Progress in the research on HPV vaccination: updates from the 25th International Papillomavirus Conference in Malmo, Sweden, 2009

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Vaccination against hepatitis A in children: A review of the evidence

Safe and effective vaccines against hepatitis A have now been available on the market for almost 15 years. This review focuses on the evidence of the effect of such vaccination in children when applied both within routine immunization programs and in groups at high risk of infection, but also as a measure to stop limited or community-wide outbreaks

Preparing to introduce the varicella vaccine into the Italian immunisation programme: Varicella-related hospitalisations in Tuscany, 2004-2012

A universal immunisation programme against varicella in the form of the measles-mumps-rubella-varicella (MMRV) vaccine for toddlers aged 13–15 months was introduced in Tuscany in July 2008. An assessment of the impact of this programme on varicella-related hospitalisations 4 years after its introduction could further support its adoption at a national level. The hospitalisation data were analysed in two periods: pre-vaccination (2004–2007) and vaccination period (2009–2012). The high coverage of the vaccines (84% in 2012) resulted in a significant decline in notifications, from 33,114 (2004–2007) to 13,184 cases (2009–2012), and also of hospitalisations, from 584 (pre-vaccination period) to 325 (vaccination period). The hospitalisation rate was 4.1 per 100,000 (95% confidence intervals (CI): 3.4–4.7) before the introduction of vaccination, which dropped to 2.2 per 100,000 (95% CI: 1.7–2.7) in the vaccination period (hospitalisation risk ratios: 0.54; 95% CI:  0.472–0.619). The reduction was most significant in the youngest age groups. The introduction of universal vaccination has already led to a significant decline in hospitalisations due to varicella after just 4 years of implementation. Hospitalisation rates fell noticeably among younger individuals involved in the vaccination programme. The decrease in hospitalisation rate in the older age groups suggests a possible indirect protection.</jats:p

HPV vaccination and allocative efficiency: regional analysis of the costs and benefits with the bivalent AS04-adjuvanted vaccine, from the perspective of public health, for the prevention of cervical cancer and its pre-cancerous lesions

Introduction: by means of the decisions on whether to introduce the HPV vaccination, Public Health has already established the importance of associating the vaccination strategy to the policy of secondary prevention. The screening + vaccination strategy is more effective than the two methods taken individually. In support of this combined strategy and in order to make available per each region concrete elements for their regional planning, an assessment has been made, which also takes into account the effect of cross-protection regarding high-risk strains not contained in both vaccines, bivalent and quadrivalent, and more frequently responsible for pre-cancerous lesions and cervical cancer (CCU). This analysis evaluates the costs and benefits of screening + vaccination strategy in a 12-year-old female cohort. Furthermore, the paper provides results that may be useful to assess the opportunity to extend the vaccination to a second cohort of 24-25-year-old women. The analysis is preceded by a brief summary of CCU epidemiology available data, public health policies that give precise guidelines for vaccination strategies and analytical tools suitable to support public policy makers to efficiently allocate resources. Methods: two different models were used for two regional analyses.The vaccines may have different sustained- and cross-protection levels against non-vaccine oncogenic HPV-types. In the first analysis, a prevalence-based model estimated the potential net difference in HPV-related lesions (abnormal pap smear, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), cervical cancer (CC) and genital warts (GW)) and associated costs generated by the two vaccines. Vaccine efficacy rates were based on published data for each vaccine. Lifetime vaccine efficacy was assumed. Results are reported over one year after reaching a steady state. Incidence and treatment costs were obtained from Italian and European sources. We also performed a cost-effectiveness analysis with a Markov model for each Italian region, previously described and successfully adapted to the national scenario. The analysis compares the HPV vaccination of a single cohort (12-year-old females) with a multiple cohort (12- + 25-year-old girls). Resource use was based on a standard therapeutic path applied to all regions. However we quantified the impact of the so-called "decentralization progress" by collecting regional data on: pap test coverage, tariffs for treatments, and cost of the vaccination course. Results: the results are set out in 21 regional reports. Conclusions: in the Italian scenario, characterized by decentralization and local autonomy, a further level of detail is essential in order to describe the specific local settings and implications of a new health intervention. The results show that the vaccination on a multiple cohort is more effective than a single cohort. Indeed, a major number of pre-cancerous lesions, cases of cancer, and related deaths are avoided. In a period of sharp decline in the health budget, investment in prevention seems to be the most reasonable choice in view of avoiding in the medium term pre-cancerous and cancerous lesions generating a significant expense. Our analysis places the extent of HPV vaccination among the measures that the regional decision-makers should put in place to maximize the efficiency of scarce resource

Cost-effectiveness analysis of different seasonal influenza vaccines in the elderly Italian population

In the perspective of reaching at least 75% influenza vaccination coverage in the elderly and substantial budget constraints, Italian decision makers are facing important challenges in determining an optimal immunization strategy for this growing and particularly vulnerable population. Four different influenza vaccines are currently available for Italian older adults aged 65&nbsp;years or above, namely trivalent inactivated vaccines (TIVs), MF59-adjuvanted TIV (MF59-TIV), intradermal TIV (ID-TIV) and quadrivalent inactivated vaccines (QIVs). The present study is the first to compare the cost-effectiveness profiles of virtually all possible public health strategies, including the aforementioned four vaccine formulations as well non-vaccination. For this purpose, a decision tree model was built ex novo; the analysis was conducted from the third-payer perspective in the timeframe of one year. All available vaccines were cost-effective compared with non-vaccination. However, MF59-TIV had the most favorable economic profile in the Italian elderly population. Indeed, compared with non-vaccination, it was deemed highly cost-effective with an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of \u20ac10,750 per quality-adjusted life year (QALY). The ICER was much lower (\u20ac4,527/QALY) when MF59-TIV was directly compared with TIV. ID-TIV and QIV were dominated by MF59-TIV as the former comparators were associated with greater total costs and lower health benefits. Both deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses confirmed robustness of the base case results. From the economic perspective, MF59-TIV should be considered as a preferential choice for Italian older adults aged 65&nbsp;years or above

Strategies for management of strongyloidiasis in migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa recently arrived in Italy: A cost-effectiveness analysis

Abstract Background The Italian and the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines both recommend a systematic serological screening for strongyloidiasis in sub-Saharan migrants (SSA), however, studies on clinical and economic impact of this strategy in the Italian and European settings are lacking. Methods A population of 100,000 migrants from SSA to Italy was considered and a Markov decision tree model was developed to assess the clinical and economic impact of two interventions for strongyloidiasis compared with the current practice (passive diagnosis of symptomatic cases): a) universal serological screening and treatment with ivermectin in case of positive test b) universal presumptive treatment with ivermectin. One and 10-year time horizon in the health-care perspective were considered. Results In the one and 10-year time horizon respectively the costs for passive diagnosis was €1,164,169 and €9,735,908, those for screening option was € 2,856,011 and € 4,959,638 and those for presumptive treatment was €3,538,474 and € 4,883,272. Considering the cost per cured subject in the one-year time horizon, screening appears more favorable (€209.53), than the other two options (€232.55 per presumptive treatment and €10,197.29 per current strategy). Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICERs) of screening strategy and presumptive treatment were respectively 265.27 and 333.19. The sensitivity analysis identified strongyloidiasis' prevalence as the main driver of ICER. Conclusions Compared to the current practice (passive diagnosis) both screening and presumptive treatment strategies are more favorable from a cost-effectiveness point of view, with a slight advantage of the screening strategy in a one-year time horizon