[Current events in vaccination]

Abstract

The annual meeting of the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA); which brought together nearly 5000 participants from over 80 countries in Vancouver, Canada, October 21 to 24, 2010; provided a review of the influenza (H1N1) 2009 pandemic, evaluated vaccination programmes and presented new vaccines under development. With 12,500 deaths in the United States in 2009-2010, the influenza (H1N1) 2009 pandemic was actually less deadly than the seasonal flu. But it essentially hit the young, and the toll calculated in years of life lost is high. The monovalent vaccines, whether live attenuated or inactivated with or without adjuvants, were well tolerated in toddlers, children, adults and pregnant women. In order to protect infants against pertussis, family members are urged to get their booster shots. The introduction of the 13-valent Pneumococcal conjugated vaccine in the beginning of 2010 may solve--but for how long?--the problem of serotype replacement, responsible for the re-increasing incidence of invasive Pneumococcal infections observed in countries that had introduced the 7-valent vaccine. The efficacy of a rotavirus vaccine has been confirmed, with a reduction in hospitalization in the United States and a reduction in gastroenteritis-related deaths in Mexico. In the United States, vaccination of pre-adolescents against human papillomavirus (HPV) has not resulted in any specific undesirable effects. Routine vaccination against chicken pox, recommended since 1995, has not had an impact on the evolution of the incidence of shingles. Vaccination against shingles, recommended in the United States for subjects 60 years and over, shows an effectiveness of 55%, according to a cohort study (Kaiser Permanente, Southern California). Although some propose the development of personalized vaccines according to individual genetic characteristics, the priority remains with increasing vaccine coverage, not only in infants but also in adults and the elderly. Vaccine calendars that cover a whole lifetime should be promoted, since the vaccination of adults and seniors is a determining factor of good health at all ages.