48th ICAAC/46th IDSA Annual Meeting: a pediatric perspective.

A combined meeting of the American Society of Microbiology and the Infectious Diseases Society of America was held recently in Washington, DC, USA, which gathered worldwide experts in the fields of infectious diseases, microbiology and the pharmaceutical industry, among others. Owing to its huge attendance and being among the largest conferences in the world during the year for infectious disease specialists, we focus only in the most relevant issues related to pediatric vaccines. Among others, we mention dengue, rotavirus, HIV, influenza virus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria meningitidis, pertussis, measles and mumps. The case with mumps and measles illustrates the negative impact that vaccine refusal, fears and low coverage rates have on the resurgence of outbreaks produced by these two viruses. However, even with full vaccination schedules, other factors, such as waning immunity, influence the resurgence of these old diseases: pertussis, measles and mumps. This illustrates the importance of continuous surveillance in the epidemiology of vaccine-preventable diseases once a vaccine is licensed and introduced in a given population.