They concluded that it would be ethical to proceed with Rotashield trials in less-developed countries, and that inaction, while waiting for other new vaccines, is unacceptable since the disease burden in the interim cannot be ignored. Time is of the essence. The longer it takes to clarify this issue of the overall attributable risk of the vaccine, millions more children will die. Lorne Babiuk, who heads the university's Veterinary Infectious Diseases Organization, said he hoped the research could have implications for unborn babies at risk of contracting infections from their mothers. No one has immunized infants successfully yet and the sooner you can immunize them the easier it is to close the window of susceptibility to infection,'' he said.
Infectious diseases are a leading cause of death among infants.
World Health Organization figures from 1995 estimate about eight million infants died within the first year from these diseases, including five million in the first week of life. Common infectious diseases transmitted from mother to child include HIV, herpes simplex virus, hepatitis B virus, group B streptococcus and chlamydia. In their research, Babiuk said a single injection of DNA vaccine for bovine herpesvirus-1 was administered into the mouth cavity of an unborn lamb. By putting the vaccine into the mouth area, the unborn lamb received mucosal immunity, he said. The fetal lambs showed high levels of mucosal antibody production to the bovine herpes virus as well as a strong response as measured by an increase in lymphocytes, the white immune cells.