The direct effect of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines on invasive pneumococcal disease in children in the Latin American and Caribbean region (SIREVA 2006-17): a multicentre, retrospective observational study.

Background: Streptococcus pneumoniae isolated from patients with invasive pneumococcal disease has been subjected to laboratory-based surveillance in Latin American and Caribbean countries since 1993. Invasive pneumococcal diseases remain a major cause of death and disability worldwide, particularly in children. We therefore aimed to assess the direct effect of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) on the distribution of pneumococcal serotypes causing invasive pneumococcal disease in children younger than 5 years before and after PCV introduction.

Cost-effectiveness of introducing a domestic pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7-TT) into the Cuban national immunization programme.

Objectives: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of introducing a domestic pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7-TT) into the Cuban National Immunization Program (NIP).

Methods: We compared PCV7-TT given at two, four and six months of age to a scenario without PCV7-TT, over a ten-year period (2020-2029). We calculated the cost (Cuban pesos - CUP) per Disability Adjusted Life Year (DALY) averted from a Government perspective.

USA300 Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Cuba.

Background: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is an increasing problem in the Caribbean. We investigated the molecular epidemiology of MRSA isolates on Cuba.

Findings: The predominant clone was of the spa type t149, followed by community-associated MRSA USA300.

[Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes in Cuba and progression of resistance to penicillin].

Introduction: since 2006 in Cuba, there has been difficult to determine the actual incidente of bacterial meningitis and other invasive diseases caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, as a result of the low percentage of isolation and identification of this agent in the domestic microbiology lab network.

Objective: to warn of the need of revitalizing the active surveillance of invasive, epidemiological and microbiological pneumoccocic diseases, mainly meningitis and pneumoniae in the phase prior to vaccination.

Methods: a comparison was made on the circulation of capsulary serogroups/serotypes and the invasive infection-causing S.

[Validation of an ELISA assay for the quantification of antibodies against Haemophilus influenzae type b capsular polysaccharide].

The validation study of an ELISA assay -internationally accepted for this purpose- was conducted aimed at having a method for the quantification of antibodies against Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) capsular polysaccharide in the clinical trials used to prove the immunogenicity of a new conjugated vaccine composed of a synthetic antigen. The validation was carried out in the National Haemophilus Reference Laboratory, in "Pedro Kouri" Institute of Tropical Medicine, Havana, Cuba. A protocol was designed, in which the determination of accuracy, exactness, linearity and limit of the detection of the assay were considered.

[Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Detection of carriers among hospitalized children and healthy children from the community].

A descriptive punctual study was conducted to search for nasal carriers of Staphylococcus aureus strains resistant to methycilin (SARM) among sound children attended in nurseries and hospitalized children exposed to one or more risk factors predisposing to the colonization by this type of strains from October, 2000, to February, 2001, in Marianao municipality. For the primary isolation of the SARM strains, it was used the oxacillin-manitol-salt-agar (OMSA) and the sensitivity to antimicrobial drugs was determined in all strains identified as S. aureus by using the Kirby-Bauer method.

[Antimicrobial susceptibility in non-typable Haemophilus influenzae strains isolated from healthy children].

Antimicrobial susceptibility of 79 non-typable Haemophilus influenzae isolations obtained from healthy children that attended two day-care centers in Marianao municipality. It was found resistance to trimetoprim/sulfamethoxazole (41,77 %), tetracycline (18,99), ampicilline (17,72 %), amoxicillin/ clavulanic acid (7,59 %) and chloramphenicol (6,33 %). 25,81 % of isolates showed multiresistance.

Naturally acquired immunity to Haemophilus influenzae type B in healthy Cuban children.

We have evaluated the prevalence of antibody to immunogenicity of Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) in a group of 4 to 5 years old healthy children, who were too old to be included in the first vaccinated cohort when Hib vaccination begun in Cuba in 1999. Serum capsular polysaccharide specific IgG antibody concentrations were measured in 974 healthy children, between February and May 2002. The prevalence of Hib nasopharyngeal carriage was also estimated.