Protective Antibodies to Rubella Virus in Children Aged 1.5 to 3 Years and in Women of Childbearing Age

Background: Although immunization against rubella was introduced as routine practice in many European countries about 20 years ago, there are still epidemic outbreaks in some of them. This is a prerequisite for the continuous monitoring of population susceptibility to rubella. The aim of this study is to determine the proportion of people negative for the protective antibodies (IgG) to the rubella virus in terms of discretion of susceptibility to rubella and the risk of congenital rubella syndrome (CRS).  Methods : The study involved 180 subjects from two groups: children aged 1.5 - 3 years and women in childbearing age. Both groups, children and women, were divided into two subgroups: Bulgarian and Roma. The serological testing was performed with the kits Euroimmun (Medizinische Labordiagnostika AG) for quantitative determination of rubella antibodies (IgG).  Results: From the Roma children17.65% (12 out of 68) was seronegative. From the Bulgarian children the seronegative were 4.76% (2 out of 42). Of all the involved children from both groups (110 in number) in 14 children (12.73%) the results were negative. Seronegative women from Roma origin were 8.33% (2 out of 24), and from the Bulgarian women - 13.04% (6 out of 46). The total number of women studied was 70, of them the seronegative were 8 (11.43%).  Conclusions : 1). We have found still relatively high proportion of seronegative persons among the Roma children and the Bulgarian women of childbearing age; 2) .We consider it appropriate to introduce in medical practice periodic monitoring of susceptibility to rubella virus and at risk of epidemics to carry out timely immunization campaigns .  doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4021/ijcp97e