title: Immunity to diphtheria in a sample of adult population from central Italy.
abstract: A sample of 643 healthy subjects from central Italy aged 20 to 80, were screened for diphtheria antitoxin. Serum diphtheria antitoxin was assayed by a new passive haemagglutination technique using turkey red blood cells sensitized with diphtheria toxoid, after having performed a correlation study between this technique and the reference in vivo neutralization test. Of the studied population 26.7% showed a lack of serum antitoxin titres considered to be protective. The rate of susceptible subjects increased with age, showing the highest value (38.9%) in the sixth decade of age. Males proved less protected than females; 53.2% of the male population aged 50-59 were lacking a protective anti-diphtheria immunity. On the basis of present results, a periodical revaccination of the entire adult population with reduced doses of diphtheria toxoid would be advisable.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Infectious Diseases, University of Siena, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cellesi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zanchi
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Michelangeli
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Giovannoni
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sansoni
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Rossolini
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004165:Diphtheria / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology*; D004166:Diphtheria Antitoxin / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D006386:Hemagglutination Tests; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009500:Neutralization Tests; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015995:Prevalence; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D012737:Sex Factors
chemical_list: D004166:Diphtheria Antitoxin