Combined vaccines effective, may mean better vaccine program adherence.(Brief Article)

2002 APR 10 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Sonia Nichols, senior medical writer - The results of a Latin American study suggest it is safe and effective to administer diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type b (DTPw-HB/Hib) as a single vaccine to children.

Such a vaccine might produce better vaccine coverage, as fewer injections are required, according to a study jointly produced by researchers at the Mexican Ministry of Health and the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM).

The study included 400 children who either received the DTPw-HB and Hib vaccines as separate doses or combined in a single dose.

"Both vaccine regimens were equally well tolerated and elicited postprimary excellent seropositivity rates at close to 100% for all five component antigens," said J.I. Santos and coauthors, UNAM.

For the combined and single-dose regimens, 100% and 98.8%, respectively, of the children had developed protective antibodies against hepatitis B virus (anti-HBs) a month after they received the first doses of vaccine.

Similarly, both groups of children were protected against Hib 1 month after vaccination, as demonstrated by high levels of anti-PRP (polyribosylribitol phosphate) antibody (DTPw-HB and Hib primary and booster vaccination: Combined versus separate administration to Latin American children, ...