Browsing by Author "Redlberger-Fritz, Monika"
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- Estimated number of lives directly saved by COVID-19 vaccination programmes in the WHO European Region from December, 2020, to March, 2023: a retrospective surveillance studyPublication . Meslé, Margaux M.I.; Brown, Jeremy; Mook, Piers; Katz, Mark A.; Hagan, José; Pastore, Roberta; Benka, Bernhard; Redlberger-Fritz, Monika; Bossuyt, Nathalie; Stouten, Veerle; Vernemmen, Catharina; Constantinou, Elisabet; Maly, Marek; Kynčl, Jan; Sanca, Ondrej; Krause, Tyra Grove; Vestergaard, Lasse Skafte; Leino, Tuija; Poukka, Eero; Gkolfinopoulou, Kassiani; Mellou, Kassiani; Tsintziloni, Maria; Molnár, Zsuzsanna; Aspelund, Gudrun; Thordardottir, Marianna; Domegan, Lisa; Kelly, Eva; O'Donell, Joan; Urdiales, Alberto-Mateo; Riccardo, Flavia; Sacco, Chiara; Bumšteinas, Viktoras; Liausediene, Rasa; Mossong, Joël; Vergison, Anne; Borg, Maria-Louise; Melillo, Tanya; Kocinski, Dragan; Pollozhani, Enkela; Meijerink, Hinta; Costa, Diana; Gomes, João Paulo; Leite, Pedro Pinto; Druc, Alina; Gutu, Veaceslav; Mita, Valentin; Lazar, Mihaela; Popescu, Rodica; Popovici, Odette; Musilová, Monika; Mrzel, Maja; Socan, Maja; Učakar, Veronika; Limia, Aurora; Mazagatos, Clara; Olmedo, Carmen; Dabrera, Gavin; Kall, Meaghan; Sinnathamby, Mary; McGowan, Graham; McMenamin, Jim; Morrison, Kirsty; Nitzan, Dorit; Widdowson, Marc-Alain; Smallwood, Catherine; Pebody, Richard; WHO European Respiratory Surveillance NetworkBackground: By March, 2023, 54 countries, areas, and territories (hereafter CAT) in the WHO European Region had reported more than 2·2 million COVID-19-related deaths to the WHO Regional Office for Europe. Here, we estimated how many lives were directly saved by vaccinating adults in the WHO European Region from December, 2020, to March, 2023. Methods: In this retrospective surveillance study, we estimated the number of lives directly saved by age group, vaccine dose, and circulating variant-of-concern (VOC) period, regionally and nationally, using weekly data on COVID-19 mortality and infection, COVID-19 vaccination uptake, and SARS-CoV-2 virus characterisations by lineage downloaded from The European Surveillance System on June 11, 2023, as well as vaccine effectiveness data from the literature. We included data for six age groups (25-49 years, 50-59 years, ≥60 years, 60-69 years, 70-79 years, and ≥80 years). To be included in the analysis, CAT needed to have reported both COVID-19 vaccination and mortality data for at least one of the four older age groups. Only CAT that reported weekly data for both COVID-19 vaccination and mortality by age group for 90% of study weeks or more in the full study period were included. We calculated the percentage reduction in the number of expected and reported deaths. Findings: Between December, 2020, and March, 2023, in 34 of 54 CAT included in the analysis, COVID-19 vaccines reduced deaths by 59% overall (CAT range 17-82%), representing approximately 1·6 million lives saved (range 1·5-1·7 million) in those aged 25 years or older: 96% of lives saved were aged 60 years or older and 52% were aged 80 years or older; first boosters saved 51% of lives, and 60% were saved during the Omicron period. Interpretation: Over nearly 2·5 years, most lives saved by COVID-19 vaccination were in older adults by first booster dose and during the Omicron period, reinforcing the importance of up-to-date vaccination among the most at-risk individuals. Further modelling work should evaluate indirect effects of vaccination and public health and social measures.
- Estimates of global seasonal influenza-associated respiratory mortality: a modelling studyPublication . Iuliano, A. Danielle; Roguski, Katherine M.; Chang, Howard H.; Muscatello, David J.; Palekar, Rakhee; Tempia, Stefano; Cohen, Cheryl; Gran, Jon Michael; Schanzer, Dena; Cowling, Benjamin J.; Wu, Peng; Kyncl, Jan; Ang, Li Wei; Park, Minah; Redlberger-Fritz, Monika; Yu, Hongjie; Espenhain, Laura; Krishnan, Anand; Emukule, Gideon; van Asten, Liselotte; Silva, Susana Pereira; Aungkulanon, Suchunya; Buchholz, Udo; Widdowson, Marc-Alain; Bresee, Joseph S.; Global Seasonal Influenza-associated Mortality Collaborator NetworkBACKGROUND: Estimates of influenza-associated mortality are important for national and international decision making on public health priorities. Previous estimates of 250 000-500 000 annual influenza deaths are outdated. We updated the estimated number of global annual influenza-associated respiratory deaths using country-specific influenza-associated excess respiratory mortality estimates from 1999-2015. METHODS: We estimated country-specific influenza-associated respiratory excess mortality rates (EMR) for 33 countries using time series log-linear regression models with vital death records and influenza surveillance data. To extrapolate estimates to countries without data, we divided countries into three analytic divisions for three age groups (<65 years, 65-74 years, and ≥75 years) using WHO Global Health Estimate (GHE) respiratory infection mortality rates. We calculated mortality rate ratios (MRR) to account for differences in risk of influenza death across countries by comparing GHE respiratory infection mortality rates from countries without EMR estimates with those with estimates. To calculate death estimates for individual countries within each age-specific analytic division, we multiplied randomly selected mean annual EMRs by the country's MRR and population. Global 95% credible interval (CrI) estimates were obtained from the posterior distribution of the sum of country-specific estimates to represent the range of possible influenza-associated deaths in a season or year. We calculated influenza-associated deaths for children younger than 5 years for 92 countries with high rates of mortality due to respiratory infection using the same methods. FINDINGS: EMR-contributing countries represented 57% of the global population. The estimated mean annual influenza-associated respiratory EMR ranged from 0·1 to 6·4 per 100 000 individuals for people younger than 65 years, 2·9 to 44·0 per 100 000 individuals for people aged between 65 and 74 years, and 17·9 to 223·5 per 100 000 for people older than 75 years. We estimated that 291 243-645 832 seasonal influenza-associated respiratory deaths (4·0-8·8 per 100 000 individuals) occur annually. The highest mortality rates were estimated in sub-Saharan Africa (2·8-16·5 per 100 000 individuals), southeast Asia (3·5-9·2 per 100 000 individuals), and among people aged 75 years or older (51·3-99·4 per 100 000 individuals). For 92 countries, we estimated that among children younger than 5 years, 9243-105 690 influenza-associated respiratory deaths occur annually. INTERPRETATION: These global influenza-associated respiratory mortality estimates are higher than previously reported, suggesting that previous estimates might have underestimated disease burden. The contribution of non-respiratory causes of death to global influenza-associated mortality should be investigated.
- Predominance of influenza virus A(H3N2) 3C.2a1b and A(H1N1)pdm09 6B.1A5A genetic subclades in the WHO European Region, 2018–2019Publication . Melidou, Angeliki; Hungnes, Olav; Pereyaslov, Dmitriy; Adlhoch, Cornelia; Segaloff, Hannah; Robesyn, Emmanuel; Penttinen, Pasi; Olsen, Sonja J.; Redlberger-Fritz, Monika; Popow-Kraupp, Therese; Hasibra, Iris; Simaku, Artan; Thomas, Isabelle; Barbezange, Cyril; Dedeić-Ljubović, Amela; Rodić-Vukmir, Nina; Korsun, Neli; Angenova, Svetla; Draženović, Vladimir; Koliou, Maria; Pieridou, Despo; Havlickova, Martina; Nagy, Alexander; Trebbien, Ramona; Galiano, Monica; Thompson, Catherine; Ikonen, Niina; Haveri, Anu; Behillil, Sylvie; Enouf, Vincent; Valette, Martine; Lina, Bruno; Gavashelidze, Mari; Machablishvili, Ann; Gioula, Georgia; Exindari, Maria; Kossyvakis, Athanasios; Mentis, Andreas; Dürrwald, Ralf; Zsuzsanna, Molnar; Monika, Rozsa; Löve, Arthur; Erna, Gudrun; Dunford, Linda; Fitzpatrick, Sarah; Castrucci, Maria Rita; Puzelli, Simona; Sagymbay, Altynay; Nussupbayeva, Gaukhar; Zamjatina, Natalija; Pakarna, Gatis; Griskevičius, Algirdas; Skrickiene, Asta; Fournier, Guillaume; Mossong, Joel; Melillo, Jackie; Zahra, Graziella; Meijer, Adam; Fouchier, Ron; McCaughey, Conall; O'Doherty, Mark; Bragstad, Karoline; Guiomar, Raquel; Pechirra, Pedro; Apostol, Mariana; Alina, Druc; Lazar, Mihaela; Maria, Cherciu Carmen; Komissarov, Andrey; Burtseva, Elena; Gunson, Rory N.; Shepherd, Samantha; Tichá, Elena; Staronova, Edita; Prosenc, Katarina; Berginc, Nataša; Pozo, Francisco; Casas, Inmaculada; Brytting, Mia; Wiman, Åsa; Gonçalves, Ana Rita; Demchyshyna, Iryna; Mironenko, Alla; Moore, Catherine; Cottrell, Simon; European Region influenza surveillance networkBackground: The 2018/2019 influenza season in the WHO European Region was dominated by influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 and (H3N2) viruses, with very few influenza B viruses detected. Methods: Countries in the European Region reported virus characterization data to The European Surveillance System for weeks 40/2018 to 20/2019. These virus antigenic and genetic characterization and haemagglutinin (HA) sequence data were analysed to describe and assess circulating viruses relative to the 2018/2019 vaccine virus components for the northern hemisphere. Results: Thirty countries reported 4776 viruses characterized genetically and 3311 viruses antigenically. All genetically characterized A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses fell in subclade 6B.1A, of which 90% carried the amino acid substitution S183P in the HA gene. Antigenic data indicated that circulating A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses were similar to the 2018/2019 vaccine virus. Genetic data showed that A(H3N2) viruses mostly fell in clade 3C.2a (75%) and 90% of which were subclade 3C.2a1b. A lower proportion fell in clade 3C.3a (23%) and were antigenically distinct from the vaccine virus. All B/Victoria viruses belonged to clade 1A; 30% carried a double amino acid deletion in HA and were genetically and antigenically similar to the vaccine virus component, while 55% carried a triple amino acid deletion or no deletion in HA; these were antigenically distinct from each other and from the vaccine component. All B/Yamagata viruses belonged to clade 3 and were antigenically similar to the virus component in the quadrivalent vaccine for 2018/2019. Conclusions: A simultaneous circulation of genetically and antigenically diverse A(H3N2) and B/Victoria viruses was observed and represented a challenge to vaccine strain selection.