Abstract
We previously examined the safety and immunogenicity of multiple vaccines administered to a military cohort, divided into two groups, the first composed of students at military schools, thus operating inside the national borders for at least 3 years, and the other formed of soldiers periodically engaged in a 9-month-long mission abroad (Lebanon). In the current study, we analyzed 112 individuals of this cohort, 50 pertaining to the first group and 62 to the second group, in order to examine the possible late appearance of side effects and to calculate the half-life of the induced antibodies. Moreover, the possible involvement of B-cell polyclonal activation as a pathogenetic mechanism for long term antibody persistence has even been explored. No late side effects, as far as autoimmunity and/or lymphoproliferation appearance, have been noticed. The long duration of the vaccine induced anti-HAV antibodies has been confirmed, whereas the antibodies induced by tetravalent meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine have been found to persist above the threshold for putative protection for a longer time, and anti-tetanus, diphtheria, and polio 1 and 3 for a shorter time than previously estimated. No signs of polyclonal B-cell activation have been found, as a possible mechanism to understand the long antibody persistence.
Highlights
Military personnel are especially exposed to the risk of infectious diseases, due to their daily activity, which exposes them to trauma and contaminated wounds, and community life often in extremely unfavorable environmental conditions, they are required to have mandatory vaccinations all over the world [1]
We previously examined the safety and immunogenicity of multiple vaccines administered to a military cohort, divided into two groups, the first composed of students at military schools, operating inside the national borders for at least 3 years, and the other formed of soldiers periodically engaged in a 9-month-long mission abroad (Lebanon)
Positive autoantibodies have been found at low titer in eight individuals, three of whom already positive at T0, with the same titer observed at T3
Summary
Military personnel are especially exposed to the risk of infectious diseases, due to their daily activity, which exposes them to trauma and contaminated wounds, and community life often in extremely unfavorable environmental conditions, they are required to have mandatory vaccinations all over the world [1]. Despite the undeniable merits that the military has in the prevention and control of infectious diseases, frequently even in favor of the general population, relatively few studies have been carried out on the possible reciprocal interference by contemporaneously administered multiple different vaccines regarding vaccine immunogenicity and effectiveness as well as on the possible induction of side effects. Such a relative scarcity of systematic studies has allowed that poorly understood phenomena, such as the Gulf War Syndrome in the USA [2], and the occurrence of lymphoproliferative diseases in the young military in Italy could be ascribed to a consequence of simultaneously administered multiple vaccinations [3]. Previous studies have allowed establishing that no autoimmune/lymphoproliferative phenomena could be observed up to 9-month postvaccination in both groups [4]; the specific immune response to meningococcal tetravalent polysaccharide vaccine [5], tetanus/diphtheria [6] and viral vaccines, including hepatitis A virus (HAV), measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR), polio and influenza [7] was excellent and long durable
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