PEDIATRICS Vol. 81 No. 4 April 1988, pp. 512-518
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Live Attenuated Varicella Vaccine in Healthy 12- to 24-Month-Old Children

Candice E. Johnson MD, PhD1, Paul A. Shurin MD1, Deborah Fattlar PNA1, Leonard P. Rome MD1, and Mary L. Kumar MD1

1 From the Department of Pediatrics, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine at Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital, Cleveland

We studied live attenuated Oka/Merck varicella vaccine in 147 seronegative children 12 to 24 months of age and their 94 seronegative older siblings 2 to 12 years of age. The vaccine side effects were mild, consisting of a papular rash in 15 of 147 (10.2%) children 12 to 24 months and seven of 94 (7.4%) siblings. In a subset of 12- to 24-month-old children, modified fluorescent antibody test for membrane antigen was not detectable at seven days postimmunization but was detectable in 50% by 14 days and in 100% by 21 days. Within 6 weeks, 96.6% of children 12 to 24 months and 94.7% of siblings seroconverted. The geometric mean titer did not vary with age at immunization. One-year blood samples were obtained from 70 children 12 to 24 months of age who seroconverted; 92.9% retained detectable antibody. The geometric mean titer had decreased from 55.7 to 18.6. Of these 70 children, 34% had been exposed to varicella since immunization, and two cases of varicella were observed in seroconverters. Both cases were mild, with less than 50 vesicles. Oka/Merck varicella vaccine appears to be safe, highly immunogenic, and protective against 96% of exposures to natural varicella during the first year after vaccination in infants. Those cases of varicella that develop in immunized children appear substantially reduced in severity.

Key Words: varicella vaccine • varicella-zoster • herpes zoster

Submitted on December 31, 1986
Accepted on June 19, 1987




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