Vaccine acceptance, hesitancy and refusal in Canada: Challenges and potential approaches.

"Vaccine hesitancy" is a concept used frequently in vaccination discourse and is challenging previously held perspective that individual vaccination attitudes and behaviours are a simple dichotomy of accept or reject. Given the importance of achieving high vaccine coverage in Canada to avoid vaccine preventable diseases and their consequences, vaccine hesitancy is an important issue that needs to be addressed. This article describes the scope and causes of vaccine hesitancy in Canada and proposes potential approaches to address it.

Analyzing and strengthening the vaccine safety program in Manitoba.

Background: The emergence of a novel influenza A virus in 2009 and the rapid introduction of new pandemic vaccines prompted an analysis of the current state of the adverse events following immunization (AEFI) surveillance response in several provinces.

Objectives: To highlight aspects of the situational analysis of the Manitoba Health, Healthy Living and Seniors (MHHLS's) AEFI surveillance system and to demonstrate how common business techniques could be usefully applied to a provincial vaccine safety monitoring program.

Method: Situational analysis of the AEFI surveillance system in Manitoba was developed through a strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-threats (SWOT) analysis and informed by the National Immunization Strategy vaccine safety priorities.

No association between 2008-09 influenza vaccine and influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus infection, Manitoba, Canada, 2009.

We conducted a population-based study in Manitoba, Canada, to investigate whether use of inactivated trivalent influenza vaccine (TIV) during the 2008-09 influenza season was associated with subsequent infection with influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus during the first wave of the 2009 pandemic. Data were obtained from a provincewide population-based immunization registry and laboratory-based influenza surveillance system. The test-negative case-control study included 831 case-patients with confirmed influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus infection and 2,479 controls, participants with test results negative for influenza A and B viruses.

Mumps in prison: description of an outbreak in Manitoba, Canada.

Objective: There is a lack of published information on the management of mumps in a prison setting. We describe an outbreak of mumps that occurred in a medium-security correctional centre (Milner Ridge) in Manitoba, Canada.

Methods: A case definition of mumps consistent with that in the document "Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Mumps Outbreaks in Canada" was adopted.

Effectiveness of the pandemic H1N1 influenza vaccines against laboratory-confirmed H1N1 infections: population-based case-control study.

Background: Excellent immune responses following 1 or 2 doses of the monovalent inactivated pandemic H1N1 vaccines have been documented, but the effectiveness of these vaccines against laboratory-confirmed H1N1 infections in the general population is not clear. We evaluated the effectiveness of the pandemic H1N1 and seasonal trivalent influenza vaccines (TIV) used during the 2009 mass vaccination campaign in Manitoba (Canada) in preventing laboratory-confirmed H1N1 infections.

Methods: A population-based case-control study using data from Cadham Provincial Laboratory (CPL) and the Manitoba Immunization Monitoring System (MIMS).

The diabetic foot clinic: not a significant source for acquisition of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Background: Diabetic foot clinics have been reported as a source of acquisition of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). We undertook a 10-year review of patients infected or colonized with MRSA from a tertiary care hospital diabetic foot clinic and describe the epidemiology and genotypes of newly acquired MRSA in comparison with the community at large.

Methods: All new MRSA cases from the diabetic foot clinic, the hospital, and the province were reviewed to identify and compare the 10-year trend in MRSA incidence.

Effects of long-term dietary restriction on cardiovascular function and plasma catecholamines in the rat.

To examine the relationship between heart function and plasma catecholamines upon food restriction, normal adult rats were fed 12 g or 6 g food/day for 14 days and 12 g food/day for 28 days. Food-restricted rats exhibited bradycardia, hypotension, and decreased rates of cardiac contraction (+dP/dt) as well as relaxation (-dP/dt) at 14 (12 or 6 g food/day) and 28 (12 g food/day) days. Plasma norepinephrine and epinephrine levels were significantly elevated in the 6 g food/day group at 14 days, whereas in the 12 g food/day group, plasma norepinephrine was elevated at 14 days but was significantly decreased at 28 days.