Evaluation of vaccine coverage for low birth weight infants during the first year of life in a large managed care population.

Objective: There are few recent population-based assessments of vaccine coverage in premature infants available. This study assesses and compares age- and dose-specific immunization coverage in children of different birth weight categories during the first year of life.

Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort analysis of computerized vaccination data from a large managed care organization in southern California.

Varicella vaccination and ischemic stroke in children: is there an association?

Background: Ischemic stroke is a known complication of varicella disease. Although there have been case reports of ischemic stroke after varicella vaccination, the existence and magnitude of any vaccine-associated risk has not been determined. OBJECTIVE.

Lack of association between hepatitis B birth immunization and neonatal death: a population-based study from the vaccine safety datalink project.

Background: There have been no population-based studies of the potential association between neonatal death and newborn immunization with hepatitis B vaccine (HBV).

Methods: As part of the Vaccine Safety Datalink Project, we defined a birth cohort at Southern and Northern California Kaiser Permanente Health Plans of more than 350,000 live births from 1993 to 1998 and ascertained all deaths occurring under 29 days of age. We compared the proportions of deaths among birth HBV-vaccinated and unvaccinated newborns and reviewed the causes and circumstances of their deaths.