Proceedings of a symposium on "Immunosenescence--A major cause of disease in the elderly: from molecules to patients": summary

Sense and the science of childhood immunization: Can we achieve more with less?

The threat of biological terrorism with small pox virus and a global influenza pandemic in the face of limited vaccine supply recently stimulated research into the evaluation of fractional dose vaccine regimens, with promising immunogenicity results. While this approach is not new, it has been less applied to vaccines for less sensational but nevertheless, significant killer diseases. This manuscript provides an overview of the basics of immunization as it applies to the current practice of immunization in children, comments on the untapped avenues for cost reduction of vaccine delivery, and the potential for saving more lives with currently available resources.

Anamnestic response to administration of purified non-adsorbed hepatitis B surface antigen in healthy responders to hepatitis B vaccine with long-term non-protective antibody titres

A clinical trial with four groups receiving either 0.6, 3.5, 10 or 20 micro g of purified non-adsorbed hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) was performed to study the kinetics as well as the capacity of the immune memory to respond following exposure to HBsAg in responders to a complete course of hepatitis B vaccine, in whom anti-HBs titres had declined below the seroprotective level. The study population included 64 healthy individuals. All response parameters seropositivity, seroprotection rates, booster response rates and geometric mean titres (GMTs), consistently showed that the immune response was highly satisfactory and dose-dependent. A remarkable immune response was obtained even with a trace amount of HBsAg. This study further supports recent indication that booster hepatitis B vaccine doses may be unnecessary in healthy adult responders to a full course of hepatitis B vaccination.