Vaccinations – Related resources

Cochrane reviews

• Multi-component acellular pertussis vaccines appear to be effective, and show less adverse effects than whole-cell pertussis vaccines for the primary series as well as for booster doses .
• Polysaccharine vaccines against serogroup A meningococcal meningitis are highly effective in persons over 5 years of age, and probably effective even in younger age groups . Plasma derived vaccines are more effective than placebo in achieving hepatitis B antibodies in chronic renal failure patients, while no statistically significant difference was found between recombinant and plasma vaccines .
• Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines are effective in reducing the incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease and x-ray confirmed pneumonia in children under two years of age .
• Pneumococcal vaccination during pregnancy may not reduce infant infections .
• Patient reminder and recall systems are effective in improving immunization rates in primary care settings within developed countries .
• The protection rate against influenza appers not to decrease over years when vaccination is given annually .
• Influenza vaccination for the elderly appears to be most effective against complications in long-term care facilities, but the usefulness of vaccines in the community may be modest .
• Influenza vaccination when given to patients admitted to hospital with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) may prevent later acute heart disease, but there is no evidence on its effect on other patients suffering from coronary heart disease .
• Conjugate Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccines are safe and effective in preventing invasive Hib infections .

Other evidence summaries

• On average, BCG vaccine reduces the risk of tuberculosis by 50%. Protection against tuberculous death, meningitis, and disseminated disease is higher than for total cases of tuberculosis, but this result may be due to reduced error in disease classification .
• The protection given by BCG may wane with time. Published studies do not provide evidence of a protective effect more than 10 years after vaccination .
• Pneumococcal and haemophilus influenzae type b polysaccharide vaccines are effective in the prevention of these infections .
• Aluminium salts in vaccines do not cause any serious or long-lasting adverse events .
• A needle of 25 mm appears to cause significantly fewer local reactions than a needle of 16 mm .

Other Internet resources

• Immunization schedules: United States
• Immunization schedule: United Kingdrom