Vitamin A Does Not Impact Immune Response to Tetanus, Polio Vaccines

KINTAMPO, Ghana--Administering vitamin A concurrently with vaccines to infants does not appear to impact the immune response to the inoculation, according to a study appearing in the Journal of Nutrition (135:2669-73, 2005). Researchers in Ghana randomized 1,085 infants into four groups for a double blind trial: supplementation of breast-feeding mothers with 60 mg retinol equivalent (RE) vitamin E within four weeks of delivery; supplementation of the infants with 7.5 mg RE vitamin A at six, 10 and 14 weeks; combined maternal and infant supplementation; or placebo. Blood samples were taken from the children at six weeks when they were given tetanus and polio vaccines, and again at six months of age to measure antibody status. There were no differences among antibody titers among the groups, suggesting vitamin A supplementation did not impact the vaccines' effectiveness.