Serological Study of Antibody Against Rubella in Thai women

Abstract

          A serological investigation was done on 298 Thai women of childbearing age (15-44 years old) from various provinces which were representative of 4 regions of Thailand as follow : central region, 120 specimens were collected from Bangkok and Ratchaburi province ; north eastern region, 60 specimens from Loei province;southern region, 60 specimens from Nakhonsrithammarat province. These specimens were collected in 1991, except for the north region, 58 specimens from Chiang Rai province and Nan province were collected in 1994. From this study, the results showed that 80% of Thai women in childbearing age had immunity against rubella (HI titer ≥ 1 :8) and there is no statistically difference of rubella immunity (p>0.05) among various age groups. The results also showed that there is no significant difference of rubella immunity among 4 groups of specimens from difference regions and also had nearly the same ratio of seropositive of 78%, except from southern region which increased to 91.7%. Therefore, these results may be useful for administration of rubella vaccine in EPI programme and prevention of congenital rubella.