The immunogenicity and safety of Group B Streptococcal maternal vaccines: A systematic review.

PURPOSE: To systematically review immunogenicity and safety data of maternal group B streptococcal (GBS) vaccines in published clinical trials until July 2023. METHODS: EMBASE, MEDLINE, Cochrane Library and clinicaltrial.gov. databases were searched for clinical studies that reported immunogenicity and/or safety of GBS vaccine in non-pregnant adults, pregnant women and infants between 1st of January 1996 to 31st of July 2023. Pairs of reviewers independently selected, data extracted, and assessed the risk of bias of the studies. Discrepancies were resolved by consensus. (PROSPERO CRD42020185213). RESULTS: We retrieved 1472 records from the literature search; 20 studies and 6 sub-studies were included, involving 4440 non-pregnant participants and 1325 pregnant women with their newborns. There was a significantly higher IgG Geometric Mean Concentration (GMC) and IgG placental transfer ratios in vaccinated compared to placebo groups, with peak response 4-8 weeks after vaccination. Placental transfer ratio varied from 0.4 to 1.4 across five studies. The different clinical trials used different assays that limited direct comparison. There were no significant differences in the risk of serious adverse events (adjusted OR 0.73; 95 % CI 0.49-1.07), serious adverse events leading to withdrawal (adjusted OR 0.44; 95 % CI 0.13-1.51), and systemic illness or fever (adjusted OR 1.05; 95 % CI 0.26-4.19) between the vaccine and placebo groups. CONCLUSIONS: The published clinical trials show significant IgG GMC response in subjects receiving the conjugated capsular polysaccharide and surface subunit protein vaccines compared to placebo. In current clinical trials of experimental GBS maternal vaccines, there have been no observed serious adverse events of special interest directly linked to vaccination

Innovation Pathways to Adaption for Humanitarian and Development Goals: A Case Study of Aftershock Forecasting for Disaster Risk Management

The innovation process is central to effective adaption to climate change and development challenges, but models from business and management tend to dominate innovation theory, which sits outside the adaption-development paradigm. This paper presents an alternative conceptual framework to visualise innovations as pathways across the adaption-development landscape for humanitarian and development goals. This useful tool can reveal, map and coordinate innovation strategy. To demonstrate and validate this approach we analyse a case study of innovation in aftershock forecasting for humanitarian decision-making and show that the most effective strategy is for multiple innovation strands and hubs to move concurrently and cumulatively towards transformative humanitarian and development goals

Weak signal detection: A discrete window of opportunity for achieving ‘Vision 90:90:90’?

INTRODUCTION: UNAIDS’ Vision 90:90:90 is a call to ‘end AIDS’. Developing predictive foresight of the unpredictable changes that this journey will entail could contribute to the ambition of ‘ending AIDS’. There are few opportunities for managing unpredictable changes. We introduce ‘weak signal detection’ as a potential opportunity to fill this void. METHOD: Combining futures and complexity theory, we reflect on two pilot case studies that involved the Archetype Extraction technique and the SenseMakerw CollectorTM tool. RESULTS: Both the piloted techniques have the potentials to surface weak signals but there is room for improvement. DISCUSSION: A management response to a complex weak signal requires pattern management, rather than an exclusive focus on behaviour management. CONCLUSION: Weak signal detection is a window of opportunity to improve resilience to unpredictable changes in the HIV/AIDS landscape that can both reduce the risk that emerges from the changes and increase the visibility of opportunities to exploit the unpredictable changes that could contribute to ‘ending AIDS’.IS

A facile method for the preparation and cleavage of 1,1-diacetates of aldehydes

A convenient method for the preparation and cleavage of 1,1-diacetates of aldehydes is reported using AlCl3 as catalyst