Lack of evidence for post-vaccine onset of autoimmune/lymphoproliferative disorders, during a nine-month follow-up in multiply vaccinated Italian military personnel

Immunogenicity of meningococcal polysaccharide ACWY vaccine in primary immunized or revaccinated adults

“…However, our data suggest that the low-cost tetravalent Men-Ps vaccine may still represent a resource for the prevention of meningococcal meningitis not only for troops, but also for adults living in endemic areas, often located in developing countries, where the higher cost of conjugate vaccine may limit large-scale adult immunization programmes, thanks to its safety [12] and immunogenicity, strictly associated with its efficacy [6,7]. However, our data suggest that the low-cost tetravalent Men-Ps vaccine may still represent a resource for the prevention of meningococcal meningitis not only for troops, but also for adults living in endemic areas, often located in developing countries, where the higher cost of conjugate vaccine may limit large-scale adult immunization programmes, thanks to its safety [12] and immunogenicity, strictly associated with its efficacy [6,7].…”

“…It is well known that infants are unresponsive to plain Ps vaccines, and this limitation led to the development of more expensive protein-conjugate Ps vaccines, which are immunogenic in children aged less than 18 months because of their ability to elicit protein-specific T cells able to provide help to Ps-specific B lymphocytes. However, our data suggest that the low-cost tetravalent Men-Ps vaccine may still represent a resource for the prevention of meningococcal meningitis not only for troops, but also for adults living in endemic areas, often located in developing countries, where the higher cost of conjugate vaccine may limit large-scale adult immunization programmes, thanks to its safety [12] and immunogenicity, strictly associated with its efficacy [6,7].…”

“…The vaccination schedule was described previously [12]. Group 1 was represented by military students of training schools for both officers and non-commissioned officers, who were vaccinated with Men-Ps at enlistment.…”

“…The minimum, maximum and mean intervals between multiple doses of tetravalent Men-Ps in this group were 2, 10 and 5, respectively. The vaccination schedule was described previously [12]. Briefly, depending on clinical history, a personalized vaccination schedule was defined, which could include the following vaccines for the two groups: tetanus/diphtheria for adults [ The study was approved by the Ministry of Defence ethical committee in 2011 and was registered in clinicaltrials.gov in 2012 with the identifier NCT01807780.…”

Safety of Multiple Vaccinations and Durability of Vaccine-Induced Antibodies in an Italian Military Cohort 5 Years after Immunization

“…In the attempt to provide a further contribution in this field, we analyzed a military cohort composed of two different groups, group 1 was formed of military students at the military schools, thus newly enrolled and vaccinated, and stably operating in the national borders for at least 3 years, corresponding to the minimum length of the training period, and group 2 of older military individuals, periodically engaged in a 9-month operational activity abroad (Lebanon). Previous studies have allowed establishing that no autoimmune/lymphoproliferative phenomena could be observed up to 9-month post-vaccination in both groups [ 4 ]; moreover, 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.…”