Vaccination in Pregnancy against Pertussis: A Consensus Statement on Behalf of the Global Pertussis Initiative.

Infants are at high risk for severe morbidity and mortality from pertussis disease during early infancy. Vaccination against pertussis in pregnancy has emerged as the ideal strategy to protect infants during these early, vulnerable, first months of life. On 30 November and 1 December 2021, the Global Pertussis Initiative held a meeting that aimed to discuss and review the most up-to-date scientific literature supporting vaccination against pertussis in pregnancy and outstanding scientific questions. Herein, we review the current and historically published literature and summarize the findings as consensus statements on vaccination against pertussis in pregnancy on behalf of the Global Pertussis Initiative.

Immunological study of COVID-19 vaccine candidate based on recombinant spike trimer protein from different SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern

The emergency of new SARS-CoV-2 variants that feature increased immune escape marks an urgent demand for better vaccines that will provide broader immunogenicity. Here, we evaluated the immunogenic capacity of vaccine candidates based on the recombinant trimeric spike protein (S) of different SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOC), including the ancestral Wuhan, Beta and Delta viruses. In particular, we assessed formulations containing either single or combined S protein variants. Our study shows that the formulation containing the single S protein from the ancestral Wuhan virus at a concentration of 2µg (SW2-Vac 2µg) displayed in the mouse model the highest IgG antibody levels against all the three (Wuhan, Beta, and Delta) SARS-CoV-2 S protein variants tested. In addition, this formulation induced significantly higher neutralizing antibody titers against the three viral variants when compared with authorized Gam-COVID-Vac-rAd26/rAd5 (Sputnik V) or ChAdOx1 (AstraZeneca) vaccines. SW2-Vac 2µg was also able to induce IFN-gamma and IL-17, memory CD4 populations and follicular T cells. Used as a booster dose for schedules performed with different authorized vaccines, SW2-Vac 2µg vaccine candidate also induced higher levels of total IgG and IgG isotypes against S protein from different SARS-CoV-2 variants in comparison with those observed with homologous 3-dose schedule of Sputnik V or AstraZeneca. Moreover, SW2-Vac 2µg booster induced broadly strong neutralizing antibody levels against the three tested SARS-CoV-2 variants. SW2-Vac 2µg booster also induced CD4+ central memory, CD4+ effector and CD8+ populations. Overall, the results demonstrate that SW2-Vac 2 µg is a promising formulation for the development of a next generation COVID-19 vaccine.

Immunogenicity and reactogenicity of heterologous immunization against SARS CoV-2 using Sputnik V, ChAdOx1-S, BBIBP-CorV, Ad5-nCoV, and mRNA-1273.

Heterologous vaccination against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) provides a rational strategy to rapidly increase vaccination coverage in many regions of the world. Although data regarding messenger RNA (mRNA) and ChAdOx1 vaccine combinations are available, there is limited information about the combination of these platforms with other vaccines widely used in developing countries, such as BBIBP-CorV and Sputnik V. Here, we assess the immunogenicity and reactogenicity of 15 vaccine combinations in 1,314 participants. We evaluate immunoglobulin G (IgG) anti-spike response and virus neutralizing titers and observe that a number of heterologous vaccine combinations are equivalent or superior to homologous schemes. For all cohorts in this study, the highest antibody response is induced by mRNA-1273 as the second dose. No serious adverse events are detected in any of the schedules analyzed. Our observations provide rational support for the use of different vaccine combinations to achieve wide vaccine coverage in the shortest possible time.

Pertussis in Asia: Recent country-specific data and recommendations.

The Global Pertussis Initiative (GPI) Roundtable Meeting held in 2019, which preceded the COVID-19 pandemic, focused on the incidence, surveillance, and immunization practices for pertussis in the Asian region. Participants from China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand presented country-specific information on pertussis prevalence, diagnosis, surveillance, vaccine administration and schedules, maternal and neonatal disease rates, and policies and practice of vaccination during pregnancy. In recent years, many Asian countries have seen an increase in pertussis cases, although underreporting of the disease is a concern. Currently, most Asian countries have only passive surveillance for pertussis in place. There is a need for improved surveillance to determine the disease burden and justify vaccination policies and recommendations, such as essential vaccination, boosters, and vaccination during pregnancy. Better awareness of the disease in adolescents and adults is necessary, and infant and childhood vaccination schedules need to be improved in many countries. Differences between private versus public sector vaccination schedules and between whole-cell and acellular pertussis vaccines should continue to be examined. It can be anticipated that unmet needs in the prevention and management of pertussis will continue as the COVID-19 pandemic evolves and that key recommendations highlighted in this meeting report will be of ongoing importance.

Active Surveillance of Asymptomatic, Presymptomatic, and Oligosymptomatic SARS-CoV-2-Infected Individuals in Communities Inhabiting Closed or Semi-closed Institutions.

Background: The high COVID-19 dissemination rate demands active surveillance to identify asymptomatic, presymptomatic, and oligosymptomatic (APO) SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals. This is of special importance in communities inhabiting closed or semi-closed institutions such as residential care homes, prisons, neuropsychiatric hospitals, etc., where risk people are in close contact. Thus, a pooling approach-where samples are mixed and tested as single pools-is an attractive strategy to rapidly detect APO-infected in these epidemiological scenarios. Materials and Methods: This study was done at different pandemic periods between May 28 and August 31 2020 in 153 closed or semi-closed institutions in the Province of Buenos Aires (Argentina). We setup pooling strategy in two stages: first a pool-testing followed by selective individual-testing according to pool results. Samples included in negative pools were presumed as negative, while samples from positive pools were re-tested individually for positives identification. Results: Sensitivity in 5-sample or 10-sample pools was adequate since only 2 Ct values were increased with regard to single tests on average. Concordance between 5-sample or 10-sample pools and individual-testing was 100% in the Ct ≤ 36. We tested 4,936 APO clinical samples in 822 pools, requiring 86-50% fewer tests in low-to-moderate prevalence settings compared to individual testing. Conclusions: By this strategy we detected three COVID-19 outbreaks at early stages in these institutions, helping to their containment and increasing the likelihood of saving lives in such places where risk groups are concentrated.