Vaccine related itching nodules and hypersensitivity to aluminium.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to B Trollfors.
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This study monitored the serotypes of Streptococcus agalactiae (group B streptococcus; GBS) isolated from invasive infections in western Sweden and investigated possible relationships between serotype, age and clinical manifestations. Invasive GBS isolates were collected prospectively during 1998-2001 at six laboratories, covering two counties with a population of 1.8 million, and were serotyped by coagglutination. Clinical data were obtained from hospital notes. In total, 161 invasive strains (50 from neonates and infants aged < 3 months, and 111 from adults) were serotyped. The commonest serotypes from neonates and infants were serotypes III (60%), V (22%) and Ia (10%), and from adults were serotypes V (42%) and III (25%). Serotype V had doubled in frequency among both children and adults compared to a previous study from the same area in 1988-1997. Most (80%) of the adults had an underlying medical condition. No relationship was found between serotype and clinical manifestations. However, the study demonstrated the importance of active surveillance of GBS serotypes and the difficulties of formulating a multivalent polysaccharide conjugate vaccine against GBS.
BACKGROUND: Thanks to a successful voluntary vaccination programme, measles, mumps and rubella are rare diseases in Sweden. Coverage among children 18 mo of age has been 99%, but the measles, mumps and rubella vaccination (MMR) has increasingly been questioned among parents. AIM: To study reasons why parents choose not to vaccinate their child against measles, mumps and rubella, and their opinions on vaccines and the diseases themselves. A secondary objective was to compare coverage at 18 mo of age based on parental report with the national statistics based on patient charts. METHODS: The official statistics were compared with patient charts for two birth cohorts in the city of Göteborg, Sweden. Out of these children born in 1995 and 1996, 300 unvaccinated and vaccinated children were identified. Their parents received a postal questionnaire assessing the parent's views on vaccines and childhood diseases. RESULTS: The documented vaccine coverage in this study was higher in 1995 and 1996 than official statistics indicated. The major reason, for both groups, for accepting respectively declining vaccination was strengthening the child's immune system. Parents with children unvaccinated against MMR were also more likely to have declined vaccination against diphtheria, polio, tetanus, Haemophilus influenzae and pertussis. One-third of the parents with a child unvaccinated against MMR had not yet made their final decision 3 y after the vaccine offer. Few parents, both with vaccinated and unvaccinated children, had acquired vaccine information from the Internet. Both groups believed that insufficient time was allocated for vaccine information and discussion at the Child Health Centre. CONCLUSION: Our study indicates that official statistics on MMR vaccination uptake underestimate the number of vaccinated children. Vaccine safety is a major concern for many parents and needs to be addressed by healthcare professionals at institutions offering paediatric vaccinations.
OBJECTIVE: To compare increases in serum IgG antibody against pertactin with increases in IgG against pertussis toxin and filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA) in non-vaccinated children, children vaccinated with pertussis toxoid, and adults, all with culture-confirmed pertussis. METHODS: During a double-blind, placebo-controlled, efficacy trial of a monocomponent pertussis toxoid vaccine, acute and convalescent sera were obtained from study children and family members with suspected pertussis. In the present study, IgG antibodies against pertactin, pertussis toxin and FHA (determined by ELISA) were compared in 207 individuals with culture-verified pertussis and paroxysmal cough for >/= 21 days. RESULTS: Significant increases in geometric mean serum IgG against all antigens occurred in non-vaccinated children, but more children responded against pertussis toxin and FHA than against pertactin (96%, 97%, and 62%, respectively). Of the children who had pertussis even though they were vaccinated with the pertussis toxoid vaccine, 97% responded to FHA, while responses to pertussis toxin and pertactin were less common (68% and 61%, respectively). In the 20 adults, the proportions of responders to FHA, pertussis toxin and pertactin were 90%, 80% and 55%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Determination of IgG against pertussis toxin and FHA in paired sera in non-vaccinated children with pertussis is a more sensitive diagnostic tool than determination of IgG against pertactin. Pertactin IgG determinations might be of value as a complement to the other antibody assays in vaccinated children and in adults.
UNLABELLED: In a retrospective study of neonatal septicaemia and meningitis carried out in 1987-1996 in the Göteborg area of Sweden, 305 cases during the first 28 d of life were found. The incidence was 3.7/1000 live births, which was higher than that found in a study from 1975 to 1986 in the same area, 2.8/1000 live births. The most common pathogens were group B streptococci, aerobic gram-negative rods, Staphylococcus aureus and enterococci. The cases were approximately equally divided between very early, early and late onset infections. The case-fatality rate was lower in the present study (9%) than that in the previous study (15%). The case-fatality rate varied between 23% in neonates with a gestational age of < or = 29 wk and 3% in full-term neonates. Eighty-three very late onset infections occurred between days 28 and 120 after birth, corresponding to an incidence of 1.0/1000 live births. Of those, 47 occurred in preterm neonates. The most common organisms were aerobic gram-negative rods. Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) were studied separately. This organism was isolated in 60 and 32 cases during the first 28 d of life and between days 28 and 120, respectively, in neonates fulfilling the criteria of the Yale-New Haven Hospital for infections caused by commensal species. The incidence rates of CoNS infections were 0.7 and 0.4/1000 live births, respectively. CONCLUSION: The incidence of neonatal infections increased and the case-fatality rate decreased in the Göteborg area compared to the findings of a previous study. Very late onset infections should be added to the total burden of neonatal infections. CoNS are important pathogens but their role is difficult to determine since they are both pathogens and contaminants of cultures from blood and cerebrospinal fluid.
During 1979-1995, there was no vaccination against pertussis in Sweden. With the aim of studying the epidemiology and transmission of pertussis, mass vaccination with pertussis toxoid of children born during the 1990s was instituted in the Göteborg area (population, 778,597) in 1995. Infants were offered 3 doses of pertussis toxoid combined with diphtheria and tetanus toxoids. Children aged > or =1 year were offered 3 doses of pertussis toxoid alone. From June 1995 through February 1999, 167,810 doses of pertussis toxoid were given to 61,219 children born during the 1990s (56% received 3 doses). The number of Bordetella pertussis isolates per year declined from 1214 (1993-1995) to 64 (January 1997 through June 1999; P<.0001), and hospitalizations due to pertussis declined from 62 to 5 (P<.0001). Significant decreases in B. pertussis isolates and hospitalizations occurred in all age groups, including adults and nonvaccinated infants. Thus, mass vaccination of children with pertussis toxoid decreases spread of B. pertussis in the population.
In an open trial, 400 infants were randomized to vaccination with a combined diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis-inactivated polio vaccine (DTaP-IPV) either mixed with a Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) tetanus toxoid conjugate immediately before injection (DTaP-IPV/Hib (mix)) or given concurrently with the Hib conjugate at separate injection sites (DTaP-IPV+Hib (sep)). The pertussis component consisted of pertussis toxoid alone. The vaccines were given intramuscularly at 3, 5 and 12 months of age. No vaccine-related serious adverse events occurred. Local reactions were evaluated from diary cards completed by the parents. Infants who received DTaP-IPV/Hib (mix) experienced fewer local reactions. Sera were obtained 28-45 days after the second and third vaccinations. Total Hib capsular antibodies were similar in the two groups after the second injection but lower in the group receiving DTaP-IPV/Hib (mix) than in the group receiving DTaP-IPV+Hib (sep) after the third injection (geometric mean 6.1 vs 10.4 microg/ml). Mixing of the vaccines also led to somewhat lower diphtheria toxin antibodies (5.9 vs. 7.7 IU/ml after the third injection) while tetanus antibodies were higher (3.9 vs. 2.5 IU/ml after the third injection). Antibodies against pertussis toxin and the three polio virus types were similar in the two groups. The moderate impairment of the Hib antibody response caused by mixing of the Hib conjugate with aluminium adsorbed DTaP may be due to physicochemical interference but is probably of little clinical importance because of the ability of the Hib conjugates to induce an immunologic memory.
In a retrospective study, the incidence, clinical manifestations, concomitant conditions and case fatality rate were studied in patients with invasive pneumococcal infections in the Göteborg area of Sweden during 1981-95, when the pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine was available but little used. Patients were identified from the records of the Departments of Clinical Bacteriology and from the computer-based hospital discharge registers of the relevant departments. Individual case records were found for 876 patients with invasive pneumococcal infections verified by cultures from blood, cerebrospinal fluid or other sterile body fluids. A study from the same area with the same design covering the years 1964-80 has previously been published. There was an increase in total incidence from 5.3 to 10.3 cases/100,000/y from the previous to the present study. This increase was due to an increase in patients with non-meningitic infections aged > or = 60 y. The incidence of meningitis was virtually unchanged (1.4/100,000/y), as was the incidence of non-meningitic infections in individuals < 60 y. There were no other important changes between the 2 studies, which confirm that invasive pneumococcal infections have the highest incidence rates in children < 2 y and in the elderly, that a wide variety of underlying conditions are seen in the patients and that the case fatality rate, 15% in the present study, is still high.
Serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies against the lipooligosaccharide (LOS) of Bordetella pertussis and the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of Bordetella parapertussis were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in paired sera from 40 children with pertussis and 14 with parapertussis. Wide differences in the individual responses were noted. Both anti-LOS and -LPS IgG levels increased significantly in the children with pertussis, as did anti-LPS but not anti-LOS in those with parapertussis.
Pertussis re-emerged in Sweden with a cumulative incidence of about 60% during the first 10 years of life, when the locally produced cellular vaccine lost its efficacy around 1970 and general vaccination was discontinued in 1979. The epidemiology, clinical features, and immunology of pertussis and a monocomponent pertussis toxoid vaccine were studied in Göteborg, Sweden. After phase 1 and 2 studies, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of pertussis toxoid (PTox), compounded with diphtheria and tetanus toxoids, was administered to 3450 children according to the Swedish schedule at 3, 5, and 12 months of age. After a mean follow-up of 18 months, the efficacy was 71% overall and 75% in household contacts, respectively. A statistically significant correlation was found between the level of PTox-induced antibodies and protection against pertussis. As observed with cellular and with multicomponent acellular vaccines, PTox reduced the severity of disease and the percent of children with positive cultures. Furthermore, vaccination reduced the transmission of Bordetella pertussis to household contacts in the vaccinees compared with the controls who received only diphtheria and tetanus toxoids. Patients with culture-verified Bordetella parapertussis infection reacted with antibodies to pertactin and to filamentous hemagglutinin but not to pertussis toxin, and some subsequently developed pertussis. The antibody responses of patients with pertussis to the surface polysaccharides of B pertussis and to B parapertussis were cross-reactive serologically. Serosurveys showed that only antibodies to pertussis toxin were related to the occurrence of pertussis in the general population: antibodies to filamentous hemagglutinin and pertactin were probably stimulated by antigens of other bacteria as well as Bordetellae. Mass vaccination of Göteborg children born in the 1990s was started in 1995. In February 1999, about 55% had been vaccinated and both B pertussis and pertussis decreased significantly in individuals of all ages (herd immunity). Similar to diphtheria, PTox-induced immunity to pertussis occurs both on an individual and community basis. The apparent greater efficacy of multicomponent acellular pertussis vaccines compared with monocomponent PTox was proposed to be an artifact created when the diagnosis of pertussis was made by the serologic criteria of the World Health Organization only. Our conclusion is that PTox is both an essential and alone sufficient antigen in acellular pertussis vaccines.
OBJECTIVES: To study the serotype distributions of group B streptococci (GBS) isolated from blood and cerebrospinal fluid and from the genital tract of pregnant women and to investigate any possible relation between serotype, age and clinical manifestation. METHODS: Invasive strains were collected from 1988 to 1997 and genital strains from 1995 to 1996. Strains of GBS were serotyped with coagglutination. Clinical data were obtained from hospital notes. RESULTS: A total of 144 invasive strains, 78 from neonates and infants and 66 from adults, were serotyped. The most common isolates from neonates and infants were types III (62%), Ia (18%), and V (9%). The most common isolates from adults were types III (29%), Ib (23%), V (21%) and II (15%). A majority of the adults (94%) had an underlying medical condition. The most common serotypes of the 114 strains isolated from the genital tract of pregnant women were types III (32%), V (22%), Ia (13%), Ib (13%) and II (11%). CONCLUSIONS: Serotype III was the single most frequent GBS isolate from infants and adults. Serotype V, which appeared first in 1992, was the third most frequent isolate. A vaccine containing five GBS capsular polysaccharides appears to be appropriate for the Swedish population.
All acellular pertussis vaccines contain pertussis toxoid and induce protection against pertussis. This study investigated the relation between the postvaccination levels of pertussis toxin (PT) serum IgG and protection against pertussis. PT IgG was determined in sera obtained 21-77 days after the third vaccination from 813 children who received 3 doses of pertussis toxoid. The children were followed for 21-33 months after vaccination for the occurrence of pertussis. Of the children, 126 were exposed to pertussis in their households. The median PT IgG concentration was 79 U/mL in those who developed severe pertussis (>/=21 day of paroxysmal cough), 156 U/mL with mild pertussis (<21 days of paroxysmal cough), and 246 U/mL in those who did not develop pertussis (79 vs. 246, P<.0001). Corresponding values in the 687 children with no household exposure were 99, 124, and 155 U/mL, respectively (99 vs. 155, P<.0001). Thus, there is a highly significant correlation between the level of vaccine-induced serum PT IgG and protection against pertussis.
Swedish infants were vaccinated with diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis toxoids, inactivated poliovirus vaccine and a Haemophilus influenzae type b - tetanus toxoid conjugate vaccine at 2, 4, 6 and 15 months (US vaccination program, 'US arm', n=118) or at 3, 5 and 12 months of age (Swedish vaccination program, 'Swedish arm', n=103). The antigen amounts in the diphtheria and tetanus vaccines were higher in the Swedish than in the US arm while the amounts in the other vaccines were the same in both arms. There were no serious side effects. Local reactions increased with the numbers of doses but did not differ significantly between the groups. Serum was obtained at 2, 7, 15 and 16 months in the US arm and at 3, 6, 12 and 13 months of age in the Swedish arm. A fifth serum was obtained in both groups at 4 yr of age. For vaccines with the same antigen amount the following was observed: a. three doses at 2, 4 and 6 months were more immunogenic than two doses at 3 and 5 months; b. the third dose in the Swedish arm was more immunogenic than the third dose in the US arm; c. the fourth dose in the US arm induced higher antibodies than the third dose in the Swedish arm (except for pertussis toxin antibodies that were similar in both groups) and the differences tended to remain at the age of 4 yr. Children in the Swedish arm received a higher diphtheria toxoid dose (25 Lf) than in the US arm (15 Lf) which led to higher diphtheria toxin antibodies in the Swedish arm at comparable ages. Children in the Swedish arm received a higher tetanus toxoid dose (7 Lf) than in the US arm (6 Lf). Tetanus antibodies were similar at comparable ages. In conclusion, the immunogenicity of vaccines in infancy can be improved by increasing the number of doses, by prolonging the intervals between doses and by increasing the antigen amount in the vaccine.
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OBJECTIVES: To compare the incidence, clinical course, and serologic response to Bordetella antigens in patients with parapertussis and pertussis. DESIGN: Two studies were performed in Sweden during the 1990s, when pertussis vaccines were used only in clinical trials. Study I was a retrospective study of patients with positive Bordetella cultures obtained in clinical routine, and study II involved an active search for patients with Bordetella infections during a placebo-controlled trial of a pertussis toxoid vaccine. RESULTS: Study I includes 58, and study II 23 patients with parapertussis. In study I, the incidence of parapertussis was 0.016 cases per 100 person years in children 0 to 6 years old and 0 in older children and adults. In study II, the incidence rates of parapertussis and pertussis were 0.2 and 16.2 per 100 person years, respectively, in children followed from 3 months to 3 years of age. The median number of days with cough was 21 in parapertussis and 59 in pertussis. The proportions of children with whooping and vomiting were lower in parapertussis than in pertussis. Geometric mean serum filamentous hemagglutinin IgG increased from 6 to 63, and pertactin IgG from 4 to 12 units/mL in parapertussis patients, which was similar to increases in children with pertussis. CONCLUSIONS: Disease caused by Bordetella parapertussis is diagnosed less commonly and is milder and of shorter duration than disease caused by Bordetella pertussis. Parapertussis induced serum IgG against filamentous hemagglutinin and pertactin of similar magnitude as does pertussis, and did not induce serum IgG against pertussis toxin.
Levels of IgG antibody to pertussis toxin (PT) and filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA) were measured in paired serum samples from 781 patients fulfilling at least one laboratory criterion for pertussis that was suggested by an ad hoc committee sponsored by the World Health Organization. The patients were participants or family members of participants in a double-blind efficacy trial of a monocomponent pertussis toxoid vaccine. Of 596 nonvaccinated children, 90% had significant (two-fold or more) rises in PT IgG and FHA IgG levels. Only 17 (32%) of 53 children previously vaccinated with three doses of pertussis toxoid had rises in PT IgG levels because they already had elevated PT IgG levels in their acute-phase serum samples. PT IgG and FHA IgG levels were significantly higher in acute-phase serum samples from 29 adults than in acute-phase serum samples from the nonvaccinated children. Nevertheless, significant rises in levels of PT IgG (79% of samples) and FHA IgG (90%) were demonstrated in adults. In conclusion, assay of PT IgG and FHA IgG in paired serum samples is highly sensitive for diagnosing pertussis in nonvaccinated individuals. Assay of PT IgG levels in paired sera is significantly less sensitive for diagnosis of pertussis for children vaccinated with pertussis toxoid.
UNLABELLED: Invasive group B streptococcal (GBS) infections are common in neonates but are rare after the 1st month of life. It is not known why GBS infections have this age distribution which differs from that of invasive infections caused by other encapsulated bacteria. The aim of this study was to test the possibility that serum antibodies against the GBS capsular polysaccharides (CPS) are acquired during the first months of life thereby preventing infections after the neonatal period. Cord sera were collected from 321 healthy term newborns. A second blood sample was collected at 2, 4, 8, 13 or 26 weeks of age. IgG CPS antibodies (measured by ELISA) against serotypes Ia, II and III were present in 98%-100% of all cord sera and decreased continuously during the first 6 months of life. No IgM antibodies against serotype III CPS were present in cord sera. Only 16%-17% of the children acquired IgM antibodies against serotype III CPS at 3 and 6 months of age. CONCLUSION: Early acquisition of IgG or IgM antibodies against CPS of the most common GBS serotypes was not demonstrated and cannot explain the rare occurrence of invasive GBS infections in children after the 1st month of life.