EVALUATION of a number of acellular pertussis vaccines, new and old, is under way.
More than 500 children have received one of 11 candidate vaccines or the present whole-cell product. John R. La Montagne, PhD, director, Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Division, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md, says enrollment of nearly 1600 children should be complete within 2 months and all the data may be available next March.
The vaccines include those that contain only the detoxified lymphocytosis promoting factor, both lymphocytosis promoting factor and another antigen of B pertussis (filamentous hemagglutinin), both these antigens plus a 69-kd protein from the surface of the organism, or a fourth antigen known as "agglutinogen-2." They come from manufacturers in Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Japan, and the United States.
The trial is the first effort by the congressionally mandated National Vaccine Program to improve existing vaccines