Vaccination Programmes: Epidemiology, Monitoring, Evaluation

by Susan Hahné, Kaatje Bollaerts, Paddy Farrington

Overview

Vaccination programmes are of vital importance to public health and are present in virtually every country in the world. By promoting an understanding of the diverse effects of vaccination programmes, this textbook discusses how epidemiologic methods can be used to study, in real life, their impacts, benefits and risks.

Written by expert practitioners in an accessible and concise style, this book is interspersed with practical examples which allow readers to acquire understanding through real-life data and problems. Part I provides an overview of basic concepts in vaccinology, immunology, vaccination programmes, infectious disease transmission dynamics, the various impacts of vaccination programmes and their societal context. Part II covers the main field tools used for the epidemiological evaluation of vaccination programmes: monitoring coverage and attitudes towards vaccination, surveillance of vaccine-preventable diseases and pathogens, seroepidemiological studies, methods to assess impact and outbreak investigation. Part III is dedicated to vaccine effectiveness and its assessment. Part IV includes an overview of the potential risks of vaccination and how to study these. Lastly, Part V deals with methods for an integrated assessment of benefits and risks of vaccination programmes. Suitable for professionals working in public health, epidemiology, biology and those working in health economics and vaccine development, Vaccination Programmes also serves as a textbook for postgraduate students in public health, epidemiology and infectious diseases.

The book is aimed at all those involved in the many aspects of vaccination programmes, including public health professionals and epidemiologists. Its primary target audiences are master and doctoral students in infectious disease epidemiology and public health, post-doctoral participants of field epidemiology training programmes and public health professionals working in the post-implementation epidemiological evaluation of vaccines and vaccination programmes.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138054851
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/14/2021
Pages:	470
Sales rank:	830,975
Product dimensions:	6.88(w) x 9.69(h) x (d)

About the Author

Susan Hahné is a senior epidemiologist in the National Immunisation Programme Department at the Centre for Epidemiology and Surveillance of Infectious Diseases of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in the Netherlands.

Kaatje Bollaerts is the head of data science at P95 Belgium, a scientific service-providing company focused on pharmacovigilance and epidemiology related to vaccines and infectious diseases.

Paddy Farrington is an emeritus professor of statistics at the Open University (OU), UK. Prior to joining the OU in 1998, he was a statistician at the Immunisation Division of the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre in the UK for 11 years

Table of Contents

Part I: Background 1.Vaccines 2.How vaccines work 3.Vaccination programmes 4.Dynamics of controlling vaccine preventable diseases 5.Impact of mass vaccination programmes 6.Vaccine risks: a societal perspective Part II: Field Tools for Monitoring Vaccination Programmes 7.Monitoring vaccine coverage and attitudes towards vaccination 8.Surveillance of vaccine preventable diseases and pathogens 9.Serological surveillance 10.Assessing impact 11.Outbreak investigation of vaccine preventable diseases Part III: Vaccine Effectiveness 12.Vaccine effectiveness 13.Estimating vaccine effectiveness: General methodological principles 14.Estimating vaccine effectiveness: Cohort and household contact studies 15.Estimating vaccine effectiveness: Case-control and screening studies 16.Waning vaccine effectiveness and models of vaccine action Part IV: Risks Associated with Vaccination Programmes 17.Vaccine safety: an introduction 18.Surveillance of adverse events following immunisation 19.Estimating vaccination risks: general methodological principles 20.Epidemiological study designs for evaluating vaccine safety Part V: Benefit-Risk Assessment of Vaccination Programmes 21.Benefit-risk assessment of vaccination programmes

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Patrick T. Zamba, MS Epidemiology(University of Iowa College of Public Health)
Description: This book explores the various real-life impacts, benefits, and risks of vaccination programs and the epidemiologic methods used to study them. The book begins with a brief history and overview of vaccines and basic biological and social concepts relevant to vaccines and vaccination programs. The authors then discuss in detail a plethora of epidemiologic tools and methods used in the field to evaluate vaccination programs, including surveillance, effectiveness, safety, coverage, and uptake. They conclude the book with an exploration of epidemiologic methods to assess the benefits and risks of vaccination programs.
Purpose: The purpose of the book is to aggregate diverse perspectives and real-world examples on the epidemiologic evaluation of vaccination programs to aid decision-makers in making informed public health decisions for the greater good of populations. These are very important objectives especially in the wake of the recent COVID-19 pandemic. The objectives have been met with enough evidence, in the form of real-world examples, presented from all parts of the world.
Audience: The book is written primarily for graduate students in epidemiology, while also targeting all professionals involved in the many different aspects of vaccination programs. In my opinion, this book is also relevant to policymakers/politicians and vaccine skeptics. The book meets the needs of the intended audience. There is no doubt about the authority of the authors on this subject based on their credentials.
Features: This book provides an immersive reading experience, beginning with a historical account of vaccination that sets the stage for understanding the entire timeline of vaccination programs and vaccine-preventable infectious diseases up to the most recent COVID-19 pandemic. This book is highly relevant. For instance, chapter 1 gives a detailed account of the history of vaccines and takes readers through the vaccine development and manufacturing process with real-world examples. The authors offer balanced viewpoints, like suggesting that having only four big pharmaceutical companies controlling the vaccine marketplace is harmful to public health. Thus, this book may not only be relevant to public health professionals, but vaccine skeptics may directly benefit from reading this book. In the era of vast misinformation especially on the internet, this book is an important contribution to the vaccine discourse and helps provide accurate information about vaccines. This book's strength is in its highly relevant and relatable real-world examples from diverse regions and countries of the world. These examples are easily accessible as they are presented in distinctive boxes throughout the book. There is also a table of contents dedicated solely to these boxes, making it even easier to find the examples. While the book could have been condensed more, like merging parts IV and V, the authors still provide respective chapter summaries throughout the book, which makes it easier to identify key points. I think the book could have used a few discussion prompts throughout the book and then presented the authors' opinions or responses to these questions at the end. That would have made it even more engaging.
Assessment: This is a very high-quality book. The examples immediately stood out to me as very relevant and relatable. The authors do a great job of catering to all levels of expertise in the field of epidemiology, even beyond the intended audience, thus making the book useful to the field of epidemiology as a whole. It is of similar quality and usefulness to the CDC's Pink Book, The Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases, 14th Edition (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021). Overall, this is a timely, relevant, and easy-to-understand book that every public health student, professional, policymaker, vaccine advocate, and anti-vaxxer should get a chance to read.

Doody's Review Service