Dengue and MMR vaccines safely coadministered to toddlers

By Reuters Staff

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Dengue and measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccines are safe and immunogenic when administered together to toddlers, according to a phase 2 trial.

A combination yellow fever-17D-dengue virus tetravalent dengue vaccine (CYD-TDV) under development has been well tolerated with a favorable safety profile across all age groups assessed so far, researchers write in The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, online May 8.

Anticipating that the vaccine will eventually be introduced as part of the childhood immunization schedule in endemic areas, Dr. Denis Crevat from Sanofi Pasteur, Marcy l'Etoile, France, and colleagues investigated the safety and immunogenicity of CYD-TDV alone or with MMR vaccine in 210 toddlers from the Philippines. The children were 12 to 15 months old.

Ten toddlers (4.8%) experienced 13 serious adverse events during the study, but none was considered by the study investigator to be related to vaccination.

Coadministration of CYD-TDV with MMR was associated with slightly more injection site reactions than CYD-TDV with placebo after the first injection, but reactions in all groups occurred in fewer than 5% of children after subsequent injections.

Grade 1 to 2 fever was more common after coadministration of the vaccines than after CYD-TDV given alone, according to the report. None of the other adverse events were deemed related to the vaccines.

Immunogenicity of CYD-TDV and MMR did not differ when the vaccines were coadministered or administered alone.

"These data are encouraging and support larger phase III trials to assess co-administration of CYD-TDV with other live or killed vaccines in the immunization calendar for toddlers," the authors conclude. "Larger phase III vaccine trials with long-term follow-up are needed before CYD-TDV can be widely recommended -- such studies are currently ongoing."

Sanofi Pasteur funded the trial, employed three of the five authors, provided research grants to another author and paid for preparation of the manuscript.

Dr. Crevat did not respond to a request for comments.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1K9aPJ4

Ped Infect Dis J 2015.

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