Antibody response to influenza A/New Jersey and A/Victoria virus vaccines in 1976 and subsequent antibody levels after influenza A epidemics, 1977-1979.

Antibody levels before and after vaccination were studied among schoolchildren and young adults given commercial A/New Jersey/76 (HswN1), A/Victoria/75 (H3N2), and B/Hong Kong/72 vaccines in the fall of 1976. Children responded better to a single dose of the A/New Jersey subvirion vaccine than had previously been observed, particularly to a new subvirion vaccine. Hemagglutination-inhibiting antibody titers decreased during the first six months after vaccination but appeared stable thereafter. Persistence seemed to depend on the antigenic mass in the first dose, since persons given one or two doses of the most potent whole-virus vaccine had by far the highest levels of antibody to A/New Jersey virus after 2 1/2 years, higher than for those given two doses of any of the other vaccines. Natural infection with A/USSR (H1N1) influenza virus boostered the titers of antibody to A/New Jersey virus, particularly in children. Persons given a bivalent subvirion vaccine had the best response to A/Victoria antigen. Subvirion vaccines induced complement-fixing antibodies in half of the children.