Safety and Immunogenicity of Measles Vaccine, Varicella Vaccine and Hepatitis-A Vaccine

Measles vaccine (MV) can reduce childhood mortality and is currently recommended to all South African children aged 6 months. Only one study has examined the safety and immunogenicity of the recommended CAM-70 measles vaccine strain in children under 9 months of age. In addition, there are limited data on the safety and immunogenicity of varicella vaccine (VV) and Hepatitis-A vaccination (Hep-AV) in HIV-exposed and HIV-unexposed children in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is a prospective, observational cohort study nested within a larger randomized, open-label trial on pneumococcal-conjugate vaccine (PCV) titled PCV1+1. 70 HIV-exposed and 200 HIV-unexposed children will be enrolled at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital (CHBAH) and neighbouring primary health clinics. Immune responses to the vaccines will be measured as rate of seroconversion, rate of seroprotection, and geometric mean titres (GMT) one month post primary immunization (MV1, VV, Hep-AV) and one month post booster dose (MV2). In addition, pre-vaccination and medium long-term antibody levels at 4.5 months, 12 months and 18 months will be evaluated. Number of adverse events in all immunized infants will be recorded throughout the study duration and compared between groups. Long-term antibody levels at 3, 4 and 5 years of age will be measured during annual follow-up visits. This study will add to the current evidence on immunizing infants with MV (CAM-70) at 6 and 12 months of age. Data will be stratified by HIV-exposure and HIV-infection, thereby offering insight in the influence of HIV on post-vaccination immune responses. The findings on VV/Hep-AV safety, immunogenicity and seroprevalence will be useful to informing future immunization policies in Sub-Saharan Africa.