ASSESSMENT OF VACCINATION PROGRAM EFFECTIVENESS: BASIC APPROACHES AND ISSUES

Abstract

The article is dedicated to prevention of pneumococcal infections, which remain among the most common diseases in infants. The authors analyze international approaches to vaccination effectiveness assessment in light of predicting the expected effect of cohort immunization, given introduction of vaccination against this infection to the Russian National Immunization Calendar. The article presents a discussion of difficulties in interpreting epidemiological, immunological and clinical data in the absence of studies on directcomparison of drugs. The authors demonstrate the need in multicomponent approach to immunization program effectiveness analysis, which would include optimization of epidemiological vigilance, adoption of the standard definition of a case, registration of results of prelicensure clinical trials of vaccines and postlicensure follow-up in similar groups of patients.

Keywords

• vaccination effectiveness
• epidemiology
• immunogenicity
• protection correlate
• pneumococcal infection
• children