PERSISTENCE OF IMMUNITY TO POLIOMYELITIS AMONG A SOUTHERN POPULATION THAT RECEIVED FOUR DOSES OF OPV 5 TO OVER 15 YEARS BEFORE

The immune status against polioviruses was investigated in a population of 545 students aged 11-20 years residing in the Neapolitan area, who had completed the vaccination cycle with four doses of OPV 5 to over 15 years before. Assuming as unprotected those individuals without detectable neutralizing antibodies at the dilution 1:2, nobody resulted without protection against all types of poliovirus; 0.7% lacked antibodies only against type 1, 0.6% only against type 3 and none against type 2. A very slight decreasing trend was observed for GMT values in function of the distance from the last dose of OPV for polio 1 and 2, but not for polio 3. As expected, GMT values for polio 2 resulted higher than those for polio 1 and both were higher than those for polio 3, when calculated by age groups as well as by distance groups. The last four Italian cases of autochthonous paralytic poliomyelitis, occurred in the period 1981/83, regarded unvaccinated children aged 6 months-2 years, residing in the same geographical area to which the study population belong. In the same area a delay of immunization practices was also ascertained in the recent past. Results of this study confirm that a priority for public health services is to devote their human and economic resources to reduce the vaccination delay more than administrate a further fifth dose of OPV at the age of twelve

Feasibility and effectiveness of a population-based newborn hearing screening in an economically deprived region of Italy

Aim To describe the effectiveness of a population-based newborn hearing screening program in an economically deprived region of southern Italy. Methods A screening protocol was proposed for all newborns of the Campania region, starting on January, 2007. For infants identified with hearing loss, information on degree and type of hearing loss and presence of risk factors was collected. Results The infants born in the 3-year study period were 182,188. Among them, 146,026 (80%) were tested with OAE. Sensorineural hearing loss ≥40 dBnHL was established for 159 infants (1.1 × 1000). Among the NICU and WIN infants, the rate of hearing loss was respectively 9 × 1000 and 0.67 × 1000. Follow-up information was available for 111 children (70%), as 48 (30%) got care in other regions or health facilities. Most infants were fitted hearing aids by 1 month after diagnosis and 15 children (13.5%) received a cochlear implant at a mean age of 25 months (SD 10). Conclusions Even in a setting of population poverty, a universal newborn screening program can deliver satisfactory outcomes. The coverage and the tracking system of the program need to be improved, as well as the cooperation between public and private health service