Vaccines against SARS CoV 2 and the vaccination campaign in Italy

The SARS COV 2 pandemic has created an unprecedented need to manufacture and distribute a safe and effective vaccine to immunize an exceptionally large number of individuals planning diversified vaccination approaches quickly. A few weeks have passed since the sequencing of the viral genome for the design of the first vaccines and a few months for the implementation of the efficacy and safety studies. The article analyzes the types of vaccines available by examining their characteristics, efficacy and safety, also examining some debated issues such as the thrombotic risk of viral vector vaccines. The second part deals with the issue of the vaccination campaign in our country. KEY WORDS vaccination; COVID-19; spike protein; efficacy; safety.

Current recommended immunizations for patients with diabetes

Diabetes mellitus is associated with an increased susceptibility towards infectious diseases, with a more severe course of these diseases and with an increased risk of hospitalization and death. For these reasons all vaccinations are strongly recommended in diabetic people. In this paper, after a quick review of the main pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the increased risk of infectious pathology in the diabetic patient, the main recommendations of the current guidelines on vaccination in diabetic patients will be reviewed. KEY WORDS vaccination; guidelines; influenza virus; Herpes Zoster.

Vaccination of children with autoimmune rheumatic diseases. Current state of the problem

Vaccination of children with autoimmune rheumatic diseases is a significant problem since infectious diseases remain the main cause of complications of anti-rheumatic therapy and one of the leading causes of death in this category of patients. This review presents current information on the frequency of comorbid infections, the accumulated experience of vaccination in children with autoimmune rheumatic diseases. The recommendations of The European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) for vaccination in paediatric patients with rheumatic diseases are presented in detail. The presence of rheumatic disease is not an exception for vaccination, it is recommended for all children following national guidelines. Non-live vaccines are effective and safe in paediatric patients with rheumatic diseases. Live vaccines are not recommended for patients receiving high doses of glucocorticoids, immunosuppressive and biologics therapy due to the risk of infectious complications. Vaccination against pneumococcal infection and seasonal influenzais are hihgly recommended. Key words: vaccination, children, autoimmune rheumatic diseases, guidelines, review

Evaluation of influence factors on parents' adherence to the immunization

In spite of individual and social benefits of immunoprophylaxis, the level of vaccinal refuses are steadily high. There are many influence factors on parents' adherence to the immunization, most of them are generated by incorrect information about immunoprophylaxis. Purpose — to study parents' commitment level to the immunization and factors, which can influence on it, also to compare received results with similar, received in 2015 year. Materials and methods. The level of commitment, influence factors on this rate and sources of information, which are mainly used by parents for gaining knowledges about immunization, were determined based on interrogation of 82 parents of both ill and healthy children. Interrogation was provided by personally developed questionnaires. Results and conclusions. Positive attitude was determined in 63.4% of respondents, negative — in 6.1%, uncertain — in 30.5%. The fear of side-effects and mistrust of immunobiological remedies manufacturers were defined as dominant factors. Other factors such as religious belief and false contraindications for immunization were also defined. Parents, who used the information from their doctor as dominant source, were determined as more adherent to the vaccination. These results were compared with a similar research, which was provided in 2015: positive trends in the attitude towards certain vaccines are seen, the structure of rejection causes is stable. Educational efforts, especially aimed at primary care doctors, can help to raise commitment to immunization. The research was carried out in accordance with the principles of the Helsinki Declaration. The study protocol was approved by the Local Ethics Committee of these Institutes. The informed consent of the patient was obtained for conducting the studies. No conflict of interest was declared by the authors. Key words: vaccination, immunization, primary prophylaxis, prevention of diseases.

Standardization of age and route for duck plague vaccine in local ducklings of vaccinated and non- vaccinated parent origin

The study was carried out to determine the appropriate age and route of vaccination with duck plague vaccine (LRI, Mohakhali) in experimentally reared local ducks during the period from September 2006 to May 2007. A total of 90 local ducklings were divided into eight groups namely A, C, D and E for vaccinated parent origin and B, F, G and H for non-vaccinated parent origin. Again Group C, D, E, F, G and H were divided into subgroups C1 & C2; D­1& D­2; E1& E2; F1 & F2; G1 & G2; H1 & H2 respectively and contained 5 ducklings each. Group A and B contained 15 ducklings in each group and were used as unvaccinated control and also for studying persistence of maternally derived antibody level. Highest mean MDA titre in ducklings of Group A was found 53.33 ± 4.03 at the age of day 1 that declined to a negligible level (≤4) at the age of day 21 and highest mean MDA titre in ducklings of Group B was found 29.86 ± 1.45 at the age of day 1 that declined to a negligible level (≤4) at the age of day 16. Ducklings of different sub-groups were vaccinated with duck plague vaccine at day 14, day 21 and day 28 through intramuscular (breast) and subcutaneous route at the dose rate of 1ml per duckling. Sera were collected from vaccinated ducklings on day 7, day 14 and day 21 after vaccination and antibody titre was measured by passive hemagglutination test. Among the vaccinated subgroups, the highest mean PHA titre was found 89.60 ± 15.67 and 83.20 ± 19.20 in subgroups E1 (vaccinated at day 28) and F1 (vaccinated at day 14) respectively. At challenge, ducklings of vaccinated subgroups showed 100% protection except C1 and C2 (showed 80% protection) and control subgroups showed 0% protection. From the results of protection test it may be concluded that both intramuscular (breast) and subcutaneous routes are equally suitable for duck plague virus vaccination in ducklings and the optimum age for vaccination to ducklings originated from vaccinated parent to duck plague vaccine might be at day 21 or 28 and ducklings originated from non-vaccinated parent at day 14 or 21 instead of usual schedule of day 28. Key words: Vaccination, duck plague vaccine, age, route, ducklings DOI = 10.3329/bjvm.v6i1.1335 Bangl. J. Vet. Med. 2008. 6 (1): 27-30