Pertussis vaccination during pregnancy: long term effects on children's immunity before and after administration of a fifth dose of a pertussis containing vaccine.

Despite successful universal pertussis vaccination programs, the disease remains an important public health problem and is still one of the most common vaccine-preventable diseases in the world. The highest incidence and disease burden can be found in infants below one year, too young to be completely protected by the available vaccines and vaccination schedules. To protect these infants,alternative vaccination strategies are needed.During recent years, maternal pertussis vaccination has been introduced in a number of countries. Scientific evidence on several aspects of this strategy has boomed over the last years. While interference of maternal pertussis immunization was shown on the infant's immune response after priming and first booster dose in the second year of life, knowledge on several other aspects, such as the long-term effects of the strategy on the immune responses of children later in life, is lacking. Therefore, we will look at both humoral and cellular immune responses and functionality of antibodies before and after a second booster dose of a tetravalent aP containing vaccine in children from mothers vaccinated with a Tdap vaccine during pregnancy compared to children from unvaccinated mothers. Results from these laboratory tests will feed a mathematical model to describe kinetics of antibodies in the presence or abscense of maternal antibodies in those children. The present proposal will enable fine-tuning of existing booster policies after maternal vaccination.

Keywords:VACCINATION PROGRAMME, PERTUSSIS

Disciplines:Vaccinology