Safety and Cellular and Humoral Immune Responses of a Booster Dose of Varicella Vaccine 6 Years after Primary Immunization

Four hundred nineteen children and adolescents immunized with live varicella vaccine 4-6 years earlier were enrolled in a study to evaluate the safety and immune response to a booster dose containing ∼3300 pfu of virus. Of the subjects, 99% (414/419) maintained antibody to varicella zoster virus (VZV) with a geometric mean titer of 25.7 and mean stimulation index (SI) for VZV-specific lymphoproliferation response of 40.3 ± 5.3 (SE). Some 7-10 days after the booster immunization, seropositivity rates increased to 100% (302/302), and GMT was 143.6 (anamnestic response). At 6 weeks after the booster inoculation, a subset of subjects had 100% seropositivity (74/74) with a GMT of 218.8 and an SI of 58.6. After 3 months, seropositivity was 100% (358/358), GMT was 119.0, and SI was 61.4.