A short communication: Diphtheria outbreak, Tdap vaccination for adults

Diphtheria cases continue to occur also in Madurai, Tamil Nadu despite a national vaccination program targeting the disease. Outbreaks of diphtheria are noted in areas of low immunization coverage. Last week our nephews came with swollen cheeks etc so forth and so on. Disease manifesting among older children and adults as in of the recent outbreaks from the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi and Assam.Of these, immunized children, 88% were above 10 years of age.A booster second doses of Adacel is for person 8 years and above along with tetanus prophylaxia is given in addition to maintaining a high immunization coverage in the routine immunization program, with special emphasis on areas of low vaccination coverage is essential for preventing then emergence of diphtheria.

Evaluation of session sites of routine immunization program in Damoh district of Madhya Pradesh

Background: Vaccination is one of the most effective disease prevention strategies and the success of immunization program in the field depends upon the availability of appropriate vaccines, logistics and proper vaccination practice of health workers. This study was undertaken to assess actual vaccines and logistics availability, vaccination practices and safety issues at session sites of Damoh District of Madhya Pradesh.Methods: Cross-sectional observational study was done using a structured questionnaire. Data was collected from 36 session sites of Damoh District of Madhya Pradesh.Results: The availability of AD syringe of 0.1 ml and 0.5 ml was not adequate. Functional hub cutter was available in 30(83.3%) session sites. Zinc tablets were found only at 32 (88.8%) session sites. Due list of beneficiaries was maintained only by 33 (91.6%) ANMs and 26 (72.2%) ASHA workers. BCG was available in 20 (55.5%) and IPV in 27 (75%) sessions. Vaccine storage conditions were not appropriate in 2 sessions sites. Time of reconstitution was written on reconstituted vaccines in 30 (83.3%). Date and time of opening vial was written in 32 (88.8%) session sites. Only in 28 (77.7%) sessions ANM were cutting Syringe with Hub Cutter. Four key messages were being delivered to parents in only 16 (44.4%) sessions and only in 22 (61.1%) sessions ANM was advising the care giver to wait for 30 minutes after vaccination.Conclusions: There was satisfactory organization of immunization session in terms of availability of logistics and cold chain maintenance but unsatisfactory in terms of vaccination practice.

Modeling Chickenpox Dynamics with a Discrete Time Bayesian Stochastic Compartmental Model

We present a Bayesian stochastic susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered model in discrete time to understand chickenpox transmission in the Valencian Community, Spain. During the last decades, different strategies have been introduced in the routine immunization program in order to reduce the impact of this disease, which remains a public health’s great concern. Under this scenario, a model capable of explaining closely the dynamics of chickenpox under the different vaccination strategies is of utter importance to assess their effectiveness. The proposed model takes into account both heterogeneous mixing of individuals in the population and the inherent stochasticity in the transmission of the disease. As shown in a comparative study, these assumptions are fundamental to describe properly the evolution of the disease. The Bayesian analysis of the model allows us to calculate the posterior distribution of the model parameters and the posterior predictive distribution of chickenpox incidence, which facilitates the computation of point forecasts and prediction intervals.