Assessing COVID-19 transmission through school and family networks using population-level registry data from the Netherlands.

Understanding the impact of different types of social interactions is key to improving epidemic models. Here, we use extensive registry data-including PCR test results and population-level networks-to investigate the impact of school, family, and other social contacts on SARS-CoV-2 transmission in the Netherlands (June 2020-October 2021). We isolate and compare different contexts of potential SARS-CoV-2 transmission by matching pairs of students based on their attendance at the same or different primary school (in 2020) and secondary school (in 2021) and their geographic proximity.

Lower prevalence of post-Covid-19 Condition following Omicron SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Objectives: Different SARS-CoV-2 variants can differentially affect the prevalence of Post Covid-19 Condition (PCC). This prospective study assesses prevalence and severity of symptoms three months after an Omicron infection, compared to Delta, test-negative and population controls. This study also assesses symptomology after reinfection and breakthrough infections.

Health-related quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic: The impact of restrictive measures using data from two Dutch population-based cohort studies.

Objectives: We describe health-related quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic in the general Dutch population and correlations with restrictive measures.

Methods: Data were obtained from 18-85 year-old participants of two population-based cohort studies (February 2021-July 2022): PIENTER Corona (n = 8,019) and VASCO (n = 45,413). Per cohort, mean scores of mental and physical health and health utility from the SF-12 were calculated by age group, sex and presence of a medical risk condition.

Higher-valency pneumococcal conjugate vaccines in older adults, taking into account indirect effects from childhood vaccination: a cost-effectiveness study for the Netherlands.

Background: New 15- and 20-valent pneumococcal vaccines (PCV15, PCV20) are available for both children and adults, while PCV21 for adults is in development. However, their cost-effectiveness for older adults, taking into account indirect protection and serotype replacement from a switch to PCV15 and PCV20 in childhood vaccination, remains unexamined.

Methods: We used a static model for the Netherlands to assess the cost-effectiveness of different strategies with 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPV23), PCV15, PCV20, and PCV21 for a 65-year-old cohort from a societal perspective, over a 15-year time horizon.

Enabling Multicentric Participatory Disease Surveillance for Global Health Enhancement: Viewpoint on Global Flu View.

Participatory surveillance (PS) has been defined as the bidirectional process of transmitting and receiving data for action by directly engaging the target population. Often represented as self-reported symptoms directly from the public, PS can provide evidence of an emerging disease or concentration of symptoms in certain areas, potentially identifying signs of an early outbreak. The construction of sets of symptoms to represent various disease syndromes provides a mechanism for the early detection of multiple health threats.

Empirical evidence of transmission over a school-household network for SARS-CoV-2; exploration of transmission pairs stratified by primary and secondary school.

Background: Children play a key role in the transmission of many infectious diseases. They have many of their close social encounters at home or at school. We hypothesized that most of the transmission of respiratory infections among children occur in these two settings and that transmission patterns can be predicted by a bipartite network of schools and households.

Accounting for Adverse Events Following Immunization in Economic Evaluation: Systematic Review of Economic Evaluations of Pediatric Vaccines Against Pneumococcus, Rotavirus, Human Papillomavirus, Meningococcus and Measles-Mumps-Rubella-Varicella.

Objectives: Economic evaluations of vaccines should accurately represent all relevant economic and health consequences of vaccination, including losses due to adverse events following immunization (AEFI). We investigated to what extent economic evaluations of pediatric vaccines account for AEFI, which methods are used to do so and whether inclusion of AEFI is associated with study characteristics and the vaccine's safety profile.

Methods: A systematic literature search (MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Systematic Reviews and Trials, Database of the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination of the University of York, EconPapers, Paediatric Economic Database Evaluation, Tufts New England Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Registry, Tufts New England Global Health CEA, International Network of Agencies for Health Technology Assessment Database) was performed for economic evaluations published between 2014 and 29 April 2021 (date of search) pertaining to the five groups of pediatric vaccines licensed in Europe and the United States since 1998: the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines, the meningococcal vaccines (MCV), the measles-mumps-rubella-varicella (MMRV) combination vaccines, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCV) and the rotavirus vaccines (RV).

Prevalence and Severity of Symptoms 3 Months After Infection With SARS-CoV-2 Compared to Test-Negative and Population Controls in the Netherlands.

Background: This prospective study assesses symptoms 3 months after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection compared to test-negative and population controls, and the effect of vaccination prior to infection.

Methods: Participants enrolled after a positive (cases) or negative (test-negative controls) SARS-CoV-2 test, or after invitation from the general population (population controls). After 3 months, participants indicated presence of 41 symptoms and severity of 4 symptoms.

A scenario modelling analysis to anticipate the impact of COVID-19 vaccination in adolescents and children on disease outcomes in the Netherlands, summer 2021.

BackgroundSince the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines in late 2020 and throughout 2021, European governments have relied on mathematical modelling to inform policy decisions about COVID-19 vaccination.AimWe present a scenario-based modelling analysis in the Netherlands during summer 2021, to inform whether to extend vaccination to adolescents (12-17-year-olds) and children (5-11-year-olds).MethodsWe developed a deterministic, age-structured susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered (SEIR) model and compared modelled incidences of infections, hospital and intensive care admissions, and deaths per 100,000 people across vaccination scenarios, before the emergence of the Omicron variant.

Social clustering of unvaccinated children in schools in the Netherlands.

For the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, the World Health Organization-recommended coverage for herd protection is 95% for measles and 80% for rubella and mumps. However, a national vaccine coverage does not reflect social clustering of unvaccinated children, e.g.

Prevalence and determinants of persistent symptoms after infection with SARS-CoV-2: protocol for an observational cohort study (LongCOVID-study).

Introduction: A substantial proportion of individuals infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), report persisting symptoms weeks and months following acute infection. Estimates on prevalence vary due to differences in study designs, populations, heterogeneity of symptoms and the way symptoms are measured. Common symptoms include fatigue, cognitive impairment and dyspnoea.

Association of pneumococcal carriage in infants with the risk of carriage among their contacts in Nha Trang, Vietnam: A nested cross-sectional survey.

Background: Infants are at highest risk of pneumococcal disease. Their added protection through herd effects is a key part in the considerations on optimal pneumococcal vaccination strategies. Yet, little is currently known about the main transmission pathways to this vulnerable age group.

Testing behaviour and positivity for SARS-CoV-2 infection: insights from web-based participatory surveillance in the Netherlands.

Objectives: We aimed to identify populations at a high risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection but who are less likely to present for testing, by determining which sociodemographic and household factors are associated with a lower propensity to be tested and, if tested, with a higher risk of a positive test result.

Design And Setting: Internet-based participatory surveillance data from the general population of the Netherlands.

Participants: Weekly survey data collected over a 5-month period (17 November 2020 to 18 April 2021) from a total of 12 026 participants who had contributed at least 2 weekly surveys was analysed.

Offering a choice of daily and event-driven preexposure prophylaxis for men who have sex with men in the Netherlands: a cost-effectiveness analysis.

Objectives: To assess the cost-effectiveness of a preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) programme offering a choice of daily and event-driven PrEP for men who have sex with men (MSM) in the Netherlands.

Methods: We used an agent-based transmission model and an economic model to simulate a programme offering only daily PrEP and a programme offering daily and event-driven PrEP. Use of PrEP medication and preference for daily versus event-driven PrEP were estimated from the Amsterdam PrEP Demonstration Project (AMPrEP).

Risk factors associated with the incidence of self-reported COVID-19-like illness: data from a web-based syndromic surveillance system in the Netherlands.

During the first wave of the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 epidemic in the Netherlands, notifications consisted mostly of patients with relatively severe disease. To enable real-time monitoring of the incidence of mild coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) - for which medical consultation might not be required - the Infectieradar web-based syndromic surveillance system was launched in mid-March 2020. Our aim was to quantify associations between Infectieradar participant characteristics and the incidence of self-reported COVID-19-like illness.

Cost-effectiveness of maternal immunization against neonatal invasive Group B Streptococcus in the Netherlands.

Background: Neonatal invasive Group B Streptococcus (GBS) infection causes considerable disease burden in the Netherlands. Intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis (IAP) prevents early-onset disease (EOD), but has no effect on late-onset disease (LOD). A potential maternal GBS vaccine could prevent both EOD and LOD by conferring immunity in neonates.

Implications of the school-household network structure on SARS-CoV-2 transmission under school reopening strategies in England.

In early 2020 many countries closed schools to mitigate the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Since then, governments have sought to relax the closures, engendering a need to understand associated risks. Using address records, we construct a network of schools in England connected through pupils who share households.

Cost-effectiveness of two screening strategies for and as part of the PrEP programme in the Netherlands: a modelling study.

Objectives: Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) users are routinely tested four times a year (3 monthly) for asymptomatic (CT) and (NG) infections on three anatomical locations. Given the high costs of this testing to the PrEP programme, we assessed the impact of 3 monthly screening(current practice), compared with 6 monthly on the disease burden. We quantified the difference in impact of these two testing frequencies on the prevalence of CT and NG among all men who have sex with men (MSM) who are at risk of an STI, and explored the cost-effectiveness of 3-monthly screening compared with a baseline scenario of 6-monthly screening.

Integrating Alternative Social Value Judgments Into Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Vaccines: An Application to Varicella-Zoster Virus Vaccination.

Objectives: Cost-effectiveness analyses (CEA) are based on the value judgment that health outcomes (eg, quantified in quality-adjusted life-years; QALYs) are all equally valuable irrespective of their context. Whereas most published CEAs perform extensive sensitivity analysis on various parameters and assumptions, only rarely is the influence of the QALY-equivalence assumption on cost-effectiveness results investigated. We illustrate how the integration of alternative social value judgments in CEA can be a useful form of sensitivity analysis.

Cost-benefit analysis of surveillance for surgical site infection following caesarean section.

Objective: To estimate the economic burden to the health service of surgical site infection following caesarean section and to identify potential savings achievable through implementation of a surveillance programme.

Design: Economic model to evaluate the costs and benefits of surveillance from community and hospital healthcare providers' perspective.

Setting: England.