A study has found that the tuberculous vaccine for infants is effective for more than a year. Vaccines have saved lives since they were introduced, especially in areas that are low-income and not as developed. Parents have been relying on these immunizations to protect the health of their children.
Children start receiving their normal vaccines from early infancy, and while they have been studied and researched, there is always work that is being done to see just how they are working, and what experts can do to make them even more effective. This is especially true for vaccines for illness that are not as common.
According to Science Daily, a new study has found that the immune boosting benefits of the tuberculosis (TB) vaccine can be seen in infants more than a year after they receive their first dose. This study was done by Murdoch Children's Research Institute, and it can be read in full here.
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The vaccine in question is the "BCG" vaccine, and it was developed to prevent the risk of TB in infants, and this study showed that the immune response lasted more than 14 months after it was administered. This is great news for parents who want their infants to have protection for as long as possible.
The trial involved more than 130 infants from the Melbourne Infant Study, and they looked at the immune system's response to the BCG vaccine. The infants that were randomly chosen to receive the vaccine, got it 10 days following their birth. Then, 14 months following the vaccine, researchers saw a change in a specific blood cell type, called the monocyte. They saw that there was some reprogramming of these monocytes, and this led to trained immunity. This was surprising to researchers because they had previously thought monocytes had no capacity for memory.
The risk of TB is higher in places like Africa, and this work can be crucial for understanding how the infants who live in these countries can be protected. Adults who receive this vaccine only had their monocytes looked at one- and three months post-vaccine. They state that this is important because adults don't usually transmit it to infants, but infants still need their own protection.
This is the first time that they have been able to show that the BCG vaccine has long-lasting effects on infants and that it is for their protection. This was the world's largest look at the BCG vaccine, and it is amazing to think about what else they will discover.
Sources: Science Daily, MCRI