2014 Pardee Summer Fellow is Lead Author of Paper in BMJ Open

Abhishek Sharma, a 2014 Pardee Graduate Summer Fellow and currently a graduate student at the Boston University School of Public Health, is the lead author of a paper recently published in the online journal BMJ Open.

The paper, titled “Implications of private sector Hib vaccine coverage for the introduction of public sector Hib-containing pentavalent vaccine in India: evidence from retrospective time series data”, looks at the availability and use of the haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine for children in India’s private sector market for the period 2009-2012, and how that may relate to the government’s plans to introduce a new pentavalent vaccine (one vaccine that covers diphtheria, pertusis, tetanus, Heptatis B, and Hib) in India’s public sector vaccination program this year.  India has the highest Hib disease burden in the world, with approximately 2.4 million cases and 72,000 Hib-related deaths annually; Hib accounts for more than four percent of the total deaths among children.  The paper concludes that the public program is needed for India to realize “high and equitable” Hib vaccine coverage, and while the role of the private sector remains “undefined”, it could be viewed as a “useful complement” to the public sector program.

This paper is based on research Sharma conducted during his Pardee Summer Fellowship. His co-authors include Prof. Warren Kaplan of the BU School of Public Health as well as Maulik Chokshi, Habib Hasan Farooqui, and Sanjay P. Zodpey of the Public Health Foundation of India, based in New Delhi.

Applications for the 2015 Pardee Graduate Summer Fellows program are now being accepted.  The deadline is Monday, March 16.