INTRODUCTION Annual influenza vaccine coverage for young adults (including college students) remains low, despite a 2011 US recommendation for annual immunization of all people 6 months and older. College students are at high risk for influenza morbidity given close living and social spaces and extended travel during semester breaks when influenza circulation typically increases. We evaluated i...

BACKGROUND Knowledge about the travel-associated risks of hepatitis A and B, and the extent of pre-travel health-advice being sought may vary between countries. METHODS An online survey was undertaken to assess the awareness, advice-seeking behaviour, rates of vaccination against hepatitis A and B and adherence rates in Australia, Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the UK and Canada between Au...

The immune system becomes less effective with age, and older age is associated with an increased susceptibility to diseases and reduced responses to vaccination. Furthermore, some adult populations, such as those with diabetes mellitus, are at increased risk of acute hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Decreasing responses to vaccination with advanced age have been described, but it is not known...

OBJECTIVES In December 2010, there was an outbreak of acute febrile respiratory disease in many Korean military camps that were not geographically related. A laboratory analysis confirmed a number of these cases to be infected by the pandemic influenza A(H1N1) 2009 (H1N1pdm09) virus. Because mass vaccination against H1N1pdm09 was implemented at the infected military camps eleven months ago, the...

The expression of the CD69 antigen on CD4 T lymphocytes after in vitro stimulation with purified protein derivative (2 tuberculin units) was used to evaluate the tuberculin reactivities of 52 individuals from four experimental groups: Mycobacterium bovis BCG-vaccinated healthy individuals with a negative tuberculin skin test (TST) result (group A), BCG-vaccinated healthy individuals with a posi...

If a vaccine does not protect individuals completely against infection, it could still reduce infectiousness of infected vaccinated individuals to others. Typically, vaccine efficacy for infectiousness is estimated based on contrasts between the transmission risk to susceptible individuals from infected vaccinated individuals compared with that from infected unvaccinated individuals. Such estim...

BACKGROUND Efforts are currently underway to develop therapeutic vaccines for Herpes Simplex Virus type 2 (HSV-2). METHODS We use a mathematical model to predict the potential public health impact of imperfect, therapeutic HSV-2 vaccines. We evaluate vaccine effectiveness and efficiency for the general population in the United States where HSV-2 prevalence is currently 22%. We assume that the...

BACKGROUND Estimation of Influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) varies with study design, clinical outcome considered and statistical methodology used. By estimating VE using differing outcomes and statistical methods on the same cohort of individuals the variability in the estimates produced can be better understood. The Pandemic Influenza Primary Care Reporting (PIPeR) cohort of approximately 1...

The virus neutralization (VN) antibody titers of serum samples from 18 individuals representing 8 carnivore species vaccinated with commercial polyvalent vaccines optimized for domestic cats containing inactivated feline panleukopenia virus (FPLV) were evaluated against canine parvovirus type 2 (CPV2). In addition, the titers among 5 individuals from 4 carnivore were evaluated against antigenic...