The preterm infant's immune response to an acellular pertussis-Hib and meningitis C conjugate vaccine given together
Research archive
- Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, Portsmouth, UK
- Researchers:
Dr Elizabeth Miller, Dr Martin Slack, Dr Richard Thwaites
- Project Number: 0006.0
- Category: Prevention
- Duration:
- Start Date: 24 October 2011
- Type: Lay summary
100 infants born at 31 weeks gestation or less will be immunised with a combined three component acellular pertussis-HIB vaccine at the same time as a meningitis C conjugate vaccine at 2, 3 and 4 months of age. They will be recruited from the neonatal units of the 5 participating hospitals: Portsmouth, Winchester, Southampton, Basingstoke, and Poole. Antibody titres to vaccine antigens will be determined just prior to the first immunisation and 4 weeks after the last.
Where immune response is inadequate to either Hib or men C a booster dose will be offered. Where this occurs, post booster sera will be assayed for antibodies to meningo C or Hib as appropriate, including measurement of antibody avidity to confirm induction of immunological memory.
All vaccine antibody levels will be analysed by laboratories participating in the National Vaccine Evaluation Consortium co-ordinated by the Public Health Laboratory Service, London.
Results will be analysed according to the infant's gestation, birth weight and use of dexamethasone at any time.
Results will be directly comparable to previous studies performed by the senior applicant in term infants for both Hib and men C.