INFLUENCE OF BREAST-FEEDING AND ORAL POLIOVIRUS VACCINE ON THE IMMUNOGENICITY AND EFFICACY OF ROTAVIRUS VACCINES

To be practical and cost effective, rotavirus vaccines will have to be administered to infants with routine childhood vaccinations. Rotaviru s vaccine studies were reviewed to evaluate the effect of breast-feedi ng and concurrent oral poliovirus vaccination (OPV) on the immunogenic ity and efficacy of oral rotavirus vaccines. Both breast-feeding and O PV appeared to interfere, to some degree, with the serum immune respon se to rotavirus vaccines; however, the effects were usually not statis tically significant and were largely overcome by administering three d oses of rotavirus vaccine rather than one. Available data show no decr ease in the protective efficacy of rotavirus vaccine in breast-fed chi ldren or in children receiving concurrent OPV, but larger sample sizes will be required to definitely rule out any effect.