title: Susceptibility of medical students to vaccine-preventable viral diseases: a serological study.
abstract: As a measure for the prevention and control of nosocomial infections in medical school students, we examined the students' titers of antibodies to measles, rubella, varicella, and mumps viruses to determine whether vaccination was required. We also analyzed and discussed correlations among antibody titers to the viruses. Subjects were 363 Juntendo University students, ranging from freshmen to seniors. EIA was used to measure IgG antibody titers. Eight subjects (2.2%) had negative titers for measles, 36 (9.9%) for rubella, 8 (2.2%) for varicella, and 10 (2.7%) for mumps. Seronegative subjects were vaccinated against each virus and high seroconversion rates were obtained: 100% for measles and rubella, 67% for varicella, and 89% for mumps. In addition, we used Pearson's test to search for correlations among the antibody titers for each virus. A weak correlation was observed among antibody titers for measles, rubella, and mumps but not for varicella. These results suggest that MMR vaccine might be effective in people with low levels of antibody to measles, rubella, and mumps.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Medicine, Juntendo University School of Medicine, 2-1-1 Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8421, Japan.
authors.forename: Junko
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kukino
authors.forename: Toshio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Naito
authors.forename: Kazunori
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mitsuhashi
authors.forename: Hiroko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Oshima
authors.forename: Sakae
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sekiya
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Isonuma
authors.forename: Kazuyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dambara
authors.forename: Yasuo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hayashida
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D019433:Chickenpox Vaccine / Q000276:immunology; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000097:blood / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D014645:Herpesvirus 3, Human / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008459:Measles virus / Q000276:immunology; D022542:Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccine / Q000276:immunology; D009109:Mumps virus / Q000276:immunology; D012412:Rubella virus / Q000276:immunology; D013337:Students, Medical; D014765:Viral Vaccines / Q000276:immunology*; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000517:prevention & control*
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D019433:Chickenpox Vaccine; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D022542:Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccine; D014765:Viral Vaccines