Varicella-zoster virus (VZV), the cause of chickenpox and shingles, is a pathogen in retreat following the introduction of mass vaccination in the United States in 1995. The live attenuated Oka vaccine, which is safe and immunogenic, gives good protection against both varicella and zoster in the short to medium term. It has undoubtedly been highly effective to date in reducing all forms of vari...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the adequacy of measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination among children and to assess risk of outbreak in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). METHODS We recruited a total of 527 children from schools located at different urban regions, and preschool children from those attending the well baby clinics in Jeddah, KSA. We tested for MMR viruses antibodies using ELISA...

The aim of this paper is to discuss the emergence and establishment of a "culture of immunization" in the contemporary Brazil from the eradication of smallpox. This culture is associated with a long process of introduction of vaccines, vaccination campaigns and mass vaccination undertaken by the Brazilian government since the late nineteenth century. Particular importance is attributed to the c...

Background.  A measles outbreak in Pohnpei State, Federated States of Micronesia in 2014 affected many persons who had received ≥1 dose of measles-containing vaccine (MCV). A mass vaccination campaign targeted persons aged 6 months to 49 years, regardless of prior vaccination. Methods.  We evaluated vaccine effectiveness (VE) of MCV by comparing secondary attack rates among vaccinated and unvac...

This article demonstrates how misinformation concerning autism and vaccinations was created and suggests that social workers may be perfectly poised to challenge pseudoscience interpretations. Utilizing social network theory, this article illustrates how erroneous research, mass media, and public opinion led to a decreased use of vaccinations in the United States and a seven-fold increase in me...

Immunity assays in guinea-pigs based on spleen mass: body mass ratios showed that live vaccines were markedly more effective than inactivated oil adjuvant vaccines in providing protection against challenge with 5 000 virulent organisms.

Understanding the biological mechanisms underlying episodic outbreaks of infectious diseases is one of mathematical epidemiology's major goals. Historic records are an invaluable source of information in this enterprise. Pertussis (whooping cough) is a re-emerging infection whose intermittent bouts of large multiannual epidemics interspersed between periods of smaller-amplitude cycles remain an...

ALTHOUGH there are numerous reports of individual cases, only a few papers deal with general aspects of the clinical picture of generalized vaccinia (Tedder, I936; Clark, Seiler, Joe, Gammie, Tait and Jack, I944; Fries, Borne and Barnes, I948). During two outbreaks of generalized vaccinia occurring, after two mass vaccinations, in a hospital for patients with pemphigus foliaceus, some clinical ...

A universal model intended primarily for predicting dynamics of the mass epidemics (outbreaks) caused by special pathogens is being developed at the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology Vector. The model includes the range of major countermeasures: preventive and emergency mass vaccination, vaccination of risk groups as well as search for and isolation/observation of infected cas...

CORRESPONDENCE R.S.P.C.A. Campaign. C. W. HUME, M.C., B.Sc. ....................... 790 Vaccination and Leukaemia. E. DAVIDSON, M.R.C.P., and F. G. J. HAYHOE, M.D. ..... ........... 790 Reactions to Smallpox Vaccination. W. J. MCLEOD, M.D., D.P.H., and J. A. GILMORE, M.B., D.P.H.; J. P. C. M. BROOKES, L.M.S.S.A., and J. R. P. GIBBONS, F.R.C.S.Ed.; C. TAYLOR, M.B. 790 Vaccination Against Smallpo...