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Background: Within Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, risk factors for pneumonia are concentrated among children living in informal settlements comprised of temporary shelters (gers). We used pneumococcal carriage surveillance among children from formal and informal settlements hospitalised with pneumonia to evaluate the direct and indirect effects of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) against vaccine-type (VT) pneumococcal carriage following a phased introduction of PCV13.
Methods: We enrolled and collected nasopharyngeal swabs from children 2-59 months of age presenting to hospital. Pneumococci were detected using lytA qPCR and serotyped using microarray on a random monthly selection of swabs between November 2015 and March 2019 from two districts in Ulaanbaatar. PCV13 status was determined using written records. We quantified the associations between individual PCV13 status (direct effects) and district-level PCV13 coverage (indirect effects) and VT carriage using generalised estimating equations and explored interactions by settlement type.
Findings: A total of 1 292 swabs from 6 046 participants were tested for pneumococci. Receipt of PCV13 and increasing PCV13 coverage independently reduced the risk of VT carriage. For each percent increase in PCV13 coverage, the adjusted odds of VT carriage decreased by 1•0% (OR 95% CI 0•983-0•996; p=0•001), with a predicted decrease in VT carriage rate from 29•1% to 13•1% as coverage reached 100%. There was a trend towards a slower decline within informal settlements (p=0•100). Adjusted PCV13 vaccine effectiveness against VT carriage was 39•1% (95% CI 11•4-58•1%, p=0•009).
Interpretation: Substantial indirect effects were observed following PCV13 introduction, including among children living within informal settlements.
Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lanwpc.2021.100231 | DOI Listing |
JMIR Public Health Surveill
September 2025
Center of Indigenous Health Care, Department of Community Health, Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated economies and strained health care systems worldwide. Vaccination is crucial for outbreak control, but disparities persist between and within countries. In Taiwan, certain indigenous regions show lower vaccination rates, prompting comprehensive inquiries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhys Rev Lett
August 2025
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Theoretical Division, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
At the extreme densities in neutron stars, a phase transition to deconfined quark matter is anticipated. Yet masses, radii, and tidal deformabilities offer only indirect measures of a first-order phase transition, requiring many detections to resolve or being ineffective observables if the discontinuity exists at lower densities. We report on a smoking-gun gravitational-wave signature of a first-order transition: the resonant tidal excitation of an interface mode.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol
September 2025
Department of Pediatrics, Ribeirao Preto Medical School - University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The differential diagnosis within polyuria-polydipsia syndrome, especially in the pediatric population, remains challenging. Despite its limited accuracy, the water deprivation test (WDT) is the reference test in pediatrics. We retrospectively analyzed performed in 65 pediatric patients (mean age 8.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBioinformatics
September 2025
Department of Biostatistics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania United States.
Summary: Causal mediation analysis investigates the role of mediators in the relationship between exposure and outcome. In the analysis of omics or imaging data, mediators are often high-dimensional, presenting challenges such as multicollinearity and interpretability. Existing methods either compromise interpretability or fail to effectively prioritize mediators.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
September 2025
Methodology and Analysis, Statistics Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Background: Previous studies have found paternal occupation, childhood intelligence, and educational attainment to be important predictors of socioeconomic status (SES) later in life. However, these factors only explain part of the variance in SES and thus, it is important to identify other predictors of SES and trajectories of influence from early childhood to adulthood.
Objectives: To analyze predictors of SES attainment during the life course from early childhood to midlife with special emphasis on identifying direct and indirect effects on midlife SES of early childhood, late childhood and young adult characteristics.