The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7187 p274-79
2 March 2002

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The New England Journal of Medicine (content.nejm.org)

Conjugated vaccine provides partial immunity to Staphylococcus aureus

A conjugate vaccine in development, StaphVAX, provides partial immunity to Staphylococcus aureus in immunocompromised patients, a new study shows.

American researchers randomly assigned 1,804 patients with end-stage renal disease, who were receiving haemodialysis, to receive either a single dose of a conjugate vaccine containing Staph aureus type 5 and type 8 polysaccharide or placebo.

The researchers say that the vaccine was found to be "safe" and immunogenic and provided partial protection against Staph aureus for approximately 40 weeks. Between weeks three and 40 after vaccination, StaphVAX reduced the incidence of Staph aureus bacteraemia by 57 per cent (95 per cent confidence interval, 10 to 81).

Staph aureus developed in 11 out of 892 patients given the vaccine compared with 26 out of 906 patients in the placebo group. Vaccine efficacy decreased after 40 weeks, which paralleled a decrease in specific antibody levels.

The researchers suggest that the efficacy of the vaccine may be similar or even greater in other patient populations because patients receiving haemodialysis are among those least likely to have a response to immunoprophylaxis. They add that booster doses of the vaccine should be evaluated for use in patients receiving haemodialysis because antibody levels decline rapidly in these patients (New England Journal of Medicine 2002;346:491).