Several new vaccines have recently been developed, some of which are now available on the Belgian market. This article presents an overview of new vaccines against pneumococcus, respiratory syncitial virus, influenza, shingles and dengue fever.

Vaccine advances against malaria are also discussed.

Objective

This study aims to explore the expectations of pharmacists and general practitioners (GPs) regarding the exchange of medi­cal data via health networks.

Methodology

A quantitative questionnaire study was conducted among pharmacists and general practitioners in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (FWB). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Results

The questionnaire yielded a sample of 609 people. Overall, 83% of GPs wanted access to the medication dispensing history, 93% of pharmacists wanted to access the full Summarized Electronic Health Record (SUMEHR), and 62% of GPs favored sharing this SUMEHR with the pharmacists believing it would improve their collaboration and treatment control. However, less than 10% of GPs agreed with sharing more sensitive data such as medical reports or biological results, while 64% of doctors believed the indication for treatment should be shared with pharmacists on an optional basis. More than 70% of GPs and pharmacists preferred to use specific communication tools between themselves.

Conclusion

GPs and pharmacists are looking for health networks to facilitate communication, health data exchange, and access to medication history and patterns. Their underuse can be partially explained by insufficient knowledge of the tools, difficulty of access, bugs, respect for privacy, non-implementation of the tools in business software, time-consuming encoding and fear of judgment of drug prescriptions, or the transfer of the GP’s role to the pharmacist.

Systemic vasculitis is a group of inflammatory diseases of vessels of various sizes, with variable pathogenic mechanisms. Their causes are often unknown. This disease group is historically dominated by polyarteritis nodosa but also includes granulomatosis with polyangiitis, eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis, and giant cell arteritis. Immunologically, anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA) are present in a group of small-sized vessel necrotizing vasculitis. The extremely severe prognosis of vasculitis has been modified by corticosteroids and immunosuppressive treatments. More recently, biotherapies, including rituximab in ANCA-associated vasculitis, mepolizumab in eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis, and tocilizumab in giant cell arteritis, have achieved remissions in more than 90% of patients and prevented relapses. They have also made possible to considerably reduce corticosteroid treatment and, consequently, its side effects. Vasculitis is now curable with a favorable prognosis.