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A study of 214 infants finds that an experimental TB vaccine is most effective when it is not given with other vaccines.
In many developing countries, newborn babies are often given the bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine against TB. Though that protection wears off after a few years, BCG confers other benefits: Children who receive it have fewer cases of diarrhea, fewer allergic reactions, and better responses to hepatitis and polio vaccines. Infants given BCG are more likely to survive to age five. A booster vaccine for BCG would make its TB-preventive abilities last longer.
Lead author Dr. Martin O.C. Ota, of the Gambian Medical Research Council Laboratories, and colleagues studied the TB vaccine candidate MVA85A. When given with the BCG vaccine, MVA85A produced a good response against TB; however, this benefit was diminished when MVA85A was given in combination with other vaccines children typically receive at age four months. These include vaccines against diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, and polio.
Ota said the study’s results are a cause of concern for health care providers in Africa, who try to give babies as many vaccinations as possible at once. “Every additional visit is an extra cost to the mother,” increasing the chance that her children will not receive all their shots, Ota explained.
Providers may need to rethink the order in which they give vaccinations so as to better protect children against TB, the team concluded.
The study, “Immunogenicity of the Tuberculosis Vaccine MVA85A Is Reduced by Coadministration with EPI Vaccines in a Randomized Controlled Trial in Gambian Infants,” was published in Science Translational Medicine (2011;3(88):88ra56).
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