Thesis (M.S.P.H.)--University of Michigan, 1939.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-126).

Thesis--Copenhagen. / Summary in Danish. Bibliography: p. 94-108.

Thesis--Copenhagen. / Summary in Danish. Bibliography: p. 94-108.

Thesis (M.S.P.H.)--University of Michigan, 1939.

Thesis (MSc (Veterinary Tropical Diseases, Veterinary Science))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print format.

Thesis (M.Med.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

Orientador: Ione Correa / Resumo: Introdução: A epidemiologia é uma ciência que estuda os processos de saúde e doença na população, sejam eles individuais ou coletivos. A lista Nacional de Notificação compulsória teve sua última atualização em 17 de fevereiro de 2016 por meio da portaria nº 204, que define novas doenças, agravos e eventos de saúde nos serviços públicos e privados em todo o território nacional, sendo a comunicação destes acontecimentos obrigatória. A coqueluche, que se encontra na lista das doenças de notificação compulsória, define-se por uma doença infecciosa aguda do trato respiratório inferior sendo seu agente etiológico a bactéria Bordetella pertussis. Apesar dos esforços dispendidos pelo Programa Nacional de Imunizações, da Vigilância Epidemiológica e outros Centros de Vigilância internacionais, no mundo, ainda, estima-se que a cada ano ocorram de 20 a 50 milhões de casos de coqueluche, com aproximadamente 200 a 400 mil mortes, sendo a maior parte em lactentes que não foram vacinados ou com a vacinação incompleta. Mesmo com a disponibilidade da vacina contra difteria, tétano e pertussis incluída no calendário vacinal da criança através da pentavalente, a imunidade não é permanente, surgindo então a pergunta deste estudo: Apenas a vacinação na gestante com dTpa elimina a coqueluche em crianças até dois anos? Objetivo: Analisar em dois municípios do interior do Estado de São Paulo, se as crianças menores de dois anos, filhos de mulheres vacinas pela dTpa tiveram coqueluche. Método: Trata-s... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Introduction: Epidemiology is an area of public health aimed at understanding health-disease processes within the population, an aspect that differentiates it from the clinic, since its objective is the study of these processes, individual or collective. The National Compulsory Notification list was last updated on February 17th, 2016 through ordinance No. 204, which defines new diseases, injuries and health events in public and private services throughout the national territory, and the communication is mandatory. Pertussis on the list of compulsorily notifiable diseases is defined as an acute infectious disease of the lower respiratory tract, its etiological agent being Bordetella pertussis. Despite the efforts made by the National Immunization Program (PNI), Epidemiological Surveillance and other International Surveillance Centers, it is still estimated that 20 to 50 million cases of pertussis occur every year, with approximately 200 to 400,000 deaths, most of them in infants who were not vaccinated or had incomplete vaccination. Even though the DTP vaccine is in the child's immunization schedule, immunity is not permanent, so the question arises in this study, only vaccination in the pregnant woman reduces the infection of the Bordetella pertussis bacterium in children up to 4 (four) years? Objective: To analyze in two municipalities of the interior of the State of São Paulo, if children under two years of age, children of dTpa vaccine women had pertussis. Method: This is... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

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Onchocerciasis, caused by Onchocerca volvulus remains a major public health and socio-economic problem across the tropics, despite years of mass drug administration (MDA) with Ivermectin to reduce disease burden. Through modelling, it has been shown that elimination cannot be achieved with MDA alone and additional tools are needed, such as vaccination, which remains the most cost-effective tool for long-term disease control. The feasibility behind vaccination against O. volvulus can be demonstrated in the Litomosoides sigmodontis mouse model, which shows that vaccine induced protection can be achieved with immunisation using irradiated L3, the infective stage of L. sigmodontis and with microfilariae (Mf), the transmission stage of the parasite. There is further evidence of protective immunity in humans, with individuals living in endemic areas that show no signs of infection despite being exposed to the parasite (endemic normal). The protective efficacy of promising vaccine candidates were evaluated using an immunisation time course in the L. sigmodontis model, using either DNA plasmid or peptide vaccines. In immunisation experiments in L. sigmodontis, Mf numbers are used as a measure of protection and marks the end of an immunisation time course. However, when changes in gene expression were measured at the end of an immunisation time course, in attempts to identify gene signatures that could be used as markers of protection (correlates of protection) in the blood, no gene signatures were found to be associated with protection. This suggest that at the end of an immunisation time course, when protection is measured (change in Mf numbers), it is too late in infection to measure changes in immune pathways being triggered. Changes in gene expression were therefore measured in blood samples collected throughout an immunisation time course in the L. sigmodontis model, in order to identify the time point in an immunisation experiment which are the most indicative of protection. Two independent immunisation time courses were used, either using irradiated L3 or Mf as vaccine against L. sigmodontis, as these elicit the greatest protection. This generated a large high dimensional dataset, that was too large and complex for a differential fold-change analysis. Therefore, an analysis pipeline was created using machine learning algorithms, to detect changes in gene expression throughout the time courses to detect markers of protection. The 6 hour time point following immunisation showed the greatest change in gene expression, with the analysis pipeline identifying known pathways associated with vaccine-induced immunity. The pipeline was applied to gene expression data from human samples obtained from individuals living in endemic areas who were either infected with O. volvulus or endemic normal (naturally protected), this was to identify pathways associated with protective immunity in humans. When comparing vaccine induced immunity seen in mice and natural protective immunity in humans there was some overlap in pathways being triggered, suggesting that similar pathways are needed for protection and that if a vaccine can trigger the right pathways in mice, it is likely to be effective in humans. Overall the machine learning analysis of the gene expression data, not only shows that it is feasible to measure change in gene expression in blood during filarial infections, but that during an immunisation time course it is the early time points following immunisation that are the most predictive of vaccine efficacy (protection outcome). One of the vaccine candidates, cysteine protease inhibitor-2 (CPI), is a known immuno-modulator that inhibits MHC-II antigen presentation on antigen presenting cells such as dendritic cells (DC). This candidate has consistently been shown to induce protection if its immuno-modulatory active site was modified. In in vitro studies, it was shown that modification of the active site of CPI rescues antigen presentation in DC. This shows the importance of DC activation before the onset of infection, demonstrating the importance of triggering protective responses early in infection, and provides insight on how one of the vaccine candidates achieves protection.