Vaccination during pregnancy: unravelling the basic principles.

Despite the availability of successful universal pertussis vaccination programs, the disease remains an important global public health problem and is nowadays one of the most common vaccinepreventable diseases in the world. The highest incidence and disease burden can be found in infants below one year of age, too young to be completely protected by the currently available vaccines and vaccination schedules. To protect these vulnerable infants, alternative vaccination strategies, such as maternal vaccination, are needed. During the last years, maternal pertussis vaccination has been introduced in an increasing number of countries. Scientific evidence on different effects of this vaccination strategy has boomed during the last years. However, knowledge on several important aspects of this strategy is still lacking. Therefore, the overall aim of this research proposal is to unravel the basic principles behind the maternal (pertussis) vaccination strategy. To achieve this, eight different aims are formulated in this research proposal each looking at a different immunological aspect of the vaccination strategy. We are convinced that the results of this research proposal will not only be supportive for the current recommendation on maternal pertussis vaccination, but will also help to understand the immunological mechanisms that will be used in new vaccines that are currently under development and have the potential to be used in pregnant women like GBS, RSV, CMV, Zika….

Keywords:VACCINATION

Disciplines:Public health care, Public health sciences, Public health services

Project type:Collaboration project