An analysis of data from three studies showed that the rates of severe pneumonia in infants in their first six months of life was 20% lower overall in infants whose mothers received the influenza vaccination during pregnancy than in infants whose mothers had not, and the rates of severe pneumonia was 56% lower during periods when influenza circulation was highest. These findings correspond with evidence that influenza infection predisposes individuals to pneumococcal infection.
The incidence rate of severe pneumonia in the vaccine group compared to the control group was 43% lower in South Africa, 31% lower in Nepal, but not significantly different in Mali.
Two years after the introduction of 10-strain pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV-10) in Kenya, the percent of HIV-positive adults who carried pneumococcal bacteria declined significantly (from 43% to 28%), but did not decline in HIV-negative adults. However, the reduction in carriage of pneumococcal strains that are in PCV10 declined significantly in both HIV-positive and HIV-negative adults. This reduction was still four times higher in HI- positive vs. HIV-negative adults (2.8% vs. 0.7%), indicating that HIV positive adults continue to be at considerably higher risk of invasive pneumococcal disease than HIV-uninfected adults.
Nasopharyngeal carriage is an indicator of the risk for invasive pneumococcal disease and pneumonia
An analysis in Kenya found that, although the government will need to more than double its current vaccine budget to continue using PCV after GAVI support ends, continuing the vaccination will prevent more than 101,000 cases of invasive pneumoccocal disease and pneumonia, more than 14,000 deaths over an 11-year period, and would be cost-effective (cost per DALY of $153 by 2032), even at the full GAVI price of US $3.05 per dose.
During a meningococcal meningitis epidemic in Burkina Faso, households spent, on average, US$90 for treatment and other direct costs for family members with the disease. These costs, the equivalent of one third of the country’s annual GDP per capita, were in addition to the loss of income and assets from family members caring for patients.
According to a systematic review and meta-analysis, children who are rural-urban migrants in China, India and Nigeria were less likely to be fully-immunized by the age of one year than non-migrant urban residents and the general population. These inequities in vaccination rates — often concealed in national averages — call for special efforts to improve immunization rates in this rapidly growing sub-population to reduce both health inequities and the risk of infectious disease outbreaks in the wider society.
Use of recommended maternal health care services — defined as at least 4 antenatal care visits, having a skilled attendant at birth, and delivery in a health facility — was a predictor of timely vaccination of mothers’ infants in a study conducted in Ghana. Compared to children whose mothers received one or two of these services, infants born to mothers who received all three interventions were roughly 30% more likely to be fully vaccinated by 12-23 months of age, while children whose mothers received none of these services were only about half as likely to be fully vaccinated. Investing in maternal health, which creates familiarity with the health system and increases mothers’ knowledge about disease prevention, can improve the health of both the mother and her children beyond infancy.
Ethiopian mothers use of any of three maternal health services — antenatal care, delivery services, or tetanus vaccination — significantly increased the likelihood of their children being fully immunized by 12-23 months of age. Therefore, national immunization initiatives should concentrate on improving access of pregnant women to these key maternal health services.
Somali refugee children in Kenya were nearly 60 times more likely than children of the main ethnic group in the study (Kikuyu) to not have received any childhood immunization and more than twice as likely to have not completed their vaccinations. Although Somali children made up less than 8% of the sample, they accounted for nearly half of all non-vaccinated children.
This study used data from Kenya’s Demographic and Health Survey data.
Non-Somali children in Kenya in the poorest households were nearly three times as likely to be unvaccinated than children from middle-income households, while wealthier children were significantly less likely to be unvaccinated.
Kenyan children born outside of a health facility with the aid of a traditional birth attendant were around 80% more likely to be non-vaccinated or under-vaccinated than children born in a government health facility.
