Rubella seroprevalence in the first birth cohort reaching fertility age after 20 years of two dose universal vaccination policy in Israel

Seroprevalence of measles, mumps and rubella among young adults, after 20 years of universal 2-dose MMR vaccination in Israel

“…Use of single-antigen vaccines for this birth cohort is unlikely for Israeli-born subjected to combined MMR vaccination policy, but is possible for immigrants and might explain part of seroprevalence discordance. Support for possible use of singleantigen vaccines for immigrants comes from our previous findings of lower mumps and rubella seroprevalence among immigrants compared to Israeli-born, 21,22 but not for measles in the current study. Other possible explanations for MMR seroprevalence discordance are rare exposure to wild virus, differing immune response and waning immunity as well differences in sensitivity and specificity between assays.…”

“…21,22 Statistical analysis We used SAS software, version 9.1.3, SAS Institute Inc.., Cary, NC, USA. We analyzed proportions and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of measles seroprevalence in the overall study population and in specific subgroups.…”

Rubella seronegativity in antenatal screening – Is it influenced by the introduction of universal childhood rubella immunization?

“…Despite the impressive statistics, 8.1% of our Hong-Kong-born parturients were seronegative [30]. In light of declining rubella immunity despite universal rubella immunization reported elsewhere [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10], and the sizable influx of non-Hong-Kong-born parturients (mostly from mainland China) in the past decade, this study was performed to examine the impact of rubella immunization, using maternal year-of-birth as proxy for exposure to the different childhood immunization protocols, on antenatal rubella serology in Hong-Kong-born parturients, comparing with non-Hong-Kong-born parturients who were not covered by the same immunization protocols.…”

“…Furthermore, recent findings indicated declining rubella immunity and incidence of antibody levels of ≥10 IU/ml among women born after, compared with women born before, the introduction of routine universal rubella immunization in Sweden [3], the UK [4][5][6], Israel [7,8], Poland [9] and Taiwan [10]. A rubella-specific antibody titer of <10 IU/ml usually equates susceptibility, predisposing to fetal congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) if infection occurs in pregnancy.…”

Determining rubella immunity in pregnant Alberta women 2009–2012

“…An antibody level >15 IU/mL in our algorithm is considered protective in prenatal women, and those who have levels ≤15 IU/mL are considered potentially susceptible, and are offered vaccination following delivery. The reporting of an indeterminate zone is not specific to Canada, as other countries including Finland (equivocal zone 4-7 IU/mL), Israel (equivocal 10-15 IU/mL) and Australia (equivocal zone 4-15 IU/mL) also report equivocal zones during routine testing [24,26,27]. Other countries such as Sweden have set the level of seropositivity at >15 IU/mL and report all results ≤15 IU/mL as seronegative [28].…”