Here's its full text ( i wonder who funded these "studies"...)

WIRE: 01/07/2002 0:04 am ET

U.S. Study Says Multiple Infant Vaccines Safe
By Michael Conlon

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Today's children, who receive as many as 11 vaccinations routinely, are not in danger of having their immune system overwhelmed, according to a study published on Monday.

"Current studies do not support the hypothesis that multiple vaccines overwhelm, weaken, or 'use up' the immune system," said the report from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and several other institutions.

"On the contrary, young infants have an enormous capacity to respond to multiple vaccines, as well as to the many other challenges present in the environment," it added.

"By providing protection against a number of bacterial and viral pathogens, vaccines prevent the 'weakening' of the immune system and consequent secondary bacterial infections occasionally caused by natural infection," it added.

The report was published in this month's issue of "Pediatrics," the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The authors said they investigated the subject because recent surveys in the United States indicated that about a quarter of all parents were concerned about the possible negative impacts of multiple vaccinations.

A century ago, the study said, children received only one vaccination, for smallpox. Forty years ago four others came into common use -- for polio, diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus.
Today children in developed countries receive 11 vaccines routinely and will have had as many
as 20 completion shots by age two, the report added.

CAPACITY TO COPE WITH 10,000 VACCINES

By a conservative estimate infants have the theoretical capacity to respond to as many as 10,000 vaccines, it said.

"Parents who are worried about the increasing number of recommended vaccines may take comfort in knowing that children are exposed to fewer antigens (proteins and polysaccharides)in vaccines today than in the past," the report said.

"Although we now give children more vaccines, the actual number of antigens they receive has declined. Whereas previously one vaccine, smallpox, contained about 200 proteins, now the 11 routinely recommended vaccines contain fewer than 130 proteins in total," it added.

"Two factors account for this decline: First, the worldwide eradication of smallpox obviated the need for that vaccine, and second, advances in protein chemistry have resulted in vaccines containing fewer antigens ..."

In a related development, the academy in the same issue published its annual recommendation for immunizations, saying there were no major changes to suggested timetables except one involving pneumococcal vaccine. Because there is a shortage of that vaccine, it said, healthy children should receive only the first three doses and doctors should defer the fourth or booster shot until the shortage eases.

The vaccine wards off pneumonia, meningitis and bloodstream infections. The U.S. manufacturer of the vaccine has reported it has been unable to keep up with demand.