Adolescents aged 10–19 years represent around 16% of the global population yet they are the least frequent consumers of preventive healthcare. Their vaccination rates also lag those of younger children.

The majority of morbidity and mortality in adolescents relates to what they are thinking, doing, and feeling. These problems include mental health issues, unintentional injuries, and interpersonal violence. Without regular preventive health visits, these issues are neither assessed nor addressed.

Immunization platforms – routine health visits for administration of recommended vaccines – have long served to enact the age-based vaccine schedule and provide opportunities for anticipatory guidance and health supervision, especially in pediatric practice. A global adolescent immunization platform would provide similar benefits for adolescents, enhancing their health by providing protection against vaccine-preventable diseases during adolescence and adulthood, and by acting as a hook to bring them into the doctor’s office for other preventive services.

In this symposium the expert panel will discuss the role of immunization platforms as a means to bring adolescents into the healthcare setting, providing opportunities for HCPs to assess and support their overall health and wellbeing. The faculty will also review the important principles for adolescent health supervision and anticipatory guidance, including screening for psychosocial concerns.

Key take-home messages

• Adolescents are the least frequent consumers of preventive healthcare and have low vaccination coverage rates compared with younger children
• The majority of the morbidity and mortality of adolescents relates to their thoughts, feelings, and actions during this period of intense physical and emotional change.
• Without regular preventive health visits, HCPs are unable to assess or address these factors that put them at greatest risk.
• The establishment of a global adolescent immunization platform will provide benefits for adolescents, by not only providing protection against vaccine-preventable diseases but also as a hook to bring them into the doctor’s office for other preventive services.
• Anticipatory guidance and health supervision, including screening for psychosocial concerns, has been shown to support the overall health and wellbeing of adolescents.

This Sanofi sponsored session aims to raise awareness of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) as a rare but highly unpredictable and potentially devastating disease and global public health concern. It will highlight the global challenges in preventing disease, including progress in the WHO goals to defeat meningitis and ensuring appropriate prevention approaches. It will also focus on the current and future epidemiology of IMD in the context of COVID-19 and introduce the current status and future directions in potentially reducing the impact of disease globally.

Key take-home messages:

• IMD remains a global public health concern. With the 2030 WHO goal of defeating meningitis approaching, prevention and epidemic control remain a key priority.
• Serogroup distribution and epidemiology is dynamic and highly unpredictable. New challenges, such as climate change, vaccine hesitancy and related communication needs, can impact the success of IMD prevention.
• Invasive respiratory infections dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the opportunity to further control diseases including IMD, vaccination coverage rates have dramatically decreased representing a potential risk, not only of a rebound in IMD rates, but also a resurgence of other diseases that were reduced, controlled or even eliminated.
• There are a range of effective vaccine options covering 5 of the main disease-causing meningococcal serogroups with favorable safety profiles. Vaccination strategies and coverage vary across the world. Meningococcal vaccines are dramatically reducing the global burden of disease, but their global uptake and impact needs to be enhanced.

To view the preceding episodes in the “Out of Time” IMD series, please visit: https://www.sanofipasteurscientificevents.com/IMDseries/

Young infants are especially vulnerable to infections, with potentially serious morbidity and mortality throughout the world. Respiratory infections caused by Bordetella pertussis remain prevalent worldwide, with an estimated over 24 million pertussis cases per year.

Vaccines to protect against pertussis have been available for several decades. Continued developments have been seen over time with the introduction of combined formulations and a switch from whole-cell to acellular vaccines. Today, combined acellular vaccines are commonly used in clinical practice, showing fewer adverse events than their whole-cell counterparts and combined formulations offering logistical benefits. Despite availability of these vaccines to provide the opportunity to protect vulnerable populations, vaccine coverage rates remain suboptimal and actually dropped in recent years in several countries. This problem has been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The expert panel will describe country-specific learnings and experiences associated with the introduction and use of acellular pertussis combination vaccines and will present the implications on real-world clinical practice. There will be a discussion of important learnings relevant to all attendees, with the goal of achieving equitable access to vaccines worldwide.

Key take-home messages:

• Young infants are especially vulnerable to respiratory infections caused by Bordetella pertussis, with potentially serious morbidity and mortality throughout Latin America and the rest of the world.
• Combined acellular vaccines provide the opportunity to protect vulnerable populations against pertussis infection, however vaccine coverage rates remain suboptimal; this problem has been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Learnings from recent approaches associated with the introduction and use of acellular pertussis combination vaccines in Latin America can be applied globally, with the goal of achieving equitable access to vaccines worldwide.