In this issue of Pediatrics Acosta et al present a tetanus toxoid, reduced diphtheria toxoid, and acellular pertussis, adsorbed (Tdap) vaccine effectiveness study in adolescents in Washington State during the first 6 months of 2012. Their findings support the previous Tdap effectiveness data from Wisconsin. The duration of Tdap effectiveness is disappointing, particularly because case-control s...

A survey of titres of diphtheria and tetanus antitoxins and of antibodies to polioviruses in the sera of 291 schoolchildren aged 15, 11, and 7 years showed that high immunisation rates can evoke protective concentrations of tetanus antitoxin in 98% of children and protective levels of the antibodies to diphtheria and all three types of poliomyelitis in 85% of children. Reinforcing immunisation ...

The Editorial by Lone and Puliyel contains several factual errors. It exhibits a time warp, citing old information but not its new details and a disregard for truth by arguments taken out of context. It contains statements that have been disproved. The idea of pentavalent vaccine has ‘technical’ elements – the epidemiological need to introduce hepatitis B (HB) vaccine and Haemophilus influenzae...

The pediatric formulations usually have 3-5 times as much of the diphtheria component than what is in the adult/ adolescent formulation. Similarly, the formulations for adults/adolescents have around one third of acellular pertussis content than pediatric formulations. The amount of tetanus toxoid in each of the products remains almost equivalent. Dose reduction for diphtheria and pertussis is ...

This updated statement on Haemophilus influenzae type b conjugate vaccines includes recommendations for use of a newly licensed Haemophilus conjugate vaccine, and a newly licensed combination vaccine that combines one of the Haemophilus conjugate vaccines and diphtheria, tetanus toxoids, and pertussis (DTP). The statement also includes revised guidelines for the use of all conjugate vaccines. T...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination is linked to the risk of acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) among children <5 years of age. METHODS Data from Macro International Demographic and Health Surveys and United Nations Children's Fund Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys were used to identify a primary cohort of 58,021 children in 19 countries (2005-2010)...

An observational post-licensure (Phase IV) retrospective large-database safety study was conducted at Kaiser Permanente, a US integrated medical care organization, to assess the safety of Tetanus Toxoid, Reduced Diphtheria Toxoid and 5-Component Acellular Pertussis Vaccine (Tdap5) administered as part of routine healthcare among adolescents and adults. We evaluated incidence rates of various cl...

INTRODUCTION Adjuvants (for example, aluminum salts) are frequently incorporated in licensed vaccines to enhance the host immune response. Such vaccines include the pneumococcal conjugate, combinations of diphtheria-tetanus/acellular pertussis, tetanus- diphtheria/acellular pertussis, hepatitis B, some Haemophilus influenzae type b, hepatitis A, and human papillomavirus. These preparations have...

This article presents results of the main measures on vaccine coverage carried out in France in children up to six years of age. Vaccine coverage is very high for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and poliomyelitis, and satisfactory for vaccination against Haemophilus influenzae b invasive infections. It will be necessary, however, to increase vaccine coverage against measles, mumps and rubella i...