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

Abstract

Evidence-based vaccination policy is important for the global and local efforts of achieving control over measles. In 2007, the first Israeli birth cohort to be twice vaccinated during childhood with Measles-Mumps-Rubella vaccine reached adulthood. In parallel, Israel experienced its largest measles outbreak since 1994. We aimed to assess the seroprevalence of measles IgG antibodies and concordance with rubella and mumps seroprevalence among young Israeli adults born 1988-9 in comparison to previous birth cohorts, in order to inform evidence based prevention policy. We conducted a seroprevalence study of IgG antibodies among 439 Israeli adults born in 1988-9, based on a representative sample of sera collected at age 18-19 upon recruitment to mandatory military service in 2007. In total, 85.7% were seropositive for measles as compared with 95.6% in the 1996 recruitment (P < 0.001). The absolute decline was significant both for males (8.8%, P D 0.001) and females (12.1%, P < 0.001). There were no significant differences in seropositivity by gender, years of education, country of birth or smoking status. Rubella seropositivity among measles seropositives was 90.4%, significantly (P < 0.001) higher than 72.1% among measles seronegatives. Mumps seropositivity among measles seropositives was 87.0%, significantly (P < 0.001) higher than 62.3% among measles seronegatives. Results were similar for Israeli-born only. Our findings indicate that measles seroprevalence decreased after the last change in vaccination policy and reach sub-optimal level. Until global eradication is reached, a proactive vaccination program to supplement routine childhood vaccination program should be considered in Israel and in other countries.

Serological assessment of the establishment of herd immunity against measles in a health district in Malaysia

“…Comparing to children aged 6–9 years in this study, adolescents and young adults group had OR of 0.31 and adults group had increased OR of 1.74 to have positive measles antibodies. Similar findings were elicited in a study conducted in Catalonia, Spain [8] and Israel [15]. However, the prevalence rate for measles antibodies in those studies among adolescents and young adults were higher (83.8% and 85.7% respectively) than that found in this study.…”

“…This result was in line with seroprevalence surveys conducted by Levine et al [15], Sultana et al [19], Yekta et al [20], Davidkin et al [21] and Onoja & Adeniji [22] but differ from a study by Poethko-Muller & Mankertz [23] which found boys had higher levels of susceptibility than girls. Aaby et al [24] also found that there were sex differences in measles vaccine efficacy in their study.…”

Relevance of the Measles Virus Expression in Cancer - an Update

“…The range and type of vaccination these patients previously received should be determined. In addition, some measles patients, described in 1987 [57] and in 2007 [58], present several features consistent with AMS. We also propose to follow the patients with confirmed AMS to identify an eventual malignancy, and which childhood infections the patients have developed.…”

“…We encourage scientists to use for that purpose our cohort of cHL patients, about half of whom carry MV proteins in their tumor cells. We incite the investigation of cohorts from Israeli studies, in which the patients may have suffered from AMS [57,58] and who may develop sometimes in the future a MVrelated malignancy.…”

Dilemmas and Pitfalls in Rubella Laboratory Diagnostics in Low Prevalence or Elimination Settings

“…Thus, the number of people who would have experienced a boost to their immunity from postvaccine exposure to the virus has also decreased. In Israel, decreased IgG levels observed in younger age cohorts were attributed to lack of circulating wild-type virus and lower vaccination coverage [99]. Those born in 1977-78 had a seroprevalence of 95.6 % compared to those born in 1988-89 who had 85.7 % seroprevalence for measles, which was shown to correlate with the seroprevalence for rubella [99].…”