Phase III of testing in children in China using an inactivated vaccine to block enterovirus (EV) 71was proven successful and safe.
In general, the vaccine was proven to be 90 percent efficient for forms of hand, foot, and mouth diseases, and 80 percent for other types of EV71-associated illnesses. The reports came from Feng-Cai Zhu, MSc, from the Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Nanjing, and his colleagues.
Trials on the vaccine were also reported by the medical journal Lancet. During the said trials, 1.2 percent of children showed serious undesirable symptoms, another 1.5 percent of children who were given placebos exhibited the same signs.
Since the disease was discovered forty years ago, there have already been countless outbreaks, resulting to 6 million cases and more than 2,000 casualties. The illness has several manifestations, which includes blisters on the palms and soles of the feet, mouth, and rashes. Other more fatal neurologic symptoms also occur, like encephalitis and meningitis.
Furthermore, some of the children also exhibit imprecise symptoms like mild fever, and noticeable respiratory infections.
During the early stages of testing, Zhu and his colleagues concluded that the vaccine was safe, so they proceeded to Phase III which included 10,000 children who were ranging from six to 35 months. The test subjects were drawn from 500 local hospitals and clinics, with less than 40 percent coming from the same area to avoid developing herd immunity.
The vaccine which had a virus strain of genotype C4 and alum adjuvant were given as early as day zero and 28. The subjects were then re-examined either at the clinic or at home later during the fifth, eighth, eleventh, and fourteenth months. Closer monitoring was done during the fifty-sixth day when the antibody titers were predicted to be at its max, until the fourteenth month.
