Top five stories on vaccine-preventable diseases

Each year, countless Americans become ill, even fatally, from diseases that can be prevented through vaccination. According to the CDC, immunization is the most efficient way to protect against these diseases. August is National Immunization Awareness Month and to commemorate it, Infectious Disease News created a list of the top five stories on vaccine-preventable diseases published in the past month.

Flu vaccination reduces respiratory, CV hospitalizations for patients with diabetes

Eszter P. Vamos, MD, PhD, honorary research fellow at Imperial College London, and colleagues found that patients with type 2 diabetes who received influenza vaccination appeared to experience fewer hospitalizations due to respiratory infection or cardiovascular events than those who were unvaccinated. Read more

American Cancer Society endorses CDC’s HPV vaccine recommendations

The American Cancer Society endorsed a CDC advisory committee recommendation that all children aged 11 to 12 years receive HPV vaccination.

“It is critical that all stakeholders — families, health care providers and others — make HPV vaccination a priority so that prevention of the vast majority of cervical, vaginal, vulvar, anal, penile and oropharyngeal cancers can become a reality,” Debbie Saslow, PhD, ACS director of cancer control intervention for HPV vaccination and women’s cancers, said. Read more

Gardasil 9 yields greater coverage with similar safety profile to Gardasil

Gardasil 9 was well-tolerated in young adults in clinical trials and demonstrated a safety profile comparable to that of Gardasil quadrivalent HPV vaccine, suggesting its support for widespread vaccination. Read more

Nearing the end: The final stages of polio eradication

Michel Zaffran, MEng, director of polio eradication at WHO and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), spoke with Infectious Disease News about poliovirus and how, despite an estimated 99.9% reduction in cases, a substantial effort is still required to achieve true eradication and ensure that the disease does not resurface. Read more

Maternal immunization protects infants against influenza for 8 weeks

Influenza vaccination during pregnancy protected infants against the illness for a limited duration of 8 weeks, according to study data.

“While active annual influenza vaccination is the most efficient mode for the prevention of influenza, current vaccines are poorly immunogenic and not licensed for use for infants younger than 6 months of age,” Marta C. Nunes, PhD, of the respiratory and meningeal pathogens research unit at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa, and colleagues wrote. Read more