The search for yellow fever virus vaccine in breast milk of inadvertently vaccinated women in Brazil

Abstract

Eleven lactating women were inadvertently vaccinated with 17DD yellow fever vaccine in a small city of Sao Paulo State, Brazil. Their infants were being exclusively breast-fed and the breastfeeding was interrupted for 10 days. Serum and breastmilk were collected from the vaccinated mothers and tested for the presence of genomic RNA of the vaccine strain 8, 10 and 15 days after vaccination. Viral RNA was not detected in any of the serum and human milk samples tested and the infants remained asymptomatic. Our result strengthens the effectineness of stopping breastfeeding for 10 days after the inadvertent yellow fever vaccination of lactating women.