Enterics

  • The seasonality of diarrheal pathogens: A retrospective study of seven sites over three years

    Background Pediatric diarrhea can be caused by a wide variety of pathogens, from bacteria to viruses to protozoa. Pathogen prevalence is often described as seasonal, peaking annually and associated with specific weather conditions. Although many studies have described the seasonality of diarrheal disease, these studies have occurred predominantly in temperate regions. In tropical and resource-constrained…

  • Efficacy of a bivalent killed whole-cell cholera vaccine over five years: a re-analysis of a cluster-randomized trial

    Background Oral cholera vaccine (OCV) is a feasible tool to prevent or mitigate cholera outbreaks. A better understanding of the vaccine’s efficacy among different age groups and how rapidly its protection wanes could help guide vaccination policy. Methods To estimate the level and duration of OCV efficacy, we re-analyzed data from a previously published cluster-randomized,…

  • Assessing the stability of polio eradication after the withdrawal of oral polio vaccine

    The oral polio vaccine (OPV) contains live-attenuated polioviruses that induce immunity by causing low virulence infections in vaccine recipients and their close contacts. Widespread immunization with OPV has reduced the annual global burden of paralytic poliomyelitis by a factor of 10,000 or more and has driven wild poliovirus (WPV) to the brink of eradication. However,…

  • Assessing the sensitivity of the polio environmental surveillance system

    The polio environmental surveillance (ES) system has been an incredible tool for advancing polio eradication efforts because of its ability to highlight the spatial and temporal extent of poliovirus circulation. While ES often outperforms, or is more sensitive than AFP surveillance, the sensitivity of the ES system has not been well characterized. Fundamental uncertainty of…

  • Community transmission of type 2 poliovirus

    Background Trivalent oral polio vaccine (tOPV) was replaced worldwide from April, 2016, by bivalent types 1 and 3 oral polio vaccine (bOPV) and one dose of inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) where available. The risk of transmission of type 2 poliovirus or Sabin 2 virus on re-introduction or resurgence of type 2 poliovirus after this switch…

  • Evaluating cessation of the type 2 oral polio vaccine by modeling pre- and post-cessation detection rates

    The globally synchronized removal of the attenuated Sabin type 2 strain from the oral polio vaccine (OPV) in April 2016 marked a major change in polio vaccination policy. This change will provide a significant reduction in the burden of vaccine-associated paralytic polio (VAPP), but may increase the risk of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV2) outbreaks during…

  • Spatial model for risk prediction and sub-national prioritization to aid poliovirus eradication in Pakistan

    Background Pakistan is one of only three countries where poliovirus circulation remains endemic. For the Pakistan Polio Eradication Program, identifying high risk districts is essential to target interventions and allocate limited resources. Methods Using a hierarchical Bayesian framework we developed a spatial Poisson hurdle model to jointly model the probability of one or more paralytic…

  • Analysis of vaccination campaign effectiveness and population immunity to support and sustain polio elimination in Nigeria

    Background The world is closer than ever to a polio-free Africa. In this end-stage, it is important to ensure high levels of population immunity to prevent polio outbreaks. Here, we introduce a new method of assessing vaccination campaign effectiveness and estimating immunity at the district-level. We demonstrate how this approach can be used to plan…

  • A spatial model of Wild Poliovirus Type 1 in Kano State, Nigeria

    Background Since the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, all but three countries (Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan) have apparently interrupted all wild poliovirus (WPV) transmission, and only one of three wild serotypes has been reported globally since 2012. Countrywide supplemental immunization campaigns in Nigeria produced dramatic reduction in WPV Type 1 paralysis cases since…

  • Has Wild Poliovirus Been Eliminated from Nigeria?

    Wild poliovirus type 3 (WPV3) has not been seen anywhere since the last case of WPV3-associated paralysis in Nigeria in November 2012. At the time of writing, the most recent case of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) in Nigeria occurred in July 2014, and WPV1 has not been seen in Africa since a case in…