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Volume 17, Number 6—June 2011
Research

Invasive Group A Streptococcal Infection and Vaccine Implications, Auckland, New Zealand

Atheer Safar, Diana LennonComments to Author , Joanna Stewart, Adrian Trenholme, Dragana Drinkovic, Briar Peat, Susan Taylor, Kerry Read, Sally Roberts, and Lesley Voss
Author affiliations: Author affiliations: Auckland City Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand (A. Safar, S. Roberts); The University of Auckland, Auckland (D. Lennon, J. Stewart); Kidz First Children’s Hospital/Middlemore Hospital, Auckland (A. Trenholme); North Shore Hospital, Auckland (D. Drinkovic, K. Read); The University of Auckland/Middlemore Hospital, Auckland (B. Peat); Middlemore Hospital, Auckland (S. Taylor); Starship Children’s Hospital, Auckland (L. Voss)

Main Article

Table 4

Invasive GAS disease and fatalities potentially prevented by vaccination of infants and elderly persons with a proposed 26-valent vaccine, Auckland, New Zealand, 2005–2006*

Age group, y (no. emm typed) Assumed vaccine efficacy, % Assumed vaccine coverage, % No. (%) persons with GAS disease from emm types in the 26-valent vaccine† GAS-related deaths from emm type in the 26-valent vaccine†, % Potential GAS disease prevented %‡ Potential GAS-related deaths prevented, %§
<5 (25) >84 80¶ 11 (44) 1# 29.6 0.67
>65 (59) 84 60** 18 (30.5) 14 (1/7) 15 7.1

*GAS, group A streptococcal.
†Among patients with typed isolates.
‡Percentage of assumed vaccine efficacy × percentage of assumed vaccine coverage × persons with GAS disease from 26-valent emm types (based on O’Loughlin et al. [2]).
§Percentage of assumed vaccine efficacy × percentage of assumed vaccine coverage × persons with GAS disease from 26-valent emm types × percentage of GAS-related deaths associated with a 26-valent emm type.
¶Craig et al. (24).
#Of the 4 children <5 years of age, 2 had an emm typed isolate. Neither of these types is in the proposed vaccine. These are very small numbers.
**New Zealand Ministry of Health Immunisation Handbook (www.moh.govt.nz).

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