 to 30% of infants need the fourth vaccination in some restricted areas.

Objective The objective of this study was to determine cancer understanding among Japanese primary and secondary school students. Methods The study design was a cross-sectional nationwide survey using a self-administered questionnaire. The prefecture with the lowest student population was set to 1, and that with the highest student population was set to 18 for elementary schools and 19 for junior high and high schools based on the ratio of the student population. In this way, 213 elementary schools, 222 junior high schools, and 208 high schools were selected from all 47 prefectures in Japan, and questionnaires were sent to each school. The questionnaire listed the names of 15 cancers and asked respondents to choose one answer from three: ''Never heard of,'' ''Heard of/ Don't understand,'' or ''Heard of/Understand.'' Results Response rates for schools were 44.1 % (n = 94) for elementary schools, 46.4 % (n = 103) for junior high schools, and 55.8 % (n = 116) for high schools. A total of 8,876 questionnaires were used for the analysis. Our survey suggests that the most commonly understood types of cancer differed by grade, with lung cancer the most commonly understood in elementary school, leukemia in junior high schools, and breast cancer in high schools. Girls tended to demonstrate greater cancer understanding than boys, with particularly large differences by gender in rates of understanding of breast and uterine cancer at each assessed grade level. Conclusions Here, we examined Japanese primary and secondary school students. Marked differences in cancer recognition by grade and gender suggest that educational efforts are needed at various grade levels and gender-specific cancer education. Further, more than 50 % of students at any school level were not familiar with most cancers. It suggests that cancer education is deficient.