Burden of Childhood Rotavirus Disease in the Outpatient Setting of the Russian Federation.

Background: This is a prospective, multicentered study conducted in 9 large urban areas in Russia, in order to determine the burden of rotavirus gastroenteritis in children <5 years of age and the genotypes circulating during 1 rotavirus season.

Methods: From November 2012 to May 2013, surveillance was conducted in Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Vologda, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Yaroslavl, Khanty-Mansiysk and Vladivostok. Children <5 years of age presenting at outpatient clinics with acute gastroenteritis (AGE) of less than 72 hours duration were enrolled in the study.

Retrospective Study of the Clinical Epidemiological Characteristics of Pertussis in Infants Prior to Their First Vaccination in the Russian Federation.

Introduction: The coverage of pediatric pertussis vaccination in the Russian Federation is high, generally using a diphtheria, tetanus, and whole-cell pertussis vaccine in a 3-, 4.5-, and 6-month primary series and with a booster at 18 months of age. However, with no registered pertussis vaccines for adults, unvaccinated adolescents and adults can be a major source of infection of infants under 3 months of age.

Influenza epidemics and acute respiratory disease activity are associated with a surge in autopsy-confirmed coronary heart disease death: results from 8 years of autopsies in 34,892 subjects.

Aims: To determine whether influenza can trigger heart attacks, we investigated the impact of influenza epidemics on autopsy-proven coronary deaths.

Methods And Results: We studied weekly death due to acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and chronic ischaemic heart disease (IHD) in autopsies conducted in 1993 to 2000 in St Petersburg, Russia. We plotted the weekly acute respiratory disease (ARD) counts and influenza epidemics against AMI and chronic IHD deaths.