Outcome and extent of disability following Japanese encephalitis in Indonesian children.

Objectives: The study aimed to assess outcome, including level of disability, following Japanese encephalitis (JE) in children in Indonesia.

Methods: A cohort of children diagnosed with laboratory-confirmed JE from January 2005 to August 2006 was followed-up, with disability measured at least 4 months after discharge from hospital. An assessment tool that can be used to rapidly determine practical level of disability and the likelihood that a child will be able to live independently after illness, the Liverpool Outcome Score, was used.

Reuse prevention syringes for reconstitution of lyophilized vaccines: Operational study and UNICEF plans for expanding introduction.

Since the 1990s, the United Nation's Children's Fund has encouraged injection safety for immunizations through bundling vaccines with appropriate amounts of supporting equipment and by supplying autodisable (AD) syringes for injections. However, poor vaccine reconstitution practices continue to be reported worldwide. By 2009, UNICEF will begin to phase out the distribution of standard disposable syringes for vaccine reconstitution and replace them with reuse prevention (RUP) syringes, with a full transition expected by the end of 2010.

Confirmation of Japanese encephalitis as an endemic human disease through sentinel surveillance in Indonesia.

Japanese encephalitis (JE) results in significant mortality and disability in children in Asia. In Indonesia, despite recognition of JE virus transmission, reports of human disease have been few and from limited geographic areas. Hospital-based surveillance for acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) and JE in children 15 years of age and under was undertaken in 15 hospitals in six provinces from 2005 to 2006.

The costs of home delivery of a birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine in a prefilled syringe in Indonesia.

Objective: To provide global policy-makers with decision-making information for developing strategies for immunization of infants with a birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine, this paper presents a retrospective cost analysis, conducted in Indonesia, of delivering this vaccine at birth using the Uniject prefill injection device.

Methods: Incremental costs or cost savings associated with changes in the hepatitis B immunization programme were calculated using sensitivity analysis to vary the estimates of vaccine wastage rates and prices for vaccines and injection devices, for the birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine.

Findings: The introduction of hepatitis B vaccine prefilled in Uniject (HB-Uniject) single-dose injection devices for use by midwives for delivering the birth dose is cost-saving when the wastage rate for multidose vials is greater than 33% (Uniject is a trademark of BD, Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA).

Incidences of vaccine-preventable Haemophilus influenzae type b pneumonia and meningitis in Indonesian children: hamlet-randomised vaccine-probe trial.

Background: Most studies of Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) disease in Asia have found low rates, and few Asian countries use Hib vaccine in routine immunisation programmes. Whether Hib disease truly is rare or whether many cases remain undetected is unclear.

Methods: To estimate incidences of vaccine-preventable Hib pneumonia and meningitis among children younger than 2 years in Lombok, Indonesia, during 1998-2002, we undertook a hamlet-randomised, controlled, double-blind vaccine-probe study (818 hamlets).

Hepatitis B vaccine freezing in the Indonesian cold chain: evidence and solutions.

Objectives: To document and characterize freezing temperatures in the Indonesian vaccine cold chain and to evaluate the feasibility of changes designed to reduce the occurrence of freezing.

Methods: Data loggers were used to measure temperatures of shipments of hepatitis B vaccine from manufacturer to point of use. Baseline conditions and three intervention phases were monitored.

Incidence and clinical features of hospitalization because of respiratory syncytial virus lower respiratory illness among children less than two years of age in a rural Asian setting.

Background: Lower respiratory illness is the leading cause of child death in the developing world. Despite this few reports on respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) lower respiratory illness disease burden exist from rural areas of the developing world, and none exist for Indonesia.

Methods: We evaluated children living in any of 83 villages on Lombok Island, Indonesia who were <2 years of age when hospitalized for severe lower respiratory illness during 2000 and 2001.