The Sero-epidemiological Survey of rubella in primary school children of Tehran

Abstract

Background: Rubella is an infectious disease with few clinical symptoms which is hardly diagnosed. Specially in the first trimester of pregnancy, it may causes the congenital rubella syndrome, that is one of the major cause of neonatal mortality, and permanent disabilities in children.
Methods: The research is prospective cross sectional with the aim of immunological status of rubella in Tehran. Multi stage sampling was done.
Results: Our subjects were 975 female(56.77%) and 720 male(43.3%) with mean age 9.171.55 yr. Five hundred twenty five subjects (31.5%) were immunized against rubella, and 1140 subjects have no antibody titer against rubella. Five hundred forty one (32.5%) cases had history of rubella vaccination. Among vaccinated children, 205 subjects (38%) were seropositive, while in non-vaccinated children 328 subjects (29.2%) were seropositive.
Conclusion: Immunity of rubella vaccine is not long term. Therefore, rubella vaccination in infancy, do not reduce congenital rubella. It seems that the best strategy to avoid congenital rubella syndrome is girl vaccination before marriage.