Good news for combination and simultaneously administered vaccines

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Pichichero et al report a carefully designed non-inferiority trial that confirms the immunogenicity and lack of important reactogenicity of the combination diphtheria and tetanus toxoids-, acellular pertussis-, hepatitis B- and inactivated poliovirus-containing vaccine with separately but simultaneously administered Haemophilus influenzae b vaccine (Hib) and pneumococcal 7-valent conjugate vaccine.

It is indeed remarkable that combination vaccines can be developed that retain the good part (ie, immunogenicity) and don’t add a bad part (ie, reactogenicity), and that can decrease the number of injections and increase the likelihood of an “on-schedule” immunization history.