Conjunctival Involvement in Infants as an Unusual Symptom of Omicron XBB.1.16 Driven Surge.

We describe clinical characteristics of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infected children during the XBB.1.16 variant-driven surge in April, 2023 in India.

Recurring Outbreaks of Circulating Vaccine-derived Polioviruses: Implications for Global Poliovirus Immunization Strategy.

The incidence of polio has decreased by more than 99.9% and currently, only two countries are endemic for wild poliovirus. However, increasing outbreaks of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus globally in the last few years, with the latest ones in high-income, exclusive inactivated polio virus vaccine (IPV)-using countries have brought out a new dimension to the end game of polio eradication.

Adolescent Immunization Schedule: Need for a Relook.

Adolescent immunization is one of the important yet a neglected field in India. There is no adolescent-specific schedule in the government's Universal Immunization Program. Though a separate adolescent immunization schedule exists for the private sector, there is almost no data on the coverage rates of the adolescent vaccines.

A Brief History of Vaccines Against Polio.

Poliomyelitis, a dreaded disease of the last century that had already crippled millions of people across the globe, is now on the verge of eradication thanks mainly to two polio vaccines, inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) and oral polio vaccine (OPV). Ever since their development in late 1950s and early 1960s, the journey of their early development process, clinical trials, licensure and ultimately widespread clinical use in different countries provide a fascinating tale of events. Oral polio vaccine has been the mainstay of global polio eradication initiative (GPEI) in most of the countries.

Immunochromatography-based Diagnosis of Rotavirus Infection in Acute Diarrhea.

Documentation of rotavirus diarrhea in a rural, resource-poor setting is a difficult task. We analyzed stool samples of 103 children admitted for acute diarrhea in a pediatric hospital in Bijnor, UP, India, using a simple bedside immunochromatography kit. Rotavirus infection was detected in 47 out of total of 103 children (45.

Vaccination Policy for Japanese Encephalitis in India: Tread with Caution!

Live attenuated SA-14-14-2 vaccine against Japanese encephalitis (JE) was introduced in the routine immunization under Universal Immunization Program in the 181 endemic districts of India. Recently, the Government of India has announced the introduction of one dose of JE vaccine for adults in endemic districts. The policy to mass vaccinate adults has raised several concerns that are discussed in this write-up.

IAP Position Paper on Burden of Mumps in India and Vaccination Strategies.

Justification: Mumps, despite being a widely prevalent disease in the country, is considered as an insignificant public health problem mainly because of poor documentation of clinical cases and lack of published studies. In the absence of adequate published data on disease burden, Government of India has recently decided to introduce measles-rubella (MR) vaccine in its National Immunization Program and neglected mumps component.

Process: Following an IAP ACVIP meeting on December 6 and 7, 2014, a detailed review of burden of mumps in India along with vaccination strategies to control the disease was prepared.

Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP) recommended immunization schedule for children aged 0 through 18 years--India, 2014 and updates on immunization.

Justification: There is a need to review/revise recommendations about existing vaccines in light of recent developments in the field of vaccinology.

Process: Following an IAP ACVIP meeting on April 19 and 20, 2014, a draft of revised recommendations for the year 2014 and updates on certain vaccine formulations was prepared and circulated among the meeting participants to arrive at a consensus.

Objectives: To review and revise recommendations for 2014 Immunization timetable for pediatricians in office practice and issue statements on certain new and existing vaccine formulations.

IAP perspectives on measles and rubella elimination strategies.

The Academy's Expert group on Immunization has discussed various issues pertaining to rubella vaccine introduction in to the Universal Immunization Program. Though the move to introduce rubella vaccine in to the UIP is laudable, the decision to overlook mumps seems inexplicable and illogical. Logistics also support the use of measles-mump and rubella (MMR) vaccine instead of measles-rubella (MR) vaccine.