Vitamin A Does Not Impact Immune Response to Tetanus, Polio Vaccines 35183

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

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