Synopsis:The global burden of infectious diseases in early life is considerable with the highest risk of death being in the first year of life. Prevention of the leading causes of death due to infectious diseases in children under 5 years worldwide, due to pneumonia and diarrhoea, focuses predominantly on vaccination and exclusive breast feeding. There is a complex interplay between protection offered by maternal antibodies transferred via the placenta and breast milk and a reduction of infant immune responses to vaccines. Vaccine strategies to overcome early infant infection, including neonatal and maternal vaccination, will be discussed with a focus on the development of the RV3 neonatal Rotavirus Vaccine being developed by the MCRI. For the first time worldwide, the impact of maternal antibodies on the immune response to an oral rotavirus vaccine is being assessed alongside clinical trials in a developed and developing country setting and these studies will be presented.

Speaker:Dr Margie Danchin is a consultant paediatrician and Senior Research fellow at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. As an NHMRC post-doc, she completed training in vaccinology through the NHMRC CCRE in Child and Adolescent Immunisation and Rotavirus Research Group; the Vaccine and Immunisation Research Group (VIRGO) and SAEFVIC, MCRI. She has been involved in the conduct of post-marketing surveillance of rotavirus vaccines in Australia; the conduct of the phase I RV3 oral rotavirus clinical trial conducted in Melbourne and the phase II clinical trials being conducted in New Zealand and Indonesia and leading the maternal antibody studies alongside the clinical trials.