Seroepidemiology of rubella in premarital assessment and impact of anti-rubella vaccination eight years after its introduction in Sfax Tunisia

Abstract

Introduction: Rubella is a worldwide distribution in disease, its public health importance due to the risk of malformations when the primary infection occurs in pregnant women. Objective: This study is a seroepidemiological study aims to assess the level of immunity to rubella in women presenting at the context of the premarital examination in the region of Sfax and study the impact of anti-rubella vaccination eight years after its introduction in Tunisia in 2005. Material and Methods: Search for rubella antibodies Ig G was performed in 71,412 women over a 18 year period (January 1996-December 2013). Results: Overall, rubella infection seroprevalence was 86.1% and did not increase significantly before and after 8 years of the vaccination (p=0.1). Nevertheless, a significant increase in rubella seroprevalence among women under 25 years was observed (p <0.001), where it increased from 79.6% in 2004 to 96% in 2013. Conclusion: This net increase is related to mass vaccination of schoolgirls aged between 13 and 18 years in 2005. Our results show that vaccination is very promising for the eradication of congenital rubella.