Controlling epidemics with transmissible vaccines

Nuismer, Scott L.; May, Ryan H.; Basinski, Andrew; Remien, Christopher H.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0196978

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Understanding whether mutant vaccine derived strains may frustrate longer term vaccine applications requires same-strain reinfection experiments in captive bats. Longitudinal monitoring of vaccine-infected individuals is also needed to quantify the dynamics of latency, reactivation and superinfection 55,56 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Epidemiology and biology of a herpesvirus in rabies endemic vampire bat populations

et al. 2020

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Rabies is a viral zoonosis transmitted by vampire bats across Latin America. Substantial public health and agricultural burdens remain, despite decades of bats culls and livestock vaccinations. Virally vectored vaccines that spread autonomously through bat populations are a theoretically appealing solution to managing rabies in its reservoir host. We investigate the biological and epidemiological suitability of a vampire bat betaherpesvirus (DrBHV) to act as a vaccine vector. In 25 sites across Peru with serological and/or molecular evidence of rabies circulation, DrBHV infects 80–100% of bats, suggesting potential for high population-level vaccine coverage. Phylogenetic analysis reveals host specificity within neotropical bats, limiting risks to non-target species. Finally, deep sequencing illustrates DrBHV super-infections in individual bats, implying that DrBHV-vectored vaccines might invade despite the highly prevalent wild-type virus. These results indicate DrBHV as a promising candidate vector for a transmissible rabies vaccine, and provide a framework to discover and evaluate candidate viral vectors for vaccines against bat-borne zoonoses.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Epidemiology and biology of a herpesvirus in rabies endemic vampire bat populations

et al. 2020

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“…Indeed, throughout the study, most people who answered “No,” justified this with sentences such as “there’s no vaccine” or “there’s not a medication targeting the virus.” These findings underline some incongruence and some misconceptions. A vaccine is a tertiary preventative measure administered to confer immunity to a certain infectious disease by enabling an asymptomatic/mild clinical manifestation of it, useful for controlling epidemics [29-31]. Therefore, it is necessary to demystify the idea that a vaccine is a cure for an infectious disease.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health Literacy of the Inland Population in Mitigation Phase 3.2 of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Portugal: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study

Silva¹,

Silva

Alexandre³

et al. 2020

Port J Public Health

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Background: COVID-19 is a respiratory disease transmitted through respiratory droplets and has a high transmission rate. There is still no effective and approved antiretroviral treatment or vaccine, so preventative measures remain the key to contain this pandemic. Portugal is now in phase 3.2 of the mitigation of COVID-19, with it being imperative to understand the health literacy of our country and prevent a lack of information through community empowerment. Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study with a sample from a primary care facility was conducted. We collected demographic and epidemiological data and carried out a questionnaire by phone call. Descriptive statistics and nonparametric tests were used to assess associations between the independent variables and the level of health literacy. The level of significance was set at p < 0.05. Results: Our sample included 222 subjects (median age 62 years), mostly females (n = 131), undergraduates (n = 193), and with at least 1 risk factor for COVID-19 (n = 144). Overall, younger individuals, females, graduates and the nonrisk group appeared to have higher levels of health literacy, with some exceptions. Conclusions: We observed a well-informed population. However, it being a pandemic situation, our intention was to identify and correct outliers/misconceptions. This work allowed a perspective of the current state/pattern of health literacy as well as its possible predictors. Furthermore, it raised awareness of the relevance of specific communication approaches. Further studies to understand the predictors of health literacy are necessary.

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“…This would include cases where the R 0 of an endemic pathogen drops below 1 due to acquired immunity, vaccination, antimicrobial drugs or other control measures. It would also apply to weakly transmissible live vaccines, such as the oral polio vaccine, which have R 0 < 1 by design but can evolve higher levels of transmissibility [33–35]. Dominance may also have interesting consequences for the evolution of pathogens in stable or growing populations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A general framework for modelling the impact of co-infections on pathogen evolution

Bushman

Antia

2019

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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Theoretical models suggest that mixed-strain infections, or co-infections, are an important driver of pathogen evolution. However, the within-host dynamics of co-infections vary enormously, which complicates efforts to develop a general understanding of how co-infections affect evolution. Here, we develop a general framework which condenses the within-host dynamics of co-infections into a few key outcomes, the most important of which is the overall R 0 of the co-infection. Similar to how fitness is determined by two different alleles in a heterozygote, the R 0 of a co-infection is a product of the R 0 values of the co-infecting strains, shaped by the interaction of those strains at the within-host level. Extending the analogy, we propose that the overall R 0 reflects the dominance of the co-infecting strains, and that the ability of a mutant strain to invade a population is a function of its dominance in co-infections. To illustrate the utility of these concepts, we use a within-host model to show how dominance arises from the within-host dynamics of a co-infection, and then use an epidemiological model to demonstrate that dominance is a robust predictor of the ability of a mutant strain to save a maladapted wild-type strain from extinction (evolutionary emergence).

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Controlling epidemics with transmissible vaccines

Cited by 16 publications

References 23 publications

Epidemiology and biology of a herpesvirus in rabies endemic vampire bat populations

Epidemiology and biology of a herpesvirus in rabies endemic vampire bat populations

Health Literacy of the Inland Population in Mitigation Phase 3.2 of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Portugal: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study

A general framework for modelling the impact of co-infections on pathogen evolution

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