Did introduction of pneumococcal vaccines in the Netherlands decrease the need for respiratory antibiotics in children? Analysis of 2002 to 2013 data.

To estimate the effect of the introduction of the 7- and 10-valentpneumococcal vaccines in 2006 and 2011, respectively in the Netherlands, we assessed respiratory antibiotic use in one to nine year-old children between 2002 and 2013. Seasonal autoregressive integrated moving-average models were applied to estimate the percentage reduction in respiratory antibiotic use. When compared with the pre-vaccination period, the proportion of respiratory antibiotic prescriptions fell by 4.94% (95% CI: 4.63 to 5.26) and 9.02% (95% CI: 2.83 to 14.82) after the introduction of the 7-valent vaccine in children aged three and four years, respectively. After the introduction of the 10-valent vaccine, we observed a reduction of 13.04% (95% CI: 2.76 to 22.23), 20.31% (95% CI: 13.50 to 26.58), 16.92% (95% CI: 3.07 to 28.80), 22.34% (95% CI: 3.73 to 37.35), 23.75% (95% CI: 2.37 to 40.44) in two, three, four, six and seven year-old children, respectively. Thus, our results indicate a reduction in respiratory antibiotic prescriptions in young children after introduction of the pneumococcal vaccines. As only children in our study population aged one and two years born after March 2011 had received the 10-valent vaccine, the effects of the 10-valent vaccine in children aged three to nine years likely reflect the effects of the 7-valent vaccine and herd immunity.

[Effectiveness of influenza vaccine in the Netherlands: predominant circulating virus type and vaccine match are important conditions]. / Effectiviteit van influenzavaccinatie in Nederland.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between circulating influenza virus A types and subtypes and influenza B lineages, their match with the vaccine and the effectiveness of the influenza vaccine (IVE). DESIGN: Test negative case control study. METHOD: We used data from the Dutch Sentinel Practices of the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (NIVEL) Primary Care Database. Participating general practitioners took nose and throat swabs for viral studies from patients with influenza-like illness or another acute respiratory infection. Cases were those patients whose samples were positive for an influenza virus and controls were those whose samples were negative for influenza virus. We determined the IVE of 11 influenza seasons 2003/2004 to 2013/2014, for all seasons together and stratified by influenza virus type and to vaccine match or mismatch. RESULTS: Over all seasons, the IVE was 29% (95% CI:11-43). In seven of the 11 seasons there was a mismatch between vaccine and circulating virus type. The IVE was 40% (95% CI: 18-56) for those seasons in which there was a vaccine match, and 20% (95% CI: - 5-38) for seasons with a mismatch. When the influenza A/H3N2 virus was dominant, the IVE was 38% (95% CI: 14-55). The IVE against the influenza virus A/H1N1, A/H1N1/pdm09 and against both influenza B lineages was 77% (95% CI: 37-92), 47% (95% CI: 22-64) and 64% (95% CI: 50-74), respectively. CONCLUSION: The IVE was particularly low when there was a mismatch between the vaccine and the circulating virus type and when A/H3N2 was the dominant influenza subtype.

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Screening for and Managing Identified Hypertension for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Vietnam.

OBJECTIVE: To inform development of guidelines for hypertension management in Vietnam, we evaluated the cost-effectiveness of different strategies on screening for hypertension in preventing cardiovascular disease (CVD). METHODS: A decision tree was combined with a Markov model to measure incremental cost-effectiveness of different approaches to hypertension screening. Values used as input parameters for the model were taken from different sources. Various screening intervals (one-off, annually, biannually) and starting ages to screen (35, 45 or 55 years) and coverage of treatment were analysed. We ran both a ten-year and a lifetime horizon. Input parameters for the models were extracted from local and regional data. Probabilistic sensitivity analysis was used to evaluate parameter uncertainty. A threshold of three times GDP per capita was applied. RESULTS: Cost per quality adjusted life year (QALY) gained varied in different screening scenarios. In a ten-year horizon, the cost-effectiveness of screening for hypertension ranged from cost saving to Int$ 758,695 per QALY gained. For screening of men starting at 55 years, all screening scenarios gave a high probability of being cost-effective. For screening of females starting at 55 years, the probability of favourable cost-effectiveness was 90% with one-off screening. In a lifetime horizon, cost per QALY gained was lower than the threshold of Int$ 15,883 in all screening scenarios among males. Similar results were found in females when starting screening at 55 years. Starting screening in females at 45 years had a high probability of being cost-effective if screening biannually was combined with increasing coverage of treatment by 20% or even if sole biannual screening was considered. CONCLUSION: From a health economic perspective, integrating screening for hypertension into routine medical examination and related coverage by health insurance could be recommended. Screening for hypertension has a high probability of being cost-effective in preventing CVD. An adequate screening strategy can best be selected based on age, sex and screening interval.

Extended molecules and geometric scattering resonances in optical lattices.

We develop a theory describing neutral atom scattering at low energies in an optical lattice. We show that, for a repulsive interaction, as the microscopic scattering length increases the effective scattering amplitude approaches a limiting value which depends only on the lattice parameters. In the case of attractive interaction a geometric resonance occurs before reaching this limit. Close to the resonance, the effective interaction becomes repulsive and supports a weakly bound state, which can extend over several lattice sites.