H2 strain attenuated live hepatitis A vaccines:protective efficacy in a hepatitis A outbreak

AIM:To investigate the protective efficacy of H2 strain attenuated live hepatitis A vaccines (H2-strain vaccines) in hepatitis A (HA) outbreaks.METHODS:With the permission of their parents, 5551 pre-school and grade 1-3 primary school children were inoculated with 1 dose (10(6.5) TCID(50)) of H2 strain vaccines in a nonrandomized, controlled trial conducted in Fucheng County, Hebei Province in May 1997.Another 6485 children in the same grades and compatible in gender and age were enrolled as controls. Epidemiological and serological survey was conducted to evaluate the protective efficacy of the vaccines. ELISA was used to detect serum IgM anti-HAV.RESULTS:HA outbreak started in early May 1998, peaked in the middle of the same month, and lasted about 80 days. Overall 302 HA cases were found, 192(63.58%) were 5-9 years old. One vaccinee and 25 control cases were found to have hepatitis A, which account for 0.28% (1/356) and 5.92% (25/422) of all vaccinees and controls in the 14 villages, respectively. The protective efficacy of vaccines was 95.27% (95% CI: 85.83%-104.72%). In subjects tested for anti-HAV IgM from 13 villages, 1(0.40%) overt and 11(4.06%) asymptomatic HAV cases were found in 271 vaccinees but 21(6.69%) of overt and asymptomatic ones were found in 314 controls.CONCLUSION:H2 strain vaccines were excellent in preventing overt hepatitis A,but not so effective in preventing asymptomatic hepatitis A virus infection.A booster dose might be needed to get permanent reliable immunity.