[Antidiphtheria and antitetanus antitoxic immunity indices in the population of the Estonian SSR (an assessment of the effectiveness of a planned vaccine prophylaxis)]. / Pokazateli protivodifteriinogo i protivostolbniachnogo antitoksicheskogo immuniteta u naseleniia Estonskoi SSR (k otsenke éffektivnosti planovoi vaktsino-profilaktiki).

In 1972-1974 and 1977 in the Estonian SSR children and adults were surveyed for the presence of antibodies against tetanus and diphtheria toxins (toxoids) by means of the passive hemagglutination test. The level of protection against tetanus was revealed to correspond to the proportion of child population covered by vaccination: in 1977, with 98.8% covered by vaccination, the level of protection among children aged 7 to 14 years and adolescents of 15-19 years exceeded 98%; with the increase of age (every 10-15 years) the level of protection against tetanus regularly decreased. This dynamics correlated with the existing terms of postvaccinal immunity and the epidemiological independence of tetanus as infectiion. The level of protection in child population against diphtheria in 1972-1974 and 1977 lagged behind the level of protection against tetanus and the coverage by vaccination. The diphtheria component of adsorbed DPT vaccine seemed to be unable to ensure the sufficient level and intensity of immunity under conditions of a sharply decreased risk of encounter with the infective agent. In persons aged 40 years and over the indices of immunity against diphtheria were higher than against tetanus. These indices resulted from diphtheria infection at the prevaccination period and could serve as an objective sign in following up the decrease of the process of diphtheria epidemics.

[Immunoepidemiological observations on the duration of post-vaccinal immunity in children vaccinated against measles]. / Immuno-épidemiologicheskie nabliudeniia za dlitel'nost'iu postvaktsinal'nogo immuniteta u privitykh protiv kori detei.

In the course of 4 years the authors carried out an immunological and epidemiological observation over 4719 children which attended creches, kindergartens and schools, and were vaccinated with live measles vaccines L-16 and ASC in 1967--1972. A stable persistence of immunity was revealed in the majority of children vaccinated against measles which responded to the vaccination by the formation of humoral antibodies. Among these groups an insignificant number of persons with the appearance of measles sensitivity was noted during the observation period. The quality of the preparation, conditions of its storage, use, and different errors during the vaccination influenced the efficacy of the vaccination. Children immunized with the low-immunogenic series of the vaccine whose blood sera failed to display any specific antibodies in the reaction with 1 AU of the antigen, as a rule, were the ones that contracted the disease.

[Clinical and serologic diagnosis of measles in children vaccinated against the disease]. / O klinicheskoi i serologicheskoi diagnostike kori u privitykh protiv étoi infektsii detei.

At the period of mass immunization of children with live measles vaccine clinical symptoms of measles, their intensity and sequence apparently displayed some changes; therefore, serological diagnosis is more reliable in comparison with the clinical one. Result of serological study of 93 coupled blood sera of children who fell sick with the diagnosis of measles showed that only 54.3% of those vaccinated earlier and 49.2% of nonvaccinated children sustained measles, whereas the rest had had exanthematous disease of other etiology. All the children had fever (the majority not over 38.5 degrees C) and rash; other clinical signs of measles were of different intensity in the vaccinated and nonvaccinated children. Apparently such pathognomonic signs of measles as rash, Filatov's sports and conjunctivitis could not serve at present as a reliable criterion of clinical measles diagnosis. The majority of children vaccinated before who contracted the disease responded to the infection by an earlier and more intensive production of antibodies than nonvaccinated children who contracted the disease, this pointing to the possibility of manifestation in them of the clinically expressed booster-effect. The data obtained indicated a marked difficulty of clinical differential diagnosis of measles.