Pertussis immunization in HIV-1 infected infants:a model to assess the effects of repeated T-cell dependent antigen administration on HIV-1 progression. Italian Registeer for HIV infection in children

Several data evidence that HIV-1 replication may increase in temporal association with immunizations, raising concerns on potential negative e€ects of vaccinations on HIV-l progression. Among patients prospectively followed by the ``Italian Register for HIV infection in children'', we evaluated, using the Cox±Mantel method, conditional probabilities of progressing to CDC clinical categories `B' or `C', and immunological categories `2' or `3' in 88 children immunized against pertussis and 244 nonimmunized. No selection criteria were followed in vaccinating children. No signi®cant di€erences were observed between the two groups. The lack of a signi®cant impact on clinical and immunological deterioration by the repeated administrations of a T celldependent vaccine endorses the current recommendations for routine immunizations in HIV-1-infected children