Infants are at high risk for severe morbidity and mortality from pertussis disease during early infancy. Vaccination against pertussis in pregnancy has emerged as the ideal strategy to protect infants during these early, vulnerable, first months of life. On 30 November and 1 December 2021, the Global Pertussis Initiative held a meeting that aimed to discuss and review the most up-to-date scientific literature supporting vaccination against pertussis in pregnancy and outstanding scientific questions. Herein, we review the current and historically published literature and summarize the findings as consensus statements on vaccination against pertussis in pregnancy on behalf of the Global Pertussis Initiative.

Pertussis is a vaccine-preventable disease that causes morbidity and mortality, particularly in infants and children <5 years of age. The Global Pertussis Initiative (GPI) recommendations represent a systematic evaluation and prioritization of strategies to prevent pertussis-related infant and child deaths, reduce global disease burden and prevent resurgence through vaccination strategies and public health policies at national, regional and local levels. The GPI recommendations are based on clinical trials and observational and surveillance data, which are essential in the planning, implementation and evaluation of vaccination practices and best use of available resources. Many low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) continue to use whole-cell pertussis (wP) vaccines for primary vaccination, while most high-income countries have replaced wP with the less-reactogenic acellular pertussis (aP) vaccines. This present manuscript pertains to discussions held during the GPI's meeting on November 11-13, 2016, in Cape Town, Republic of South Africa. The GPI recommends that LMIC aim for high coverage of infant series pertussis vaccines as a priority. In LMIC and countries with constrained vaccine funding, if wP vaccines are currently used, wP should continue to be used. Furthermore, given that protection against disease and death due to pertussis in neonates is a key priority of the GPI, it recommends that ap immunization in pregnancy should be implemented as a priority in all countries if resources allow. Given that surveillance and epidemiology data on which to base vaccine decisions are important, the GPI also suggests that, in areas where wP vaccines are implemented, standardization and calibration of wP vaccines are checked, considering the many different manufacturers and variable standards of production and quality control. In addition, as immunity to pertussis wanes following the primary infant series of vaccination, the GPI further recommends that toddlers, adolescents, healthcare and childcare workers receive booster vaccine doses, where resources allow.

Male human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination rates remain very low. The study objective was to gain an understanding of the perceptions of HPV disease and acceptance/barriers to HPV vaccine by parents of boys aged 9 to 18 years. An anonymous, written survey was administered from January 1, 2011 to September 30, 2013 in private pediatric offices (PPOs) and public health clinics (PHCs) in Chicago, Illinois. A total of 230 PPO parents (PPOPs) and 286 PHC parents (PHCPs) completed the survey. Despite significant differences (P < .0001) in education level, socioeconomic status, and HPV disease and vaccine knowledge/awareness between the PPOP and PHCP, there was no difference between PPOP and PHCP who would vaccinate their sons with HPV vaccine. For both groups, health care provider recommendation was the primary influence for vaccination. The major barrier to vaccination was lack of information on HPV disease/vaccine. Health care providers need to proactively discuss and use HPV vaccine in male patients.

Purpose Cost-utility analyses examining the value of new vaccines for pneumococcal disease will require health state utilities as inputs. Existing utilities for pneumococcal infections in young children are limited. The purpose of this study was to estimate health state utilities associated with pneumococcal infections in young children. Methods Six health state vignettes depicting infections due to Streptococcus pneumoniae were drafted based on published literature and clinician interviews. To address methodological challenges in estimating utilities for temporary infections in children 0–5 years of age, several time trade-off approaches were explored in a pilot study (N = 28 participants). In the subsequent utility elicitation study conducted in the UK, health states were valued using the best performing method from the pilot (10-year time horizon, with infections repeated annually) with adult general population respondents imagining a child 2–5 years of age. Results A total of 208 participants completed interviews (51.9% female; mean [SD] age = 41.0 [14.9] years). Mean (SD) utilities were 0.902 (0.092) for pneumonia requiring hospitalization, 0.901 (0.087) for bacteremia, 0.894 (0.103) for recurrent acute otitis media (AOM), 0.882 (0.107) for recurrent AOM treated with pressure equalization tubes, 0.878 (0.109) for bacteremic pneumonia, and 0.809 (0.145) for meningitis. Conclusion Lower health state utilities were associated with health states that had longer treatment periods, required more invasive treatment, and described more severe infections. Utilities from this study can be used in models examining cost-effectiveness of pneumococcal vaccines. These results have methodological implications for future research estimating utilities associated with temporary pediatric health conditions.