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At the end of 1998, universal hepatitis A+B vaccination of 12 year olds was introduced in Catalonia. The aim was to examine trends in hepatitis A during 2005-2015 and assess risk factors by age group. We carried out an observational epidemiological study of the incidence and risk factors of hepatitis A reported to the surveillance system. Information on exposure was recorded for each case for the 2-6 weeks before symptom onset. Spearman's coefficient was used to evaluate the trends of rates. The chi-square test was used to compare categorical. We studied 2621 hepatitis A cases; the age mean was 26.6 years (SD=18.2), and >50% of cases were in the 20-49 years age group. The incidence decreased from 3.28/100 000 in 2005 to 1.50/100 000 in 2015. The rate for women decreased over time (P = .008), but the reduction was not significant in men (P = .234). Men consistently had higher rates than women with the biggest difference being in the 20-34 years age group (rate 8.8 vs 2.8). The greatest risk factor was travel to an endemic country (42.1%) in the 0-19 years age group and male-to-male sexual contact (18.6%) in the 20-49 years age group. The case fatality rate in adults aged >49 years was 0.4%. In conclusion, the vaccination programme of preadolescents resulted in a reduction in hepatitis A cases. However, a significant amount of cases still appear in immigrants and men who have sex with men. Hepatitis A in adults is an emerging health problem that will require new strategies., (© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Passive immunity against measles decreases during the first months of life. The objective of this study was to determine titres of measles antibodies in children aged 9-14 months and their mothers before vaccination, and the children's response to vaccination. Blood samples were collected by capillary puncture before and 28 days after vaccination. Samples were obtained between February and June 2007 during an ongoing measles outbreak. Titres of specific measles IgG antibodies were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Seroconversion was defined as the presence of antibodies after vaccination in subjects without antibodies before vaccination. Maternal antibodies were present in 37·7% of all 69 children included and in 45·1% of children aged 9 months. Of the 51 children in whom a second sample was obtained, 31 (60·8%) were seronegative before vaccination and 61·3% seroconverted. Interference of maternal antibodies was 30%. Advancing the first dose of measles vaccination from 15 to 12 months is a correct strategy, given the increase in the time of susceptibility of infants to measles.

Background: Although routine vaccination is a major tool in the primary prevention of some infectious diseases, there is some reluctance in a proportion of the population. Negative parental perceptions of vaccination are an important barrier to paediatric vaccination. The aim of this study was to investigate parental knowledge of paediatric vaccines and vaccination in Catalonia., Methods: A retrospective, cross-sectional study was carried out in children aged < 3 years recruited by random sampling from municipal districts of all health regions of Catalonia. The total sample was 630 children. Parents completed a standard questionnaire for each child, which included vaccination coverage and knowledge about vaccination. The level of knowledge of vaccination was scored according to parental answers., Results: An association was observed between greater vaccination coverage of the 4:4:4:3:1 schedule (defined as: 4 DTPa/w doses, 4 Hib doses, 4 OPV doses, 3 MenC doses and 1 MMR dose) and maternal age >30 years (OR: 2.30; 95% CI: 1.20-4.43) and with a knowledge of vaccination score greater than the mean (OR: 0.45; 95% CI: 0.28-0.72). The score increased with maternal educational level and in parents of vaccinated children.A total of 20.47% of parents stated that vaccines could have undesirable consequences for their children. Of these, 23.26% had no specific information and 17.83% stated that vaccines can cause adverse reactions and the same percentage stated that vaccines cause allergies and asthma., Conclusion: Higher vaccination coverage is associated with older maternal age and greater knowledge of vaccination.Vaccination coverage could be raised by improving information on vaccines and vaccination.

Objective: To analyze the changes occurring in declared cases (microbiological report) of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) in children <2 years old in Catalonia (Spain) after the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) was licensed for use., Material and Methods: Cases of IPD in children <2 years old were obtained from notifications to the Microbiological Reporting System of Catalonia (MRSC) in 1997-1999 and 2002-2004 by the hospitals (n=23) that have participated in the MRSC continuously and uninterruptedly since its inception in 1995., Results: Overall reported rates were 49.2 cases per 100,000 persons-year in 1997-1999 and 40.4 per 100,000 persons-year in 2002-2004; the difference was not statistically significant. The rate of bacteremic pneumonia fell from 25.2 per 100,000 persons-year in 1997-1999 to 21.6 per 100,000 persons-year in 2002-2004, and meningitis from 6.0 to 4.3 per 100,000 persons-year; again, differences were not statistically significant (P>0.05)., Conclusions: After PCV7 was licensed for use, a noticeable, but non-significant, reduction in reported IPD rates in children <2 years old occurred in Catalonia. If the results had been statistically significant, the overall reduction would have been 17.90%, not far below the theoretically expected reduction (22%), based on the protective efficacy of PCV7 (89%), the percentage of invasive disease-causing serotypes included in the vaccine (70%), and the vaccination coverage achieved during the study period (35%).

Vaccination coverage in a representative sample of children under 3 years of age in Catalonia (Spain) was studied. Parents of children selected were contacted and asked for the child's vaccination card. A total of 630 children were included, of whom 570 were indigenous and 60 immigrants. Primary vaccination coverage was 96.5% for indigenous and 85% for immigrant children (p=0.0001), while the coverage of primary vaccination plus booster doses was 88.6% in indigenous and 78.3% in immigrant children (p=0.02). Efforts should be made to increase primary vaccination coverage in immigrant children and booster dose coverage in both indigenous and immigrant children.

Background: Maintaining high vaccination coverages is necessary in order to control vaccine-preventable diseases. We studied vaccination coverages in a representative sample of 630 children aged <3 years in Catalonia in order to determine the relationship between vaccination coverages and socioeconomic factors. Methods: Sampling was carried out in a representative sample of the health regions in Catalonia stratified according to habitat. A sample of 630 parents of children aged <3 years born in October 2001 were interviewed by telephone. Information collected included sociodemographic data, type of health care provider (public or private) and information on vaccination coverage for the basic plus booster immunization series (BBI) which consisted of: four DTP, four OPV, one MMR and the doses of Hib and MenC necessary according to age of administration of the first dose. Results: A total of 87.62% of the children were vaccinated with the BBI series, and no statistically significant differences in coverage between public (87.93%) and private (88.30%) paediatric providers, or between social classes (high: 87.58%, low: 88.81%) were found. Vaccination coverage was associated with attending a day-care centre (OR: 1.89; 95% Cl: 1.12-3.21) and maternal university education (OR: 1.84; 95% Cl: 1.01-3.33). Conclusion: Vaccination coverages are high and are similar between types of provider, probably due to preventive policies which have made a concerted effort to ensure universal vaccination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background The Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major cause of liver disease and liver cancer worldwide according to the World Health Organization. Following acute HBV infection, 1-5% of infected healthy adults and up to 90% of infected infants become chronic carriers and have an increased risk of cirrhosis and primary hepatocellular carcinoma. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the reduction in acute hepatitis B incidence and the universal vaccination programme in preadolescents in Catalonia (Spain), taking population changes into account, and to construct a model to forecast the future incidence of cases that permits the best preventive strategy to be adopted. Methods Reported acute hepatitis B incidence in Catalonia according to age, gender, vaccination coverage, percentage of immigrants and the year of report of cases was analysed. A statistical analysis was made using three models: generalized linear models (GLM) with Poisson or negative binomial distribution and a generalized additive model (GAM). Results The higher the vaccination coverage, the lower the reported incidence of hepatitis B (p 70%, the reduction in incidence was 2-fold higher than in groups with a coverage Conclusions The results of the adjusted models in this study confirm that the global incidence of hepatitis B has declined in Catalonia after the introduction of the universal preadolescent vaccination programme, but the incidence increased in male immigrants of working age. Given the potential severity of hepatitis B for the health of individuals and for the community, universal vaccination programmes should continue and programmes in risk groups, especially immigrants, should be strengthened.