Epidemiological and molecular assessment of a rubella outbreak in North‐Eastern Italy

Abstract

From January to June 2008, a rubella outbreak involving 111 laboratory confirmed cases occurred in the Friuli Venezia Giulia (FVG) region of North‐Eastern Italy. The outbreak occurred initially in two residential homes for young adults disabled mentally and physically. Subsequently, the epidemic spread to the general population. Young adult cohorts were mostly affected and the mean age of the patients was 26.8 years; the majority of cases were male (73.8%), with a mean age of 26.6 years in males and 27.4 in females. Three pregnant women had a primary infection and two had their pregnancies terminated. Genotyping of 16 isolates showed the circulation of RUBV 2B, a genotype originating from Asia and South Africa and now present in Europe. In addition, molecular analysis revealed a well defined space‐temporal spread of two viruses showing distinct sequences. A seroepidemiological survey carried out in a city within the same geographical area showed that the proportion of women of childbearing age still susceptible to rubella virus was 5.5%, fairly close to the figure (<5%) expected by 2010. J. Med. Virol. 82:1976–1982, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

An outbreak of rubella in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina between December 2009 and May 2010 indicates failure to vaccinate during wartime (1992–1995)

“…In the present outbreak, males were much more affected than females. While the reason for this is not clear, similar observations were recently reported from Italy and Poland [13,14]. Most of the patients (n=1125, 59 .…”

Phylogenetic analysis of rubella viruses in vietnam during 2009–2010

“…However, the relation of this lineage to the circulating strains in Brazil cannot be determined. Genotype 2B viruses were previously known to circulate in China, India, South Korea, and South Africa [WHO, 2005;WHO, 2006;Caidi et al, 2008;Rajasundari et al, 2008] before being introduced into some countries in Europe [Jin and Thomas, 2007;Novo et al, 2009;D'Agaro et al, 2010;Vauloup-Fellous et al, 2010] and South America [Valinotto et al, 2009]. The variation observed in this study reflected the molecular characteristics of RVs in population with low vaccine coverage.…”

Rubella seroprevalence among pregnant women in Beijing, China

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