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 |  | | Introduction of New Vaccine Russia | | Haemophilus type B (Hib) Research and Pilot Vaccination Program in Russia | | • | Chief Sanitary Physician of RF, Dr. Onishenko, requests RVF conduct pilot Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccination programs in the city of Yaroslavl and throughout Murmansk region (oblast) because of high attack rate. RVF receives grant from French energy company Total to finance programs. | | • | Recent study by RVF had shown heavy burden of Hib meningitis in children at two study sites in Western Russia. Meningitis and other serious infections caused by Hib disease can lead to brain damage or death. | | • | Hib research now extended to Russian Far East – Vladivostok, Ulan Ude, Irkutsk and Yakutsk - thanks to grant from USAID. Results of this research will create clear national picture of looming public health problem. | | • | Future Hib vaccination pilots to follow in RFE pending outcome of epidemiologic research | | • | Long term goal is to work with Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to protect all children in Russia from ravages of Hib infection by including Hib vaccine in the National Immunization Calendar |
| The Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya Foundation (RVF) is an organization with deep interest and experience in modernizing childhood vaccination in the Russian Federation (RF).
Following the handing off of its highly successful hepatitis B vaccination initiative for adolescents to the Russian federal |
|  | | RVF-Russia representative conducts training of health care workers on the vaccine for Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) |
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| government, the RVF has agreed to a request from Dr. G. G. Onishenko, Chief Sanitary Physician of the RF,to conduct a two-year pilot vaccination program for the prevention of Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) infection in infants in two major European regions of the RF: Murmansk and Yaroslavl. Dr. Onishinko’s request was prompted by the finding of the RVF’s recent study of the epidemiology of Hib infection in Western Russia, which demonstrated substantial attack rates in the above-mentioned locations The data showed attack rates of Hib meningitis were 20 and 26 per 100,000 children under age five years in Murmansk and Yaroslavl respectively. Since meningitis generally accounts for about half of the burden of Hib disease, the true prevalence of Hib disease in young children approaches 50 per 100,000, a rate comparable to that of Finland in the pre-vaccine era. By criteria established by the World Health Organization (WHO), rates in excess of 10 cases per 100,000 population under 5 years of age indicate the need for a strategy of prevention based on the routine immunization of children in the first two years of life.
Hib infection was common among infants and children under 5 years of age in Western Europe and the United States until the introduction of Hib conjugated vaccines in the early 1990s. However, the failure of many countries to institute a preventive approach to such a common and severe public health problem is the reason why the world still sees about 380,000 children die unnecessarily each year due to Hib disease, chiefly through meningitis and pneumonia. Thus the Hib vaccination programs in Russia should be viewed in the context of the national priority on public health and infectious diseases control through immunization, which is part of the national program known as “Health” announced by President Putin in September 2005.
The Hib vaccination programs launched in January 2007 in the city of Yaroslavl and the Murmansk region with a grant from the French energy company Total is targeting all children under the age of 2 years, in accordance with WHO guidelines. The programs will demonstrate the safety and efficacy of the Hib conjugate vaccine in young children. Data generated by the ongoing epidemiologic study of Hib disease in these locations will provide a baseline to demonstrate the impact of immunization. The epidemiologic study is being directed by the Central Institute of Epidemiology in Moscow with funding from the RVF.
| | » Vaccination chart | The RVF is not creating parallel structures to implement the vaccination programs. Thus, all vaccinations are performed by local health care workers, and all vaccines are administered at the child’s standard location of health care delivery (polyclinics and primary care stations).
The RVF provides educational materials and training to health care workers involved in the program. This includes a series of seminars dealing with indications and contraindications to the Hib vaccine, adverse events following immunization and adverse reactions to the Hib vaccine, as well as ongoing surveillance of the Hib disease burden. Teaching materials are supplied to health care workers at vaccination sites. The RVF is working collaboratively with the MOHSD in Moscow and the regional health and government officials to introduce the pilot vaccination programs to the general public, highlighting the urgent medical need for and safety of the vaccine. In addition, the RVF prepared brochures to be distributed to all parents at vaccination sites.
Thanks to a grant from USAID, the RVF is working with the Central Institute of Epidemiology in Moscow to create a clear picture of the epidemiology of Hib infection in the Russian Far East (RFE) to add to what is already known about Hib in European Russia, thus creating a national picture of this looming public health problem. As in the case of the Hib research in Western Russia, the research in the RFE will be guided the WHO’s “Generic Protocol for Population-Based Surveillance of Haemophilus influenzae type b.” Following the first year of the research it is expected that a pilot vaccination program against Hib for children aged under two years will be introduced to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of the Hib vaccine and to join the results of this program to the pilot vaccination programs in the city of Yaroslavl and the Murmansk region in European Russia.
It is expected that the successful accomplishment of defining the epidemiology of Hib infection and the introduction of the Hib vaccine in pilot vaccination programs will provide the necessary impetus for including the Hib vaccine in the national immunization calendar of the Russian Federation.
More Information on Hib from the WHO | | |
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The Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya Foundation (RVF) is a non-political, non-partisan organization whose mission is to make a difference in the health and wellbeing of vulnerable children...
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