Measles, polio and tetanus toxoid antibody levels in Gambian children aged 3 to 4 years following routine vaccination

Abstract

A nation-wide cross-sectional survey of 816 children 3-4 years old was carried out in The Gambia between September 1990 and July 1991 to assess the seroprevalence of antibodies against 3 diseases included in the expanded programme on immunization: measles, poliomyelitis and tetanus. Among 689 children whose records were available, 94.5% were fully immunized. Measles vaccine was administered to 97% of the children and 91% of these had detectable antibodies at the time of the survey. Antibodies against type 1 and type 3 polioviruses, after up to 6 doses of oral polio vaccine, were present in 88.1% and 89.3% of the children respectively. Ninety-seven percent of the children who had received 4 doses of diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus vaccine (DPT) and 91% of those who received 3 doses had detectable tetanus toxoid antibodies at the age of 3-4 years. This study shows that serological responses to EPI vaccines given in infancy persist at very satisfactory levels throughout early childhood.

Measuring Coverage in MNCH: Design, Implementation, and Interpretation Challenges Associated with Tracking Vaccination Coverage Using Household Surveys

“…Furthermore, absence of antibody means either that the child is unvaccinated or that vaccines have lost their potency. Biomarkers are therefore potentially useful to estimate population-level protection [61] but not necessarily to validate coverage measurements or vaccination program performance. The development of antibody assays on oral fluid samples for tetanus [60] and measles [62] may make surveys with repeated sample collection more acceptable and may allow evaluation of vaccination campaigns [63].…”

Risk of polio reintroduction to border regions of Islamic Republic of Iran: seroprevalence study of children with at least 5 doses of oral polio vaccine

“…Using reports from similar countries on seroconversion rates after OPV vaccination of about 88% (in Gambia) to 95% (in China) [6,7], we estimated a seroprevalence of about 85% in the study population. Considering the estimation confidence interval (CI) of 95% and the estimation error (i.e.…”

EPI vaccines‐induced antibody prevalence in 8–9 year‐olds in The Gambia

“…Subjects included in the present study, as well as those of the previous survey (Fortuin et al. 1995), were recruited at birth into the GHIS cohort (The Gambia Hepatitis Study Group et al.…”

“…Children surveyed in the present and in the previous study (Fortuin et al. 1995) were selected from villages where hepatitis B vaccine had not been introduced at the time they received their EPI vaccines.…”

“…A blood sample was taken if oral consent was obtained from the child's parents or legal guardians. Although the children included in the present study were not those of the previous study (Fortuin et al. 1995), they are comparable as they were selected from the same geographical zones of the country using similar sampling methodology (Fortuin et al.…”