Immunization & infectious diseases

Group Health plays major roles in efforts to study infectious diseases and to prevent them by helping ensure that immunizations are safe and effective. Combining data on vaccinations and diseases for millions of people, researchers can conduct scientifically rigorous studies of vaccine safety and effectiveness. Such studies were not previously possible through "passive surveillance systems," which relied on ad-hoc reports from patients and providers.

In 2007, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded Group Health Center for Health Studies (CHS) a seven-year contract to establish a Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit (VTEU) to conduct clinical trials of promising vaccines and therapies for infectious diseases. Group Health is collaborating with the University of Washington and Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute to operate the VTEU, led by CHS Senior Investigator Lisa A. Jackson, MD, MPH. And since 1990, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has supported the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) Project, which connects information in large databases maintained by eight American health plans, including Group Health.

Now in its second decade, CHS' research program on vaccine safety and effectiveness has chalked up considerable successes. For instance, the largest case-control study of flu vaccine in seniors found that the flu vaccine may not protect them from pneumonia as well as had been thought. Other examples include the biggest published retrospective study of pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine effectiveness in adults, the largest clinical trial reporting the safety of revaccination with pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine, and the first published clinical trial of the licensed 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in older adults. And the results of the team's pneumococcal vaccine studies conducted in the Group Health population have influenced adult vaccination strategies.

"With the array of data available for the Group Health population, the experience of our multidisciplinary immunization research group, and the facilitating atmosphere for research at Group Health and the Center for Health Studies, the potential is nearly unlimited for us to address vaccine safety and effectiveness questions of national and international importance," Jackson says.

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Researchers in immunization & infectious diseases

CHS

Affiliate researchers

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Recent publications on immunization & infectious diseases

2008

Jackson LA, Janoff EN. Pneumococcal vaccination of seniors: new paradigms for protection. Clin Infect Dis. 2008 Nov 15;47(10):1328-38. PubMed

Jackson LA, Reynolds MA, Harpaz R. Hospitalizations to treat herpes zoster in older adults: causes and validated rates. Clin Infect Dis. 2008;47(6):754-9. PubMed

Jackson ML, Nelson JC, Weiss NS, Neuzil KM, Barlow W, Jackson LA. Influenza vaccination and risk of community-acquired pneumonia in immunocompetent elderly people: a population-based, nested case-control study. Lancet. 2008 Aug 2;372(9636):398-405. PubMed

Jackson LA, Starkovich P, Dunstan M, Yu O, Nelson J, Dunn J, Rees T, Zavitkovsky A, Maus D, Froeschle J, Decker M. Prospective assessment of the effect of needle length and injection site on the risk of local reactions to the 5th DTaP vaccination. Pediatrics. 2008;121 e646-e652. PubMed

France EK, Glanz J, Xu S, Hambridge S, Yamasaki K, Black SB, Marcy M, Mullooly JP, Jackson LA, Nordin J, Belongia EA, Hohman K, Chen RT, Davis R for the Vaccine Safety Datalink Team Risk of immune thrombocytopenic purpura after measles-mumps-rubella immunization in children Pediatrics. 2008;121 e687-e692. PubMed

Thompson WW, Price C, Goodson B, Shay DK, Benson P, Hinrichsen VL, Lewis E, Eriksen E, Ray P, Marcy SM, Dunn J, Jackson LA, Lieu TA, Black S, Stewart G, Weintraub ES, Davis RL, DeStefano F. Early thimerosal exposure and neuropsychological outcomes at 7 to 10 years. N Engl J Med. 2007;357(13):1281-92. PubMed

Jackson ML, Weiss NS, Nelson JC, Jackson LA. To rule out confounding, observational studies of influenza vaccine need to include analyses during the "preinfluenza period". Arch Intern Med. 2007;167(14):1553-4. PubMed

2007

Richards J, Scholes D, Caka S, Drolette L, Magaret AM, Yarbro P, Lafferty W, Crosby R, Diclemente R, Wald A. HSV-2 serologic testing in an HMO population: uptake and psychosocial sequelae. Sex Transm Dis. 2007;34(9):718-725. PubMed

Jackson LA, Neuzil KM, Nahm MH, Whitney CG, Yu O, Nelson JC, Starkovich PT, Dunstan M, Carste B, Shay DK, Baggs J, Carlone GM. Immunogenicity of varying dosages of 7-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide-protein conjugate vaccine in seniors previously vaccinated with 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine. Vaccine. 2007;25(20):4029-37. Epub 2007 Mar 12. PubMed

Jackson ML, Nelson JC, Chen RT, Davis RL, Jackson LA. Vaccines and changes in coagulation parameters in adults on chronic warfarin therapy: a cohort study. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf. 2007;16(7):790-6. Epub 2007 Feb 8. PubMed

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Our major research interests

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