Ben Lindsey

Imperial College London | Imperial · Section of Paediatrics

Directly measuring evidence of influenza infections is difficult, especially in low surveillance settings such as sub-Saharan Africa. Using a Bayesian model, we estimated unobserved infection times and underlying antibody responses to influenza A/H3N2 using cross-sectional serum antibody responses to four strains in children aged 24-60 months. Amon...

Adaptation in egg-passaged vaccine strains may cause reduced vaccine effectiveness due to altered antigenicity of the influenza haemagglutinin. We tested whether egg adaptation modified serum and mucosal antibody responses to the A(H3N2) component in the Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine (LAIV). Twice as many children seroconverted to an egg-adapte...

Background: The efficacy and effectiveness of the pandemic H1N1 (pH1N1) component in live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) is poor. The reasons for this paucity are unclear but could be due to impaired replicative fitness of pH1N1 A/California/07/2009-like (Cal09) strains. We assessed whether an updated pH1N1 strain in the Russian-backbone triva...

Background: Poor efficacy and effectiveness of the pandemic H1N1 (pH1N1) component in intranasal live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) has been demonstrated in several studies. The reasons for this are unclear, but may be due to impaired replicative fitness of pH1N1 A/California/07/2009-like (Cal09) LAIV strains. Methods: In an open-label, prosp...

The burden of influenza in Africa is substantial and underappreciated. Although surveillance has increased, the medical community's understanding of seasonal influenza vaccine performance remains limited. We did a systematic review, using PRISMA guidelines (PROSPERO CRD42017058107), on the efficacy, effectiveness, and immunogenicity of influenza va...

Background Recent observational studies in the United States have reported reduced effectiveness of the Ann Arbor-backbone live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV), coinciding with emergence of 2009 pandemic H1N1 (pH1N1). A recent RCT in Senegal of the Russian-backbone LAIV also showed no efficacy, with pH1N1 the predominant vaccine-matched strain...

Ebola virus causes a severe haemorrhagic fever in humans with high case fatality and significant epidemic potential. The 2013–2016 outbreak in West Africa was unprecedented in scale, being larger than all previous outbreaks combined, with 28 646 reported cases and 11 323 reported deaths. It was also unique in its geographical distribution and multi...

Introduction: Following the major outbreak of pertussis and 14 infant deaths across England in 2012, the Department of Health (DH) introduced the UK's first maternal pertussis vaccination programme. Data published by Public Health England (PHE) suggest uptake of the vaccine varies considerably across the country. The reasons for this heterogeneity...

Purpose of review: Following on from the success of maternal tetanus vaccination, recent research has shown that other vaccines given in pregnancy can protect against vaccine-preventable infections in early infancy. This review will outline these recent developments and highlight the impact on current clinical practice. Recent findings: Maternal...