The increasing healthcare burden of enteric fever in a Low-Incidence setting

OBJECTIVES

Enteric fever carries appreciable morbidity in non-endemic settings, particularly in returned travelers. This study aimed to characterize the healthcare burden of enteric fever in a low-incidence setting and to identify risk factors and opportunities for preventative interventions.

METHODS

Analysis of a retrospective case series from a tertiary pediatric center (2015-2019), augmented by public health notification and microbiological laboratory data (2018-2019), from Western Sydney, Australia, a region with frequent travel links to South Asia.

RESULTS

Eighty-nine (89) patients were diagnosed with enteric fever, including 43 children with complete demographic and travel data. Enteric fever cases increased over time (by 4.9 % per year) and incidence was three times higher in the pediatric population (<15 years old) compared to adults. Travel to India and visiting friends and relatives (VFR) travel were risk factors. Few children received enteric fever vaccination prior to travel, as pre-travel advice most commonly was not sought.

CONCLUSIONS

Children visiting relatives in high-incidence countries are increasingly at risk for enteric fever, particularly when travelling to South Asia. Targeted health advice to travelers visiting friends and relatives is warranted to mitigate the healthcare burden of enteric fever in low-incidence settings.

Cost-effectiveness analysis of typhoid vaccination in Lao PDR

BACKGROUND

Typhoid vaccination has been shown to be an effective intervention to prevent enteric fever and is under consideration for inclusion in the national immunization program in Lao PDR.

METHODS

A cost-utility analysis was performed using an age-structured static decision tree model to estimate the costs and health outcomes of introducing TCV. Vaccination strategies combined with five delivery approaches in different age groups compared to no vaccination were considered from the societal perspective, using the Gavi price of 1.5 USD per dose. The vaccination program was considered to be cost-effective if the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was less than a threshold of 1 GDP per capita for Lao PDR, equivalent to USD 2,535 in 2020.

RESULTS

In the model, we estimated 172.2 cases of enteric fever, with 1.3 deaths and a total treatment cost of USD 7,244, based on a birth cohort of 164,662 births without TCV vaccination that was followed over their lifetime. To implement a TCV vaccination program over the lifetime horizon, the estimated cost of the vaccine and administration costs would be between USD 470,934 and USD 919,186. Implementation of the TCV vaccination program would prevent between 14 and 106 cases and 0.1 to 0.8 deaths. None of the vaccination programs appeared to be cost-effective.

CONCLUSIONS

Inclusion of TCV in the national vaccination program in Lao PDR would only be cost-effective if the true typhoid incidence is 25-times higher than our current estimate.

Paratyphoid blamed on Ulster: a nursing odyssey

The aim of the Modicum mission from the United States was to determine the fate of the Western World, the Second Front and the Manhattan Project plans for development of atomic weapons. The Modicum mission was appointed in March 1942 by Franklin Delano Roosevelt as President and Commander-in-Chief of the US forces. The journey via the Anglican Cathedral in Bermuda, to Gander, to London, to Ulster was eventful. There was a clay-pigeon shooting contest in Gander. Generals Marshall, Eisenhower, Clark and Averell Harriman were outshot by their pilot. In Ulster, an escorting US sergeant killed a Londonderry bus driver with three shots. At a house party requested by King George VI and General Marshall, at Ashbrook, Ardmore, near Londonderry, it is alleged Averell Harriman was poisoned with Salmonella schottmülleri. He was delirious and 'gravely ill' for three weeks at 3 Grosvenor Square next to the American Embassy. He subsequently married his "other nurse", Pamela. Ambassador Pamela Churchill Harriman, a long-time ardent supporter of the Clintons, died in February 1997 following a stroke.