Maternal vaccination could control RSV in at-risk children in Mozambique.(Brief Article)

2002 OCT 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers recommend that mothers of very young children at high risk of infection with respiratory syncytial virus should be vaccinated against the infectious pathogen.

In a case-control study in children under a year old, A. Roca and colleagues, University of Barcelona, evaluated "the effect of serum antibodies on the incidence of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection."

"Sera were collected from a total of 31 cases of RSV infection and paired uninfected controls matched for age and sex. Anti-RSV antibodies were assessed by a membrane fluorescent antibody test (MFAT) for immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies and by a neutralizing antibody test," Roca and coauthors said.

They reported "IgG RSV antibodies were of higher prevalence and at higher levels in the control group when compared to the infected case group (p

"To assess infection before recruitment, IgA RSV antibodies were also measured by MFAT. IgA RSV antibody prevalence was very low in patients and controls (0/31 and 4/31, respectively), suggesting that most of the detected IgG RSV antibody in both groups was of maternal origin," wrote the researchers.

"Reanalysis of data from the subset of 27 matched, IgA RSV antibody negative infant pairs mirrored the full analysis indicating that maternal antibody has an important role in RSV protection. Similar results were obtained when neutralizing antibodies were measured and when the measurement was done against subgroup ...