The impact of childhood vaccines on bacterial carriage in the nasopharynx: a longitudinal study |
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| Authors: | Christian Bottomley Abdoulie Bojang Peter G Smith Ousainou Darboe Martin Antonio Ebenezer Foster-Nyarko Beate Kampmann Brian Greenwood Umberto D’Alessandro Anna Roca |
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| Affiliation: | .MRC Tropical Epidemiology Group, Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK ;.Medical Research Council Unit, Banjul, The Gambia ;.Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK |
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| Abstract: | BackgroundThere is increasing evidence that childhood vaccines have effects that extend beyond their target disease. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of routine childhood vaccines on bacterial carriage in the nasopharynx.MethodsA cohort of children from rural Gambia was recruited at birth and followed up for one year. Nasopharyngeal swabs were taken immediately after birth, every two weeks for the first six months and then every other month. The presence of bacteria in the nasopharynx (Haemophilus influenzae, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus) was compared before and after the administration of DTP-Hib-HepB and measles-yellow fever vaccines.ResultsA total of 1,779 nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from 136 children for whom vaccination data were available. The prevalence of bacterial carriage was high: 82.2% S. pneumoniae, 30.6%, S.aureus, 27.8% H. influenzae. Carriage of H. influenzae (OR = 0.36; 95% CI: 0.13, 0.99) and S. pneumoniae (OR = 0.25; 95% CI: 0.07, 0.90) were significantly reduced after measles-yellow fever vaccination; while DTP-Hib-HepB had no effect on bacterial carriage.ConclusionsNasopharyngeal bacterial carriage is unaffected by DTP-Hib-HepB vaccination and reduced after measles-yellow fever vaccination. |
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| Keywords: | Non-specific vaccine effects Measles DTP Nasopharyngeal bacterial carriage |
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