Study on the Persistence of Immunity Following EV71 Vaccination

The initial study was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase III clinical trial conducted in children aged 6-71 months from Guilin region of Guangxi Province in 2012. A total of 12000 participants (with 1100 in the immunogenicity group) were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive two doses EV71 vaccine or placebo on a 0-, 28-day schedule. Besides, an extended one-year and two year follow-up of this study was completed in 2013. In this study, immunogenicity group participants from the phase III clinical trial was chosen as the studied subjects. A retrospective survey for the enrolled subjects involved with the history of HFMD and the extra vaccination of EV71 vaccine was conducted before blood collection. 3 ml venous blood were collected from each available subject for EV71 neutralizing antibody (NAb) testing. Since the unblinding was performed after the initial study completed, this study was an open-labelled detection for the persistence of the vaccine-induced EV71 NAb.