Giridhar, S (2006) Study of Seroepidemiology of Rubella in School Girls. Masters thesis, Madras Medical College, Chennai.
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Abstract
INTRODUCTION: HISTORY OF RUBELLA: The earliest description of rubella dates back to the 1700's when two German physicians De Bergen in 1752 and Orlow in 1758 described the clinical manifestations of the disease. At that time the clinical manifestations were considered to be a variant of measles and scarlet fever and was called the 'third Disease'. It was not until 1814, that the illness was described as a distinct entity for the first time by another German physician George de Maton who called it 'RÔTHELN'(1). Because of the strong German connection the disease was also called 'German measles' or 'Three-day measles' due to the similarity of the illness to measles. In 1866 the disease was renamed 'Rubella' by Henry meaning 'Little Red' in Latin (2). In 1914 Hess postulated a viral etiology based on his work with monkeys. Hiro and Tasaka in 1938 documented the viral etiology by passing the disease to children using filtered nasal washings from acute cases (2). The illness was merely considered a mild illness of children and adults with a prodrome of cold like symptoms. When Australia faced an epidemic of Rubella in 1940-41, it was even debated that the illness was due to a mutant strain of the virus as many adults were infected and there was high incidence rubella epidemics is highly variable in both developed and developing countries. The reasons for this are not known. Before the introduction of largescale rubella vaccination, the average age at which children were infected varied between 6-12 years in industrialized areas and 2-8 years in urban areas of developing countries. AIM OF THE STUDY: 1. To assess the overall seroprevalence of rubella in schoolgirls aged between 10 and 15 years. 2. To assess the influence of variables like age, socioeconomic class, immunization status, exposure to exanthematous illness, nutritional status and onset of menarche, on the seroprevalence of rubella antibodies at that age. DISCUSSION: Rubella is a common worldwide infection; its importance in public health relates to the risk of malformations when primary infection occurs during pregnancy. Interest in the burden of disease and rubella vaccination policies has increased recently for a number of reasons. 1. Even though rubella outbreaks leading to CRS have not been documented in India, outbreaks in different parts of the world like in Panama in the mid-1980s, and in Oman and Sri Lanka in the 1990s have highlighted the importance of rubella. 2. Measles vaccine coverage of infants is now >80% in many parts of India; thus effective rubella control programmes are feasible. 3. MMR vaccine is distributed in the private sector. A recent publication provides details of an increase in CRS incidence in Greece that may have resulted from the misuse of rubella vaccination strategies (53). Rubella vaccine was introduced in Greece in 1975, mainly as MMR vaccine provided for children in the private sector, and coverage remained consistently below 50% in the 1980s. The proportion of women of childbearing age susceptible to rubella gradually increased. In 1993, the country experienced a large rubella outbreak with 69% of cases in persons >15 years of age. Sadly, 25 CRS cases occurred, and this is thought to be the largest CRS epidemic in Greece since 1950. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION: • The overall seropositivity for Rubella in schoolgirls between 10 and 15 years was 87.2%. 1. 100 percent seropositivity was seen among girls who had received either MMR or Rubella previously. 2. Seropositivity of 84% was seen in the unimmunized 3. Difference in seropositivity among the immunized and the unimmunized girls was statistically significant. 4. Difference in GMT among the immunized and unimmunized girls at different age groups was also statistically significant. 5. The difference in seropositivity in the unimmunized schools belonging to different ages and socioeconomic classes was not statistically significant but the difference in GMT was found to be significant. 6. Past history of exposure to exanthematous illnesses, nutritional status and onset of menarche did not influence seropositivity. 7. The GMT showed a statistically significant decline with the number of years since vaccination with MMR. 8. The difference in GMT among the girls who had received MMR and Rubella vaccines was statistically significant
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
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| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Study ; Seroepidemiology ; Rubella ; School Girls |
| Subjects: | MEDICAL > Paediatrics |
| Depositing User: | Ravindran C |
| Date Deposited: | 19 Apr 2018 06:14 |
| Last Modified: | 19 Apr 2018 06:17 |
| URI: | http://repository-tnmgrmu.ac.in/id/eprint/7098 |
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