title: Age-related immunity to measles, mumps and rubella in Middle American and United States children.
abstract: Serum samples from 3000 1 to 15-year-old children residing in the Dominican Republic, Honduras and the Republic of Panama were analyzed for measles, mumps and rubella susceptibility. These data were compared with results obtained on sera drawn from 2221 United States children of similar ages. It was found that children in all areas usually acquired immunity to measles early in life and tended to contract mumps and rubella somewhat later. Immunity data from the urban areas of the United States closely resembled that from the urban areas of the Dominican Republic. Honduran and Panamanian children showed much higher age-related frequencies of rubella, susceptibility. When compared to the other Middle American countries studied, the rural Honduran sample showed significantly higher age-grouped susceptibility rates for measles and simultaneous triple rate revealed a consistent bias, indicating that the attack rates of the three infections are not entirely independent.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D002489:Central America; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004293:Dominican Republic; D006721:Honduras; D006801:Humans; D007109:Immunity; D007223:Infant; D008457:Measles / Q000276:immunology*; D009107:Mumps / Q000276:immunology*; D010176:Panama; D012409:Rubella / Q000276:immunology*; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral