July marks the loss of a popular, successful, and valued member of the pneumococcal vaccine community.  Dr. James R. “Jim” Maleckar, 51, died Sunday, July 9, 2006 near his home in Pennsylvania.  Many of you will know Jim from his role as Director, Product Development at Sanofi-Pasteur with responsibilities including pneumococcal and meningococcal vaccines.  Honest, direct, smart, and with a unique mix of  “can do” attitude without ego, Jim was one of the driving forces in the company for making pneumococcal vaccines, and especially for making them available to developing countries.  He had a great sense of humor -- and he was a trout fisherman!  His life is a reminder to all of us to enjoy every day we get.  –Orin Levine

Below are some memories of Jim from those who knew and worked with him.  For those of you who would like to express your sympathies to or share memories of Jim’s life with the family, we encourage you to contribute to the online guest book by clicking on this link: http://obits.pennlive.com/ETPA/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=18427445  

Memories of Jim Maleckar
“I appreciated Jim for both his scientific and personal integrity. As a scientist his interest in immunology and developing countries was awakened during his Ph.D. as his thesis focused on Chagas disease in Latin America. Throughout his career Jim maintained the ability to be detailed while retaining perception of the larger issues, that is, to see the forest from the trees. He wanted to learn lessons from his past work, in a keen and positive manner, with critical and constructive appraisal, and had the ability to stretch to almost impossible dimensions when that was what was required for things to progress. He had a skill to see light at the end of a tunnel during difficult times, was a keen dancer, and had an incredible knowledge of wines. Jim will be remembered as one with tremendous compassion and human understanding, which he very eloquently combined with his scientific robustness and integrity.” – Hanna Nohynek

“Jim was one of the best project leaders I know, having always the final goal (get the vaccine developed) in his mind.  He was able to get things done (either by himself or through delegation) – able to make decisions and was always ready to help others.  He was passionate about wine and one of the best wine enthusiasts I know, with a tremendous cork collection as testimony to that enthusiasm.” – Juhani Eskola

“I first met Jim Malekar when he joined what is now Sanofi Pasteur and took charge of clinical development of an 11-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine that Rosanna Lagos and I were slated to evaluate in a large-scale field trial of efficacy in Santiago, Chile.  He was a pleasure to work with on that project, as he exhibited an unusual combination of technical competence and sound judgment, accompanied by a delightful, mellow personality.  Jim's work ethic and his warm, sincere inter-personal skills left a strong impression on me and others who had the opportunity to work with him.  In my view, it is rare to find such qualities in the same individual.  Jim will be sorely missed as a friend and as a vaccine product developer.” – Myrone Levine

Pneumococcal surveillance was conducted at seven hospitals and two community sites in Bangladesh in order to better assess the burden of pneumococcal disease in the Pneumococcal surveillance was conducted at seven hospitals and two community sites in Bangladesh in order to better assess the burden of pneumococcal disease in the area. From April 2004 to February 2006 approximately 117 pneumococcal isolates were collected from blood or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). All testing sites identified patients with invasive pneumococcal disease. 72% of the identified strains were resistant to co-trimoxazole, indicating that it is not an appropriate initial agent for treatment of presumed pneumococcal infection. The distribution of serotypes observed suggest that the majority of cases of invasive pneumococcal infections in Bangladesh could be prevented using multi-valent vaccines.  With rates of pneumonia in Bangladesh that are 20 times the rates in the U.S., multi-valent pneumococcal vaccines have the potential to protect children from dying of pneumonia and from death and disability due to meningitis.  The surveillance data presented strongly support introduction of PCV-7 into Bangladesh as a means of reducing childhood morbidity and mortality, and progress towards achieving the millennium development goals for child survival. ICDDR, B: Centre for Health & Population Research. Health & Science Bulletin. 2006 June; 4 (2): 7-11.

The UK nationwide PCV-7 catch-up campaign is scheduled to start in September 2006.. Every child under two years of age will be offered the pneumococcal vaccine from September until early next year.  The UK is one of thirteen countries in the world with a national pneumococcal immunization program or a future introduction plan. 

Pneumococcal Disease in Indigenous Populations. A systematic review of published scientific literature, government reports, and immunization guidelines from the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia compares pre and post immunization disease rates. The review also looks at vaccine policy for indigenous people in these four nations. Bacterial infections, strain variations, heavy nasopharyngeal colonization of young infants, low vaccine effectiveness in adults with a high prevalence of risk factors are all important factors for pneumococcal disease and have been associated with continuing or widening disparities between indigenous and nonindigenous populations. Invasive pneumococcal disease rates in indigenous populations in central Australia, Alaska, White Mountain Apache, and Navajo were among the highest ever reported, for both adults and children, however, case-fatality rates were about the same as those in the non-indigenous population. Decreases in IPD rates in indigenous adults following vaccination programs have been reported from regions of Australia, however, in Navajo Indian adults IPD rates were 3-5 times higher than those in respective age groups for US whites. The review states that disparity between IPD rates in black, white, hispanic and other racial groups of children less than 5 years of age in the United States began to decrease before universal pneumococcal conjugate vaccination was introduced and had completely disappeared by 2002, emphasizing the effectiveness of pneumococcal vaccination. Menzies et al. Epid. Rev. June 2006; p. 1-10.

PCV-7 and Concurrent Vaccine Dosing. A recent study conducted in Canada assessed the effect of concurrently administering PCV-7 with the pentavalent DTaP.IPV/Hib vaccine and the HB vaccine. Understanding the compatability of two or more vaccines administered at separate anatomic sites includes determining if each vaccine elicits the expected immune response to each antigen, without an undue increase in adverse effects. Infants enrolled in this study were given DTaP.IPV/Hib and HB at 2, 4, 6 months and were randomly assigned to receive PCV-7 concurrently or sequentially at 3, 5, 7 months. Antibody titers were compared in concurrent and sequential vaccinees and it was found that responses to PCV-7, DTaP.IPV/Hib and HB were generally unaltered with concurrent administration, except that Hib responses were increased and HB responses were significantly reduced with concurrent dosing. The authors conclude that PCV-7, DtaP.IPV/Hib and HB are compatible with concurrent, separate injections. This work may help reduce the number of injections administered to children per immunization visit, potentially contributing to more cost-effective immunization strategies. Scheifele et al, Vaccine. 2006; 24: 2057-2064.

HIV, hMPV and Pneumococcal Co-infection. Human metapneumovirus (hMPV) has been associated with lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI), although the pathogenesis of hMPV-associated LRTI has yet to be elucidated. Studies focusing on co-infections in children with hMPV-associated LRTI are limited and have focused mostly on respiratory viruses. The authors of this study examine the interaction between hMPV-associated LRTI and pneumococcal pneumonia in HIV-infected and –uninfected children, an important and vulnerable population. The study findings indicate that bacterial co-infection with pneumococcus is an important factor in the pathogenesis of hMPV-associated LRTI that results in progression to pneumonia and the hospitalization of both HIV-infected and –uninfected children. Furthermore they conclude that a substantial proportion of these hospitalizations may be prevented by vaccination with pneumococcal conjugate vaccine. Madhi et al. J. Inf. Dis. 2006 May; 193: 1236-1243.

The Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health is a great resource to keep up to date on funding opportunity.  Please visit: www.hopkinsglobalhealth.org or click here to link directly to the funding webpage.

Hib Initiative Request For Proposal: Send Applications by August 15th, 2006
The Hib Initiative has been appointed by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) to assist countries to make evidence- based decisions regarding the introduction of Hib vaccine into national programs. Request for proposals for studies to clarify Hib disease burden are now being accepted until August 15th.  For more information, visit: http://hibaction.org/rfp.html

NIAID International Research in Infectious Diseases (IRID) Program (RO1). This funding announcement solicits Research Grant (RO1) applications from organizations/institutions in eligible foreign countries that propose research related to infectious diseases that are of interest to that country. Application submission date: November 27, 2006. http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-AI-06-041.html

International Research Collaboration – Basic Biomedical (FIRCA-BB) (RO3). This funding opportunity facilitates collaboration between basic biomedical researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and investigators in developing countries. Application submission dates: January 21, May 21 and September 21 each year, beginning with September 21, 2006. http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-06-436.html

Medical Research Council (MRC). This funding opportunity for research training is applicable to South African citizens who wish to be engaged in research. http://www.mrc.ac.za/researchdevelopment/sentrain.htm