Background: China pledged to join the global effort to eliminate measles by 2012. To improve measles control strategy, the epidemic trend and population immunity of measles were investigated in 1951–2011 in Beijing. Methods: The changing trend of measles since 1951 was described based on measles surveillance data from Beijing Centre of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The measles vaccination coverage and antibody level were assessed by routinely reported measles vaccination data and twenty-one sero-epidemiological surveys. Results: The incidence of measles has decreased significantly from 593.5/100,000 in 1951 (peaked at 2721.0/100,000 in 1955), to 0.5/100,000 in 2011 due to increasing vaccination coverage of 95%-99%. Incidence rebounded from 6.6/100,000 to 24.5/100,000 since 2005 and decreased after measles vaccine (MV) supplementary immunization activities (SIAs) in 2010. Measles antibody positive rate was 85%-95% in most of years since 1981. High-risk districts were spotted in Chaoyang, Fengtai and Changping districts in recent 15 years. Age-specific incidence and proportion of measles varied over time. The most affected population were younger children of 1–4 years before 1978, older children of 5–14 years in 1978–1996, infant of <1 years and adults of ≥15 years in period of aim to measles elimination. Conclusion: Strategies at different stages had a prevailing effect on the epidemic dynamics of measles in recent 60 years in Beijing. It will be essential to validate reported vaccination coverage, improve vaccination coverage in adults and strengthen measles surveillance in the anticipated elimination campaign for measles.

Background: In China, varicella vaccine has been available in the private sector to children ≥12 months of age since 1998 with a single-dose indication. In December 2006, varicella became a notifiable disease in Beijing. We used surveillance data to describe varicella vaccine uptake from 2005 to 2010 and varicella epidemiology in Beijing from 2007 to 2010. Methods: Limited sociodemographic and clinical information was available from the passive surveillance system. Varicella vaccine coverage was estimated for each year for children born between 2004 and 2008 using the number of children in the immunization registry of each birth year as the denominator without adjustment for history of varicella. Results: Vaccine coverage increased within each birth cohort between 2005 and 2010. The coverage at 2 years of age increased from 62.4% in 2005 to 74.1% in 2010 and was 80.4% in children 3–6 years of age in 2010. Between 2007 and 2010, 15,544 to 18,256 varicella cases were reported annually with stable overall incidence (range: 1.0–1.1/1000 persons), but the incidence in children 1–4 years of age decreased significantly from 6.2 per 1000 children in 2007 to 4.4 per 1000 children in 2010 (P < 0.001). Among adults (≥20 years of age), there were significant increases in the number and proportion of cases from 2557 (16.5%) in 2007 to 4277 (23.4%) in 2010 (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Moderately high 1-dose vaccine coverage in young children has been achieved with declining disease incidence, but varicella remains a common, seasonal disease in the population. Current epidemiology suggests that a government-funded varicella vaccine program that includes catch-up vaccination for older children, adolescents and adults needs consideration.

Hospital-based case control studies have found family history of herpes zoster (HZ) was associated with risk of HZ, but the role of family history is not fully examined for other HZ-associated outcomes such as recurrent HZ, occurrence of postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), and HZ with different pain severities. We conducted a population-based matched case control study. HZ cases that occurred during December 1, 2011 to November 30, 2012 were identified by face-to-face interview with all residents of eight selected communities/villages from three districts of Beijing, China. Medical records were reviewed for those who sought healthcare for HZ. For each case-patient, three, age-matched controls (±5 years) without HZ were enrolled from the same community/village of the matched case. Data on family history of HZ were collected by interview and only defined among first-degree relatives. A total of 227 case-patients and 678 matched controls were enrolled. Case-patients were more likely to report a family history of HZ [odds ratio (OR) =2.4, P = 0.002]. Compared with controls, association of family history decreased from HZ with PHN to HZ without PHN (OR = 6.0 and 2.3, respectively; P = 0.002 for trend), from recurrent HZ to primary HZ (OR = 9.4 and 2.2, respectively; P = 0.005 for trend), and from HZ with moderate or severe pain to HZ with mild or no pain (OR = 3.2 and 0.8, respectively; P < 0.001 for trend). Family history of HZ was associated with HZ occurrence and was more likely in HZ case-patients with PHN, recurrences, and painful HZ.

Background: Maternal exposure to dietary factors during pregnancy may modulate the immunity of offspring by epigenetic programming. But the relationship between intrauterine environment and persistence of protective antibody after hepatitis B vaccination has not been reported. This study was to investigate the 5-year persistence of protective antibody response after primary hepatitis B vaccination, and its relationship with maternal folic acid supplementation. Materials and Methods: A total of 1461 children who completed a 3-dose 10 μg recombinant hepatitis B vaccine at birth and did not infect hepatitis B virus were followed up. Logistic regression and mediation analysis was used to explore the relationship between 5-year persistence of protective antibody and maternal nutrition. Results: Of 1403 children who did not revaccinated during the follow-up, 76.1% had protective hepatitis B surface antibody (anti-HBs) levels. Twenty percent of mothers did not take folate during pregnancy. Mediation analysis showed a total effect of folic acid supplementation on good persistence (odds ratio: 1.10, 95% CI: 1.03-1.17, p = 0.0010), a direct effect was 1.07 (95% CI: 1.01-1.13, p = 0.0128) and an indirect effect was 1.03 (95% CI: 1.00-1.06, p = 0.0672); the proportion of good persistence mediated by primary response was 30.3%. Conclusion: This study indicated a good protective anti-HBs persistence at year 5 after 10 μg recombination hepatitis B vaccination in infants. Maternal folic acid supplementation may improve the persistence of protective antibodies through other pathways. Multi-center cohort studies should be conducted to verify this conclusion.

Numerous post-licensure studies, mostly from field epidemiological evidences such as outbreak surveys, have demonstrated the effectivenesss and insufficiency of one-dose varicella vaccine in outbreak control. Serological evidence of immunization failure is, however, relatively less reported in contrast. A cross-sectional seroepidemiological survey of Beijing residents was performed in 2012 in the People’s Republic of China, after the one-dose varicella vaccine had been widely used for several years. Multistage stratified random sampling method was designed to recruit 2 144 subjects. The ELISA method was used to test the present blood samples collected and the reserve samples collected in 2008 to assess the trends of anti-VZV seroprevalence in the past 5 years and to determine the risk factors for varicella infection. The age- and sex- adjusted overall anti-VZV seropositivity of Beijing residents in 2012 was 84.5 %. Two groups’ adjusted overall anti-VZV seroprevalence in 2012 showed obvious growth compared with 2008 (<1 yr old: from 6.3 % to 16.9 %; 1-4 yr old: from 27.6 % to 57.2 %). Reported one-dose vaccination history was 71.6 % (149/208), 80.9 % (182/225) and 82.2 % (180/219) in the 1-4 yr, 5-9 yr, 10-14 yr age groups, respectively. Of subjects who had received the one-dose vaccine, 36 % (216/603) showed negative anti-VZV concentrations (<110 mIU/mL); additionally 15.9 % (96/603) of such subjects’ anti-VZV concentrations were in the lowest positive concentration group (110-299 mIU/mL). Seropositivity in permanent residents of 1-9 yr old with verified vaccination was merely 61.8 %. Various age groups (1-3 yr, 4-6 yr, and 7-9 yr) all showed seropositivity that gradually decreased with increasing of the interval between vaccination and blood sampling. Mass varicella vaccination significantly improved the immunity of younger Beijing residents. However, vaccine-induced anti-VZV antibody soon became weak in children with high coverage (approximately 80 %) after vaccination for several years which is significantly higher than reported in pre-licensure studies. A government-funded 2-dose immunization program with mandatory vaccination schedule for Beijing residents may need consideration in the near future.