Rubella in Adolescents

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A rubella sero-immunity survey of 1,004 nonvaccinated adolescents, grades 8 to 12, attending urban, suburban, and rural-suburban schools was conducted in DeKalb County (Atlanta), Georgia. The overall immunity rate(hemagglutination inhibition [HI] ≥ 1:8) was 76.6%. Immunity rates were highest in the urban school (82.1%) and lowest in the suburban school (67.3%). There was minimal variation in immunity rate by age (13 to 18 years) or by grade. A history of previous rubella infection was shown to be an unreliable index of immunity. These studies indicate that most rubella infections occur among prepubertal children and that relatively few cases of rubella occur among adolescents, whose level of immunity approaches that of adults in the continental United States. Moreover, these data suggest that, in this area, the threat of large outbreaks in adolescents appears remote, and that the current approach to control rubella is epidemiologically valid.

This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit: