Latent human papillomavirus infection in pregnant women at term: a case-control study.

Cervicovaginal lavages from 752 pregnant women at term were investigated by polymerase chain reaction to evaluate human papillomavirus (HPV) infection prevalences and were compared with cervicovaginal samples from two series of nonpregnant subjects (504 healthy women attending a family planning service and 560 symptomatic patients attending a vaginitis outpatient service). The odds ratios (ORs) of HPV infection were computed by conditional logistic regression analysis on age-matched sets. In pregnant women, the overall risk of HPV infection was about the same as in nonpregnant healthy subjects (adjusted OR, 0.90; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.51-1.58) and was 50% less than in patients with symptomatic vaginitis (adjusted OR, 0.48; 95% CI, 0.30-0.76). Moreover, the prevalence of oncogenic HPV types 16 or 18 (or both) was lower in pregnant women (P = .015 and P = .0018 respectively).

Anti-HBV neonatal immunization with recombinant vaccine. Part I. Critical appraisal for a long-lived antibody course.

This study involved 912 infants born to HBsAg-negative mothers from 1 May 1991 to 30 June 1992. The subjects were randomly allocated to an accelerated (Group A) or traditional (Group B) immunization schedule and immunized with 10 micrograms of recombinant HBV vaccine. At the end of the vaccinal cycle 98.14% of both groups were protected against HBV with a high percentage of high responders (88.1% group B and 68% group A). Following a random plan, 345 of the initial 912 infants (144 group A and 201 group B) were serologically evaluated, 15-18 months after the booster dose, to identify the level of long-lasting specific antibody. The data obtained allowed us to identify the non-responder subjects after the seroconversion, to propose the evaluation of antibody titre after the booster dose of vaccine and, because one year after the booster dose 5.6% of the subjects responsive at seroconversion have shown undetectable anti-HBsAg titre, to propose the elevation of the antibody level considered as protective at the end of the vaccinal cycle.

Control of hepatitis B: evaluation of two different vaccinal schedules in newborns from HBsAg negative mothers.

504 healthy infants, born to HBsAg negative mothers from May 1st to December 31st 1991, were randomly allocated to an accelerated (group A) or traditional (group B) immunization schedule. The group A infants were immunized at 4 days, 1 month and 3 months of life with 10 micrograms of recombinant HBV vaccine (Engerix B, SKF) while the group B infants were immunized at 4 days, 1 month and 6 months of life with the same dose of vaccine. One month after the first dose of vaccine, 9.2% of the infants in both groups had an HBsAb serum level > 10 mIU/ml. One month after the booster dose, at 4 months of life for group A and at 7 months for group B, 97.40% and 98.53% of the infants presented a serum level > 10 mIU/ml respectively. None in group A and only 2 patients in group B could be considered non-responders (serum concentration below 2 mIU/ml) and 4 infants in group A and 4 in group B were considered hypo-responders (serum level between 2.1 and 9.9 mIU/ml). Immunogenetic study performed on the 2 non-responders and 6 of the hypo-responders, revealed the presence in all but two of the HLA haplotypes, classically involved in the lack of hyporesponsiveness to foreign peptides, namely: HLA-DR7; DQ2, DR4; DQ3, DR15; DQ6 and DR3; DQ2. Surprisingly, 2 hypo-responders carried the HLA haplotypes (DR11, DQ7 and DR13, DQ6), usually associated with hyperresponsiveness. Both vaccinal cycles provided evidence that infants respond well to vaccination, started at birth, against hepatitis B virus with a high degree of protection.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)