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Biomedical subjects

W P Glezen

Publications and source records attributed to W P Glezen.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Maternal immunization with the capsular polysaccharide vaccine for Haemophilus influenzae type b.

Maternal immunization with the capsular polysaccharide (PRP) vaccine of Haemophilus influenzae type b has been shown to extend the time that protective levels of maternal antibody are detected in infants. In a randomized, blinded trial, PRP or placebo was administered uneventfully to 213 women in the third trimester of pregnancy. Infants born to PRP recipients had significantly higher levels of antibody to PRP than did infants born to placebo recipients: 2.73 micrograms/ml compared with 0.33 microgram/ml. It was estimated that infants of mothers who received the PRP vaccine would be protected for an average of 4 months compared to an average of only 2 months for those of mothers who received placebo. Infants were followed for invasive H. influenzae type b disease through the first year of life; none was detected.

Antibodies, Bacterial↗

Controlled study of a new five-component acellular pertussis vaccine in adults and young children.

A new five-component acellular pertussis (AP) vaccine containing 10 micrograms of pertussis toxoid, 5 micrograms of filamentous hemagglutinin, 5 micrograms of combined agglutinogens 2 and 3, and 3 micrograms of pertactin was evaluated in adults and young children. AP vaccine was compared with saline placebo in 31 adults, and AP vaccine combined with diphtheria and tetanus toxoids (ADTP) was compared with whole cell DTP in 41 children, ages 16-20 months, who had received whole cell DTP during infancy. AP was mildly to moderately reactogenic in adults, with pain noted within 72 h and 5-8 days after immunization. ADTP was less reactogenic than DTP in children, with significantly decreased pain, redness, irritability, and fever and less use of acetaminophen reported. No late reactions were observed in any child. The multicomponent ADTP was immunogenic, with four-fold or greater antibody rises to at least four pertussis antibody assays in all 15 immunized adults. Pertussis-specific antibody responses in children who received ADTP and DTP were similar. The multicomponent ADTP vaccine is currently being studied in a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases-sponsored efficacy study in Sweden.

Adult↗

Age distribution of patients with medically-attended illnesses caused by sequential variants of influenza A/H1N1: comparison to age-specific infection rates, 1978-1989.

Since influenza A/H1N1 viruses reappeared during the 1977-1978 season, this subtype has contributed 27% of 6,609 documented influenza infections of persons with acute respiratory disease presenting to clinics serving as surveillance sites of the Influenza Research Center in Houston for the 12-year period ending June 1989. Wide differences in the distribution of H1N1 viruses occurred by age group: more than 50% of H1N1 infections were detected among persons aged 10-34 years, compared with 28% for influenza A/H3N2 and 35% for influenza B. Over age 35 years, the contribution of H1N1 viruses dropped to only 4%, compared with 20% and 16% for influenza A/H3N2 and influenza B, respectively. When birth dates of persons with positive cultures were examined, it was found that most of the H1N1-positive persons were born after 1950. Concurrently, longitudinal studies of families and other adults under intensive surveillance for infection, including cultures of all respiratory illnesses and tests for serum antibody rise over the respiratory disease season, revealed appreciable infection rates for adults born before 1950. Furthermore, the annual peak of hospitalization of older persons with pneumonia and other acute respiratory illnesses was significantly correlated with the peak of H1N1 virus activity in 1978-1979, a year when H1N1 viruses were the only influenza viruses prevalent. These observations indicate that many persons infected with influenza A/H1N1 viruses that circulated from 1946 through 1953 have immunity which has persisted for more than 25 years but this immunity is not complete. Reinfection that may result in serious illness in older vulnerable adults does occur but with lower frequency than with influenza A/H3N2 infection. Currently prevalent H1N1 variants are antigenically different from those that circulated in the 1950s; however, older adults readily acquire immunity to these new variants--perhaps as a result of immunologic priming that occurred in childhood.

Acute Disease↗

Comparison of heterotypic protection against influenza A/Taiwan/86 (H1N1) by attenuated and inactivated vaccines to A/Chile/83-like viruses.

Children (n = 192) aged 3-19 years from 98 families completed this double-blind, placebo-controlled study comparing the efficacy of a bivalent attenuated (CR) vaccine with trivalent inactivated (TI) vaccine. Both vaccines contained A/Chile/83 (H1N1)-like antigens. After vaccination the geometric mean titer to A/Taiwan/86 (H1N1) was 1:36 in the CR group, 1:92 in the TI group, and 1:5 in the placebo group. During the influenza A/Taiwan/86 (H1N1) epidemic, 21.4% of CR recipients, 16.7% of TI recipients, and 43.9% of placebo recipients were infected with influenza A/Taiwan. TI vaccine provided better heterotypic protection than did CR vaccine for children aged 10-18 years (infection rate, 0 vs. 24%, respectively; P less than .025); in contrast, in the younger children (3-9 years), CR vaccine tended to be more protective (19% vs. 26% for TI).

Adolescent↗

Nosocomial influenza in a general hospital for indigent patients.

Surveillance of influenza virus infections was maintained on the medical and pediatric wards of a general hospital serving indigent patients of Harris County, Texas during the winter of 1987-88. Influenza A/Sichuan/2/87(H3N2) was the predominant virus during the community epidemic. Influenza A(H3N2) virus was isolated from six of 17 adult patients (35%) suspected to have nosocomial infections; two of these patients died of fulminating pneumonia. Another patient, admitted with alcoholism and hematemesis, developed pneumonia after a documented influenza infection, and the hospital stay was extended for two weeks. The paucity of virus positive community acquired infections on the medical wards suggested that the health care team was the probable source of the nosocomial infections. Community-acquired infections with influenza viruses were common on the pediatric service; however, most admissions were for acute conditions requiring brief hospital stays. Therefore, while nosocomial infections were unusual on the pediatric ward, they may have become evident after discharge. Recommendations for reducing the impact of nosocomial influenza virus infections include hospital-centred vaccination programs for both high risk patients and hospital personnel. Amantadine can be an important adjunctive therapy for reducing nosocomial spread during influenza A virus epidemics.

Adolescent↗

Live attenuated and inactivated influenza vaccine in school-age children.

In 1985, we enrolled 189 school-age children by family in a double-blind study to determine protection against influenza by a single dose of cold-recombinant bivalent A vaccine or commercial trivalent inactivated vaccine compared with placebo. All children in school or day care, 3 to 18 years of age, in an enrolled family received the same preparation. Following vaccination, 60% and 21% of cold-recombinant bivalent A vaccine recipients and 73% and 83% of trivalent inactivated vaccine recipients demonstrated fourfold or greater response in hemagglutination-inhibition antibody titer to A/H1N1 and A/H3N2, respectively. Sixty-seven percent of all trivalent inactivated vaccine recipients demonstrated a fourfold or greater serologic response to H1N1, H3N2, and influenza B following a single dose of vaccine. During the 1985-1986 influenza B/Ann Arbor epidemic, heterotypic protection afforded by the influenza B/USSR component of trivalent inactivated vaccine was 62% compared with placebo. A single dose of trivalent inactivated vaccine protected school-age children, 6 to 19 years of age, from influenza B infection; the rate of protection was 64% against infection and 73% against febrile illness.

Adolescent↗

Acute respiratory disease associated with influenza epidemics in Houston, 1981-1983.

Virological surveillance at "sentinel" clinics in Houston has demonstrated that the annual peak in the number of visits for acute respiratory disease (ARD) always coincides with the peak of influenza virus activity. A survey of visits to a health maintenance organization between 1981 and 1983 allowed us to calculate the age-specific rates of visits for ARD during two moderately severe influenza epidemics (1981-1982 and 1982-1983). During the most intense period of influenza virus activity the rate of visits for ARD was about 12 per 100 persons; the risk of developing ARD was greatest for preschool children (1981-1982, 27 per 100; 1982-1983, 29 per 100) and averaged about 10 per 100 for persons greater than 10 years of age. The risk of hospitalization with ARD was about 10 per 10,000 persons for residents of Harris County (Texas) during the same epidemics and was greatest for persons greater than 65 years of age.

Adolescent↗

Survey of underlying conditions of persons hospitalized with acute respiratory disease during influenza epidemics in Houston, 1978-1981.

The peak occurrence of hospitalizations of persons with acute respiratory disease (ARD), usually pneumonia, has coincided with the peak of influenza virus activity each year. The purpose of this study was to examine the diagnoses other than ARD on the discharge record of patients hospitalized with ARD. We were particularly interested in determining the frequency of high-risk conditions for which influenza vaccine is currently recommended. The risk for ARD hospitalization was 19.7 per ten thousand for persons with high-risk conditions and only 9.3 for persons without. Chronic pulmonary disorders were the most common underlying conditions identified, and persons with pulmonary conditions had the greatest risk for ARD hospitalization. The highest rate occurred among persons older than 65 yr of age with pulmonary conditions (87.5 per ten thousand), and the rate was 27.5 for persons 45 to 64 yr of age. Cardiac conditions were the second most frequent group of underlying disorders of patients hospitalized with ARD. Only for persons younger than 20 yr of age was the risk of ARD hospitalization greater for persons with cardiac conditions than for those with pulmonary conditions (22.9 and 14.9 per ten thousand, respectively). Death, however, was more frequent among persons with underlying heart disease. Intensified effort is needed to fully implement recommendations for prophylaxis of influenza in order to reduce these risks.

Acute Disease↗

Clinical and radiographic assessment of acute lower respiratory tract disease in infants and children.

The admission chest roentgenogram, temperature, and WBC of over 100 children with viral lower respiratory disease were compared with those for children with proven bacterial pneumonia. A scoring system was developed to assess the likelihood of bacterial or viral etiology of lower respiratory tract disease. Pulmonary infiltrates that were well defined and involved the mid or peripheral portions of only one lobe, pleural effusions and abscess or pneumatocele formation--characteristics associated with bacterial infection--were assigned a plus score. Poorly defined infiltrates, often involving the perihilar region of more than one lobe, and atelectasis involving the right middle lobe, the right upper lobe or multiple sites--characteristics associated with viral infection--were assigned a negative score. Additional plus scores were given for age greater than 6 months, fever greater than or equal to 103 degrees F, and for an elevated WBC. Application of the scoring system, retrospectively, to cases with proven etiology, demonstrated that a score of 0 or less had a predictive value of 95% for viral pneumonia, while the predictive value of a positive score for bacterial etiology was 70%. Use of the score for initiating antibiotics would have resulted in overtreatment with antibiotics of 11% of the cases. It is recognized that viral infection may facilitate bacterial invasion and that a child may present at any stage during this process; therefore, continuing evaluation and reassessment are important in the management of acute lower respiratory disease. However, the scoring system provides useful guidelines for use of antibiotics in initial treatment of childhood pneumonias, which should reduce unnecessary administration for viral infections.

Adolescent↗

Risk of primary infection and reinfection with respiratory syncytial virus.

Respiratory syncytial virus is the most important cause of serious lower respiratory tract infection in children. For children followed up from birth in the Houston Family Study, the infection rate was 68.8/100 children less than 12 months of age and 82.6/100 during the second year of life. Virtually all children had been infected at least once by 24 months of age, and about one half had experienced two infections. Although lower respiratory tract disease (LRD) was common (22.4/100 during year 1 and 13.0/100 during year 2), most children had only one LRD illness. The risk of reinfection was inversely related to the level of neutralizing antibodies in the serum. Reinfection illnesses were generally mild, and risk of reinfection decreased to only 33.3/100 during year 4. Studies of children with LRD and surveys of hospitalizations provide the basis for an estimate of the number of children hospitalized each year during the respiratory syncytial virus epidemics. Almost 100,000 children in the United States experience an illness of sufficient severity to require hospitalization.

Child, Preschool↗

Effectiveness of rimantadine prophylaxis of children within families.

With recent studies suggesting that children are the main introducers of influenza infections into families, we conducted a placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized trial to study the prophylactic effectiveness of rimantadine hydrochloride in children on the transmission of influenza A infections within families. One hundred forty-five volunteers from 35 families completed this study during a naturally occurring outbreak of influenza A (H1N1) infection. Influenza infections, defined as a positive viral throat culture or a fourfold increase in antibody titer, occurred in 31.7% of children in the placebo group and 2.9% of children in the rimantadine group. Clinical illness with laboratory evidence of influenza infection occurred in 17.0% of children in the placebo group and 0% of children in the rimantadine group. Rimantadine was well tolerated by the children, with no significant difference in reported side effects between the placebo and rimantadine groups. Influenza A infection occurred in 19.0% of adults whose children were receiving a placebo and 8.8% of adults whose children were receiving rimantadine. On the basis of our study, rimantadine prophylaxis of children appears to be an effective method to prevent influenza A infection in children. Additional studies are needed to demonstrate the effects of rimantadine prophylaxis of children on the incidence of influenza A infection in their parents.

Adamantane↗