Use of different combination diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis vaccines does not increase risk of 30-day infant mortality. A population-based linkage cohort study using administrative data from the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register and the National Death Index.

Objective

To determine whether differences in combination DTaP vaccine types at 2, 4 and 6?months of age were associated with mortality (all-cause or non-specific), within 30?days of vaccination.

Design

Observational nationwide cohort study.

Setting

Linked population data from the Australian Childhood Immunisation Register and National Death Index.

Participants

Australian infants administered a combination trivalent, quadrivalent or hexavalent DTaP vaccine (DTaP types) between January 1999 and December 2010 at 2, 4 and 6?months as part of the primary vaccination series. The study population included 2.9, 2.6, & 2.3?million children in the 2, 4 and 6?month vaccine cohorts, respectively.

Main outcome measures

Infants were evaluated for the primary outcome of all-cause mortality within 30?days. A secondary outcome was non-specific mortality (unknown cause of death) within 30?days of vaccination. Non-specific mortality was defined as underlying or other cause of death codes, R95 ‘Sudden infant death syndrome’, R96 ‘Other sudden death, cause unknown’, R98 ‘Unattended death’, R99 ‘Other ill-defined and unspecified cause of mortality’ or where no cause of death was recorded.

Results

The rate of 30?day all-cause mortality was low and declined from 127.4 to 59.3 deaths per 100,000 person-years between 2 and 6?month cohorts. When compared with trivalent DTaP vaccines, no elevated risk in all-cause or non-specific mortality was seen with any quadrivalent or hexavalent DTaP vaccines, for any cohort.

Conclusion

Use of routine DTaP combination vaccines with differing disease antigens administered during the first six months of life is not associated with infant mortality.