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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Estimating the actual susceptibility of decreed population to measles, rubella and mumps
Department of Epidemiology,N. F. Gamaleya Federal Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Moscow, Russia
Correspondence should be addressed: Anna Nozdracheva
ul. Gamalei, d. 18, Moscow, Russia, 123098; moc.liamg@6050avehcardzon
Funding: this work was supported by the Russian Ministry of Healthcare within the scope of the state task “Development of the Serum Bank for seroepidemiological surveillance in accordance with international standards” (No. 056-00157-16-02).
All authors' contribution to this work is equal: selection and analysis of literature, research planning, data collection, analysis, and interpretation, drafting of a manuscript, editing.
As the modern society becomes more vaccine-dependent, the need arises for population immunity studies aimed to estimate the prevalence of antibodies against a particular infection in the donors from different populations, including sentinel groups. This work reveals the actual susceptibility of the Russian population to a number of vaccine preventable infections, including measles, rubella, and mumps. The study was conducted using blood serum samples provided by the Blood serum bank of Gamaleya Federal Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology (Moscow). Of 866 samples used in the study, 293 and 117 samples had been collected from healthcare workers in 2011 and 2017, respectively; 220 samples had been obtained from military servants in 2016–2017, and 236 samples had been collected from healthy donors in 2016. All samples were studied by solid phase enzyme immunoassay using diagnostic kits by Vector-Best (Russia). We discovered that 19.4 % and 28.8 % of individuals were susceptible to measles and mumps, respectively, which is insufficient for ensuring epidemiological safety (the herd immunity thresholds for these diseases are 7 % and 15 %, respectively) and puts the population at risk of infection spread, should the pathogens enter the country. The proportion of individuals susceptible to rubella was 6.5 %, which is below the herd immunity threshold (7 %).
Keywords: healthcare workers, herd immunity, measles, mumps, rubella, preventive vaccination, serological surveillance, military servants