This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Japanese encephalitis vaccine campaign effective in Nepal

Add topic to email alerts

Receive an email when new articles are posted on

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .

Subscribe

Added to email alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

Back to Healio

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Back to Healio

PHILADELPHIA — A live-attenuated Japanese encephalitis vaccine campaign was effective at reducing disease incidence in Nepal. Therefore, researchers recommend an ongoing routine infant immunization program for Japanese encephalitis to maintain control of the disease, according to a poster presented here.

After the introduction of a Japanese encephalitis vaccination program in 2006, campaigns were created across 23 districts in Nepal that were endemic to Japanese encephalitis.

The campaigns promoted vaccination of children aged 1 to 15 years or the vaccination of the overall population (those aged 1 year and older) with the live-attenuated vaccine. To evaluate the effect of the campaign, researchers assessed data on acute encephalitis syndrome and laboratory-confirmed Japanese encephalitis cases that occurred between 2004 and 2009.

The incidence for acute encephalitis syndrome after the campaign was 58% less for all 23 districts included in the vaccination campaigns than the anticipated 17.9/100,000 population if no campaigns were initiated.

Researchers observed the greatest effect of the campaign across four high-risk western plain districts, where the incidence for acute encephalitis syndrome was 84% less than the expected incidence of 41.5/100,000 population.

The observed incidence for Japanese encephalitis across all districts was 72% less than the anticipated 4.6/100,000 population. The greatest effect was also observed across the four high-risk western plain districts, where the incidence for Japanese encephalitis was 84% less than the expected incidence of 11.7/100,000.

“Although this analysis was limited by availability of only short-term post-campaign data in some districts, it demonstrated that the vaccination program has had a clear impact on acute encephalitis syndrome and Japanese encephalitis incidence in Nepal,” the researchers wrote. “As additional surveillance data are available, further analysis will provide greater accuracy in the assessment of campaign impact.”

For more information:

• Upreti SR. #598. Presented at: the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 60th Annual Meeting; Dec. 4-8, 2011; Philadelphia.

Disclosure: Dr. Upreti reports no relevant financial disclosures.

Follow InfectiousDiseaseNews.com on Twitter.