BACKGROUND/AIMS The immune response to influenza vaccine may be influenced by many factors, e.g. age, comorbidities or inflammation, and iron status. METHODS We studied the vaccine-induced production of hemagglutination-inhibition antibodies (HI) in 133 hemodialysis patients (HD) and 40 controls. To identify variables associated with the immune response, uni- and multivariate regression analy...

A cohort of 181 patients with hemophilia A (149) and hemophilia B (32) cared for at the Hemophilia Center of Western Pennsylvania was followed to determine human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seroprevalence, seroconversion rate, and clinical and immunologic correlates of HIV infection. By December 1986, 82 (45%) were HIV seropositive, and of these, ten (12%) had developed AIDS, 28 (34%) had symp...

BACKGROUND To probe seroepidemiology of the 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) among health care workers (HCWs) in a children's hospital. METHODS From August 2009 to March 2010, serum samples were drawn from 150 HCWs in a children's hospital in Taipei before the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) pandemic, before H1N1 vaccination, and after the pandemic. HCWs who had come into direct contact with 2009 inf...

PURPOSE Assessing the immunogenicity of a single dose of hepatitis A virus (HAV) vaccines is important because some people receive only a single dose. However, previous studies have shown variable results and have not examined the effects of demographic characteristics other than gender. This study was performed to examine the immunogenicity of a single dose of HAV vaccine according to the vacc...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of syphilis, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections in women at the time of delivery, and to determine the seroconversion rates for syphilis and HIV infections from initial booking visit to delivery. SETTING The labour ward of a typical tertiary hospital in a developing country and serving an indi...

BACKGROUND Interferon stimulated chemokine CXCL-10, interleukin (IL)-12 (p70) and IL-21 have been associated with HBsAg and HBeAg loss following treatment of HBV monoinfection. The aim of this study was to determine whether these factors were also associated with HBsAg and HBeAg loss in HIV-HBV-coinfected patients following HBV-active combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). METHODS HIV-HBV...

T cells recogttize speciftc antigens through the T celL receptor (TCR) and self M HC nolecules. Structural variation in the TCR to recognise the enonnous diversity, of antigens is effected b), naturation rearrange,nent of TCR genes in a tilaruter analogous to inrnunoglobulin genes. Although it is believed that T cells play a uajor role in the seroconversiotr of e Ag positive hepatitis B caliers...

INTRODUCTION Previous influenza pandemics had second and on occasion third waves in many countries that were at times more severe than the initial pandemic waves. OBJECTIVE This study aims to determine the seroepidemiology of successive waves of H1N1pdm09 infections in Singapore and the overall risks of infection. METHODS We performed a cohort study amongst 838 adults, with blood samples pr...

Four serotypes of monovalent live attenuated dengue virus vaccine candidates were tested for reactogenicity and immunogenicity in 49 flavivirus non-immune adult human volunteers. The four monovalent candidates were then combined into a tetravalent formulation and given to another 10 volunteers. Neutralizing antibody seroconversion rates after a single-dose monovalent vaccination ranged from 53%...

Seroconversion of hepatitis B virus (HBV) e-antigen (HBeAg) is a critical but often-missed therapeutic goal in standard antiviral treatments. An extreme-phenotype genome-wide association study was performed, comparing untreated spontaneous recoverers (with seroconversion of HBV surface antigen) versus entecavir-treated patients failing to achieve HBeAg seroconversion. A single-nucleotide-polymo...