title: Rubella seroprevalence among Turkish adolescent girls living in Edirne, Turkey.
abstract: This study was designed to estimate the rubella seroprevalence in unvaccinated Turkish adolescent girls in urban and rural areas of Edirne, and to create preventive strategies for congenital rubella syndrome (CRS). The sample, representing 12- to 17-year-old adolescent girls, consisted of 1,600 subjects selected from school lists by systematic and random sampling, which was matched by age and urban-rural residency strata proportional to the corresponding distributions in the Edirne population. For each participant, a questionnaire was completed and rubella-specific IgG antibodies were measured. After analysis of samples, seropositivity prevalence, equivocal and seronegative samples of adolescent girls in Edirne were determined as 93.1%, 0.6% and 6.3%, respectively. Data from the present study may indicate that 6.9% of adolescent girls have considerable risk for rubella infection during pregnancy. Eliminating rubella and CRS in Turkey will require national health service efforts, including vaccination of all adolescents and all susceptible women of childbearing age.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Trakya University Faculty of Medicine, Edirne, Turkey.
authors.forename: Naci
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Oner
authors.forename: Ulfet
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Vatansever
authors.forename: Serap
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Karasalihoglu
authors.forename: Müşerref
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tatman Otkun
authors.forename: Galip
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ekuklu
authors.forename: Yasemin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Küçükugurluoglu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D002648:Child; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000032:analysis; D011247:Pregnancy; D012409:Rubella / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control; D012410:Rubella Syndrome, Congenital / Q000517:prevention & control*; D012412:Rubella virus / Q000276:immunology; D012424:Rural Population; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology; D014505:Urban Population
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D007074:Immunoglobulin G