الملخص
@#Introduction: Maintaining high levels of vaccinations is important for public health success in any vaccination planning. Success requires a better understanding of the public’s perceptions of diseases and consequent decisions about vaccinations. This study aims to gather exploratory qualitative data on public opinion on the Malaysian Government’s COVID-19 immunization campaigns. Methods: Open-ended question on Google Form was advertised online between 2 to 17 December 2020. The questionnaire form was deactivated when saturation has been reached. The free text questions were analysed by qualitative thematic analysis by all authors on a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Results: Six hundred and sixty-one participants replied to the online questionnaire. Four themes emerged from the thematic analysis on suggestions for future National COVID-19 Immunisation Program. First, COVID-19 vaccine administration policy; secondly, knowledge dissemination and plan to address obstacles of public acceptances towards the vaccine proactively; thirdly, better implementation programs by the government and fourthly, using local research expertise for vaccine development and alternative medicines. Participants believe all this are essential in increasing their trust and uptake for the government’s future national COVID-19 Immunisation Program. Conclusion: This study highlights the suggestions made by the public for the Malaysian Government. These findings will help develop education and intervention strategies for new vaccine introduction to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia.
الملخص
Objective@#To understand the antigenicity and genetic characterization of influenza B virus HA gene in B/Victoria-lineage virus (BV) in Beijing during 2017-2018.@*Methods@#Thirty BV virus strains isolated from MDCK cell culture by 17 laboratories in Beijing were collected. The antigenicity was analyzed by comparing with the vaccine strain recommended by WHO. The total viral nucleic acid was extracted and HA gene was amplified by RT-PCR and sequenced. The phylogenetic tree was constructed by HA and mutant sites were analyzed.@*Results@#Among 30 strains of BV, 23 strains (76.7%) were low-reactive strains, other 7 strains (23.3%) were related to the vaccine. The phylogenetic analysis showed that the HA gene of all 30 strains located in Clade 1A branch. In addition, amino acid mutations occurred in 8 sites, and 6 of them located in the antigen determining region.@*Conclusions@#There was a correlation between the high proportion of low-reactive antigenicity and 6 aa variation in antigenic determinants involved in HA region of BV influenza virus between 2017-2018, which provides an important laboratory basis for the recommendation of BV influenza vaccine.