Increased immunogenicity of oral poliovirus vaccine administered in mass vaccination campaigns compared with the...

To compare the immunogenicity of routine versus mass campaign doses of oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV), serum neutralizing antibodies were measured in 254 children before and after two mass vaccination campaigns in Jordan. Precampaign seroprevalences to poliovirus types 1, 2, and 3 in children who had received three, four, or five routine doses of OPV were compared with postcampaign seroprevalences in children who had received one, two, or three routine doses plus two mass campaign doses. Seroprevalences were consistently higher in subgroups that received two doses through mass campaigns than in subgroups that received all doses through the routine program, especially for poliovirus type 3. Geometric mean titers were also consistently higher for mass campaign subgroups, particularly for poliovirus type 3. The findings suggest that adding further doses of OPV to the routine schedule is unlikely to have as great an impact on the immune state of children as administering the same number of doses during mass campaigns.