Equivalent protection against childhood illnesses conferred by three- or four-vaccination schedule.(Brief Article)

2002 AUG 28 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Maria G. Essig, MS, ELS, senior medical writer - Childhood immunization schedules that provided three or four installments of a combined vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, and Haemophilus influenzae were equally effective in producing high, long-term antibody levels.

Rose-Marie Carlsson and her colleagues in Sweden and Denmark studied 180 children who had received either a 3-dose or 4-dose schedule of a combined diphtheria toxoid, tetanus toxoid, acellular pertussis, inactivated polio and Haemophilus influenzae type b conjugate vaccine.

Eighty-eight children received vaccinations at ages 2, 4, 6, and 13 months, and 92 were vaccinated at 3, 5, and 12 months. The investigators measured antibody concentrations in the children 4.5 years after the last immunization.

For antibodies above protective levels, concentrations and proportions were similar for both groups, except for poliovirus type 3 antibodies (p

Tetanus antibody concentrations were at least 0.01 IU/mL in 93% of the children; type b Haemophilus influenzae antibody levels were at least 0.15 microgram/mL in 97%. Detectable amounts of the poliovirus antibodies existed in 96-99% of the children (Antibody persistence in 5-year-old children who received a pentavalent combination vaccine in infancy. Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, 2002;21(6):535-541).

The Chinese hamster ovary cell neutralization test revealed 99% of the children possessed pertussis antibodies above detectable levels. In contrast, ELISA indicated only 44% had pertussis antibodies. Protective levels of ...