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Key Publications in Immunization & Infectious Disease

Study Examples | Key Publications | Intro

A few key publications follow:

Pneumonia is a leading cause of morbidity in seniors. In a study of over 46,000 seniors at Group Health, male sex, chronic lung disease, diabetes, heart failure, and smoking were risk factors for pneumonia. Each year in the United States, there are about 915,000 cases of pneumonia in seniors. Among people 85 years of age and older, about one in 20 will develop pneumonia each year.

—Jackson ML, Neuzil KM, Thompson WW, Shay DK, Yu O, Hanson CA, Jackson LA (2004). The burden of community-acquired pneumonia in seniors: Results of a population-based study. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 39: 1642–1650.

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The pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine recommended for all adults 65 years and older is effective in preventing pneumococcal bacteremia, or bloodstream infections. However, it does not prevent pneumonia caused by this same bacterium, which is much more common than bacteremia. Pneumococcal pneumonia is responsible for as many as 300,000 hospitalizations each year among U.S. seniors.

—Jackson LA, Neuzil KM, Yu O, Benson P, Barlow WE, Adams AL, Hanson CA, Mahoney LD, Shay DK, Thompson WW (2003). Effectiveness of pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine in older adults. New England Journal of Medicine, 348 (18): 1747–1755.

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The low rate of serious adverse events, such as febrile seizures, confirms the safety of the acellular diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTaP) vaccine. Redness, swelling, and other injection site reactions that are attended by physicians are most common after the fifth dose of DTaP compared to the earlier doses.

—Jackson LA, Carste BA, Malais D, Froeschle J (2002). Retrospective population-based assessment of medically attended injection site reactions, seizures, allergic responses and febrile episodes after acellular pertussis vaccine combined with diphtheria and tetanus toxoids. Pediatric Infectious Diseases, (21): 781–785.

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The influenza shot does not prevent recurrent cardiovascular events among people who have already survived a first heart attack. The reason it was hypothesized that the flu shot might prevent myocardial infarction was that heart attacks can be caused by inflammation, and the inflammatory effects of infections, such as the flu, can affect the body beyond the lungs.

—Jackson LA, Yu O, Heckbert SR, Psaty BM, Malais D, Barlow WE, Thompson WW (2002). Influenza vaccination is not associated with a reduction in the risk of recurrent coronary events. American Journal of Epidemiology, 156 (7): 634–640.

Study Examples | Key Publications | Intro

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