Five-year follow-up study of recipients of live varicella vaccine using enhanced neutralization and fluorescent antibody membrane antigen assays.

Twenty-six healthy children susceptible to varicella were inoculated with the OKA strain of live attenuated varicella vaccine. All of the recipients showed good antibody responses without adverse clinical reactions. The seropositivity rate 5 years after vaccination was 100% by the enhanced neutralization test and 96% by the fluorescent antibody membrane antigen (FAMA) test. None of the recipients contracted varicella in spite of documented contact exposure. None of the children developed herpes zoster during the 5-year observation period. The results suggest that attenuated varicella vaccine has long-term protective efficacy.