PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Pediatric vaccine stockpile policies need to be revisited, researcher says

Pediatric vaccine stockpile policies need to be revisited, researcher says
2010-09-10
(Press-News.org) CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Vaccine manufacturers and public health decision-makers need to collaborate in a more efficient and effective manner not only to reduce the likelihood of supply shortages for pediatric vaccines but also to maximize community immunity by using vaccine doses to increase coverage, according to research published by a University of Illinois researcher who specializes in statistics and data analysis.

Sheldon H. Jacobson, a professor of computer science and the director of the simulation and optimization laboratory at Illinois, says that the Pediatric Vaccine Stockpile Program administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should not simply be seen as a repository of vaccines, but rather as a "repository of opportunities" for enhancing the collective immunity of children. "We hear a lot about bioterrorism and pandemics, but the fact of the matter is, the threat to routine immunization is one of the greatest threats we face," Jacobson said. "If we had problems with our vaccine supply chain, it would have the potential to cause more deaths than any of those other issues."

With an average of 11,000 children in need of immunization on any given day, Jacobson says that managing pediatric vaccine stockpiles shouldn't simply be limited to increasing the levels of the stockpile itself.

"Just like perishable goods, vaccines have a shelf life," Jacobson said. "They're not like canned goods that you can simply stockpile and forget about for an extended period of time.

"When you have finite economic resources, you have to make choices. But we also want to create a buffer that will create the widest possible public health safety net."

The CDC's current policy of maintaining a six-month rotating vaccine stockpile isn't the most optimal solution for achieving "herd immunity," which Jacobson defines as "the smallest percentage of a population that must be immunized against a disease so that unvaccinated individuals are also protected."

Jacobson, who published his research in the Journal of Industrial and Management Optimization, considered the relative mortality and morbidity of diseases to determine what levels stockpiles should be set at to minimize the risk of shortage and maximize coverage opportunities while minimizing costs.

"We took all of these factors into account and created a multi-attribute model using utility theory to solve for appropriate levels."

Jacobson said that when actual vaccine shortages have occurred over the last 10 years, the duration of the shortages were between 16 and 18 months.

"Even though we're preparing for six months out, we never see six months," he said. "The shortest time period in the last 10 years has been a 7-month period. That's a byproduct of one-size-fits-all policy for stockpiles. Although it's easy and simple to do, it's not the most efficient policy. We need to re-engineer the objectives of our pediatric vaccine stockpiles and establish more flexible policies for maximizing their utility."

Jacobson's research proposes a stochastic model to determine the stockpile levels that minimize the risk of a vaccine shortage during a supply interruption while also maintaining a given coverage rate.

"For some vaccines, you need very little stockpiles; for others, you need much larger ones," he said.

Pertussis, or whooping cough, as it's more commonly known, can be a "very deadly, virulent disease if it spreads, while mumps, on the other hand, rarely causes death," Jacobson said.

"When we're talking about vaccines, equal is not effective. The recent pertussis outbreaks in California and Ohio highlight the needs for differentiated stockpile levels, meaning we have to look at the characteristics of the diseases in terms of achieving herd immunity as well as how deadly the disease is."

Jacobson, who also is a professor of pediatrics at the College of Medicine on the Urbana campus, said that although routine immunization is the most effective public health strategy to prevent the occurrence and spread of infectious diseases, there's always going to be a certain small percentage of the population who will not be immunized, because of religious beliefs or allergies to the vaccine.

"The CDC's goal for immunization is 95 percent compliance," he said. "They don't expect 100 percent. But if you get to 95 percent, you're typically going to have a herd immunity."

Ultimately, vaccination is a critical public health issue that can't be run by the vagaries of emotion.

"If we allow our emotions to guide our policies, we'll pay the price somewhere down the line. The public health system saves rather than costs our nation money. And any way that we can reduce mortality and morbidity through immunization would be beneficial to the health-care system both in cost and value and to the nation as a whole."



INFORMATION:

Co-authors of the study were Dr. Janet A. Jokela, the head of medicine and of the internal medicine residency program for the U. of I. College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign; and Ruben A. Proano, a professor of industrial and systems engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

The National Science Foundation funded the project.

[Attachments] See images for this press release:
Pediatric vaccine stockpile policies need to be revisited, researcher says

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Scientists observe single ions moving through tiny carbon-nanotube channel

2010-09-10
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — For the first time, a team of MIT chemical engineers has observed single ions marching through a tiny carbon-nanotube channel. Such channels could be used as extremely sensitive detectors or as part of a new water-desalination system. They could also allow scientists to study chemical reactions at the single-molecule level. Carbon nanotubes — tiny, hollow cylinders whose walls are lattices of carbon atoms — are about 10,000 times thinner than a human hair. Since their discovery nearly 20 years ago, researchers have experimented with them as batteries, ...

Early cotton planting requires irrigation

2010-09-10
MADISON, WI, September 9, 2010 – Cotton growers can produce more cotton if they plant early, but not without irrigation. That's the finding of an article published in the September-October 2010 Agronomy Journal, a publication of the American Society of Agronomy. Bill Pettigrew, a scientist with the USDA-Agricultural Research Service in Stoneville, Mississippi, tested the performance of cotton under irrigated and non-irrigated plots, with half the plots being planted early (first week of April) and half being planted in the more tradition time period, around the 1st week ...

Promising treatment for metastatic melanoma 'fast tracked' by FDA

2010-09-10
HACKENSACK, N.J. (September 9, 2010) — Researchers from the John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center played an important role in a study that led to the Food & Drug Administration's (FDA) recent fast tracking of ipilimumab, a promising treatment for metastatic melanoma. The FDA based its decision largely on the results of a pivotal study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on August 19, 2010 – the same day the agency accepted Bristol-Myers Squibb's application for the drug's approval and granted the application priority review status. Ipilimumab ...

AGU journal highlights

2010-09-10
The following highlights summarize research papers that have been recently published in Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres (JGR-D) and Geophysical Research Letters (GRL). In this release: Landmass shape affects extent of Arctic sea ice Estimating how much rain forests intercept How compliant fault zones respond to nearby earthquakes Measuring the rate of mountain building in New Zealand Interplanetary magnetic field causes changes in the polar cap ionosphere Oxygen and hydrogen follow different escape paths from Venus's atmosphere Anyone ...

Strategy discovered to prevent Alzheimer's-associated traffic jams in the brain

2010-09-10
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – September 9, 2010 – Amyloid beta (Αβ) proteins, widely thought to cause Alzheimer's disease (AD), block the transport of vital cargoes inside brain cells. Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease (GIND) have discovered that reducing the level of another protein, tau, can prevent Aβ from causing such traffic jams. Neurons in the brain are connected to many other neurons through long processes called axons. Their functions depend on the transport of diverse cargoes up and down these important pipelines. Particularly ...

The cost of over-triage on our nation's health system

2010-09-10
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified "secondary over-triage" as a potential area of cost savings for our nation's health care. The phenomenon of over-triage occurs when patients are transferred twice, and discharged from a second facility in less than 24 hours. These findings will be published in the September 10th issue of The Journal of Trauma. "By looking at the number of times patients are transferred, we can evaluate the overall efficiency of our trauma system and its impact on healthcare costs," said Hayley Osen, ...

Flying fish glide as well as birds

2010-09-10
We're all familiar with birds that are as comfortable diving as they are flying but only one family of fish has made the reverse journey. Flying fish can remain airborne for over 40s, covering distances of up to 400m at speeds of 70km/h. Haecheon Choi, a mechanical engineer from Seoul National University, Korea, became fascinated by flying fish when reading a science book to his children. Realising that flying fish really do fly, he and his colleague, Hyungmin Park, decided to find out how these unexpected fliers stay aloft and publish their discovery that flying fish glide ...

Lack of trust in hospitals a major deterrent for blood donation among African-Americans

2010-09-10
Disparities in healthcare between races exist in the United States. A new study published in the journal Transfusion explores why African Americans donate blood at lower rates than whites. The findings reveal that there is a significant distrust in the healthcare system among the African American community, and African Americans who distrust hospitals are less likely to donate. Led by Beth H. Shaz, MD, Chief Medical Officer of the New York Blood Center in New York, New York, researchers created a survey to explore reasons for low likelihood of blood donation in African ...

BEK Communications Looks to Mariner's xVu Service to Better Manage Local IPTV Programming

2010-09-10
BEKTV utilizing industry leading service assurance tool to gain viewership insight Fiber to the Home (FTTH) Conference, Las Vegas, NV, September 9th, 2010: BEK Communications, the innovative telecommunications company serving south-central North Dakota, announced today their use of xVu as a means of gaining improved insight of their local programming. A key element of BEK's strategy as a multi-faceted telecom company is their exclusive hometown programming. Through BEKTV, BEK Communications broadcasts such specialized local features as BEK Sports, BEK Life and BEK Local ...

In attracting mates, male bowerbirds appear to rely on special optical effect

2010-09-09
Bowerbird males are well known for making elaborate constructions, lavished with decorative objects, to impress and attract their mates. Now, researchers reporting online on September 9 in Current Biology, a Cell Press journal, have identified a completely new dimension to these showy structures in great bowerbirds. The birds create a staged scene, only visible from the point of view of their female audience, by placing pebbles, bones, and shells around their courts in a very special way that can make objects (or a bowerbird male) appear larger or smaller than they really ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Reality check: making indoor smartphone-based augmented reality work

Overthinking what you said? It’s your ‘lizard brain’ talking to newer, advanced parts of your brain

Black men — including transit workers — are targets for aggression on public transportation, study shows

Troubling spike in severe pregnancy-related complications for all ages in Illinois

Alcohol use identified by UTHealth Houston researchers as most common predictor of escalated cannabis vaping among youths in Texas

Need a landing pad for helicopter parenting? Frame tasks as learning

New MUSC Hollings Cancer Center research shows how Golgi stress affects T-cells' tumor-fighting ability

#16to365: New resources for year-round activism to end gender-based violence and strengthen bodily autonomy for all

Earliest fish-trapping facility in Central America discovered in Maya lowlands

São Paulo to host School on Disordered Systems

New insights into sleep uncover key mechanisms related to cognitive function

USC announces strategic collaboration with Autobahn Labs to accelerate drug discovery

Detroit health professionals urge the community to act and address the dangers of antimicrobial resistance

3D-printing advance mitigates three defects simultaneously for failure-free metal parts 

Ancient hot water on Mars points to habitable past: Curtin study

In Patagonia, more snow could protect glaciers from melt — but only if we curb greenhouse gas emissions soon

Simplicity is key to understanding and achieving goals

Caste differentiation in ants

Nutrition that aligns with guidelines during pregnancy may be associated with better infant growth outcomes, NIH study finds

New technology points to unexpected uses for snoRNA

Racial and ethnic variation in survival in early-onset colorectal cancer

Disparities by race and urbanicity in online health care facility reviews

Exploring factors affecting workers' acquisition of exercise habits using machine learning approaches

Nano-patterned copper oxide sensor for ultra-low hydrogen detection

Maintaining bridge safer; Digital sensing-based monitoring system

A novel approach for the composition design of high-entropy fluorite oxides with low thermal conductivity

A groundbreaking new approach to treating chronic abdominal pain

ECOG-ACRIN appoints seven researchers to scientific committee leadership positions

New model of neuronal circuit provides insight on eye movement

Cooking up a breakthrough: Penn engineers refine lipid nanoparticles for better mRNA therapies

[Press-News.org] Pediatric vaccine stockpile policies need to be revisited, researcher says