a Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, and Centre for Child
Health Research, The University of Western Australia, P.O. Box 855, Perth, WA
6872, Australia b Princess Margaret Hospital for Children, Perth, WA 6872, Australia
Received 8 December 2002; accepted 25 March 2003. ; Available online 14 May
2003.
Abstract
There is growing interest in the potential interactions between infant
vaccination and risk for development of atopic disease. The aspect of this
issue which has dominated this debate concerns suggestions that infant
vaccination may stimulate allergic sensitisation. These suggestions derive
from retrospective epidemiological analyses and will remain speculative
unless they can be confirmed in prospective studies, particularly as
conflicting findings have been reported. However, there is a potentially
more important issue surfacing in this debate, which entails the
converse situation, i.e. that genetic risk for atopy influences
capacity to respond to vaccination during infancy. Support for the latter
possibility comes from recent studies on the role of developmental factors
which determine immune competence during infancy, and attendant risk for
inflammatory and infectious diseases. The relevant findings are reviewed
briefly below.
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