Controlling rubella: problems and perspectives.
Long-term effectiveness of rubella vaccination in childhood is of particular importance because the ultimate goal of immunization is the prevention of infection during pregnancy. To determine how well vaccine-induced immunity persists in comparison to that acquired naturally, several hundred susceptible children who seroconverted after receiving HPV77DE5 vaccine were followed serologically over a 3-to-5-year period. The results indicate that vaccine-induced antibodies are less stable than those acquired through natural infection, and their persistence is closely related to the original response to immunization. Thus children who responded with a broad range of antibody types and who had brisk postvaccinal hemagglutination-inhibiting antibody titers of greater than or equal to 1:64, maintained such levels without significant decline. In contrast, among the children who had feeble hemagglutination-inhibiting antibody responses initially and failed to develop complement-fixing or precipitating antibodies, a significant proportion lost detectable hemagglutination-inhibiting antibody levels after 3 to 5 years. The current and future immunity of such children is therefore in doubt, unless natural reinfection with wild rubella virus or revaccination with a more effective vaccine corrects their antibody deficiencies.
D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D002648:Child; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000453:epidemiology; D005321:Extraembryonic Membranes / Q000382:microbiology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007115:Immunization Schedule; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D012409:Rubella / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D012411:Rubella Vaccine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012412:Rubella virus / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States; D014613:Vaccines, Attenuated / Q000008:administration & dosage
D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D012411:Rubella Vaccine; D014613:Vaccines, Attenuated