title: Prevalence of diphtheria toxin antibodies in human sera from a cross-section of the Italian population.
abstract: A polycentric study was carried out between 1993 and 1995 in order to evaluate diphtheria immunity on a representative sample of population from different areas of Italy. To determine diphtheria antitoxin, sera from 5187 apparently healthy subjects, divided according to sex and age groups, were titrated using an ELISA indirect method. A basic protective titre of diphtheria antitoxin (> 0.01 IU ml-1) was found in 4080 (78.6%) subjects. No statistically significant differences between males and females were observed. Our findings show that the proportion of susceptibles increases with age and a high proportion of adults no longer has diphtheria antitoxin at protective levels since toxigenic C. diphtheriae circulation is presently lacking in Italy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Ferrara, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bergamini
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Comodo
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gasparini
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gabutti
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fabrizi
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Severini
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ajello
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bonanni
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Castagnari
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cocchioni
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Della Pietra
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fragapane
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grilli
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liberatore
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lo Nostro
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moiraghi-Ruggenini
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Pellegrini
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pozzi
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tarsitani
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zotti
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Crovari
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004166:Diphtheria Antitoxin / Q000097:blood; D004167:Diphtheria Toxin / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D017678:Sex Distribution