Seroprevalence of Rubella Antibodies and Effects of Vaccination among Healthy University Women Students in Korea

Abstract

Since the introduction of rubella vaccination in Korea in 1982, several outbreaks of rubella have occurred. In order to examine the current seroepidemiology of rubella virus infection in Korean women of child-bearing age, the healthy university women students of Yonsei University in Seoul aged 18 approximately 26 years were chosen as a model population. A survey was carried out in the time of routine annual physical check-up. Serum specimens of 242 volunteers of healthy women university students were randomly sampled for screening rubella-specific IgG/IgM antibodies by an automated enzyme immunoassay system (Vitek System VIDAS, bioMerieux Vitek, Inc., Lyon, France). A total of 177 subjects were positive for rubella-specific IgG antibody, giving a prevalence of 73.1%. The mean ± standard deviation of rubella-specific IgG antibody was 99.3 ± 95.3 IU/mL. In this study, the efficiency of a vaccination was about 88%. With such a relative high proportion of susceptibility (26.9%) among university women students in child-bearing age, a extensive rubella vaccination program should be enforced to prevent possible outbreaks of congenital rubella syndrome in the future.