Conjugate Hib vaccines given in infancy without booster doses may produce long term protection

Conjugate vaccines against Haemophilus influenzae type b have reduced rates of invasive disease in the developed world, but a booster dose in the 2nd year is generally considered necessary for long term immunity. Such doses are difficult to administer in the the developing world. Goldblatt et al (p 1570) assessed the effectiveness of the accelerated schedule used in the UK (where all immunisations are given within 16 weeks of birth) by taking samples from 401 infants before and 387 after they received a booster dose at 1 year. Before the booster dose 38% of the infants had titres below the minimum protective level compared with 2% afterwards: the mean increase in antibody titre was 803-fold, an increase consistent with successful priming by the three doses received in infancy. The authors suggest conjugate vaccines against Hib could be part of the WHO's expanded immunisation schedule of three doses in infancy.


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Relevant Article

Initiatives to improve childhood immunisation uptake: a randomised controlled trial
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BMJ 1998 316: 1570-1571. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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