A case study of measles vaccination for university students during the measles outbreak in Tokyo, Japan, 2007

• Published in: Journal of infection and chemotherapy : official journal of the Japan Society of Chemotherapy Vol. 18; no. 3; pp. 341 - 346
• Main Authors: Fujisaki, Ryuichi, Yamamura, Mariko, Abe, Shigeru, Makimura, Miho, Shimogawara, Kousuke, Kasahara, Michihiro, Nishiya, Hajime, Makimura, Koichi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Japan Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2012; Springer Japan
• Subjects: Antibodies; Antibodies, Viral - blood; Antibodies, Viral - immunology; Disease Outbreaks - prevention & control; Enzyme immunoassay (EIA); Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; Epidemics; Hemagglutination inhibition; Hemagglutination inhibition (HI); Hemagglutination Inhibition Tests; Hematology, Oncology and Palliative Medicine; Humans; Immunoenzyme Techniques; Infection; Infectious Diseases; Inventories; Japan; Malignant catarrhal fever; Mass Vaccination - methods; Measles; Measles - epidemiology; Measles - immunology; Measles - prevention & control; Measles Vaccine - administration & dosage; Measles Vaccine - immunology; Measles virus - immunology; Medical Microbiology; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Original Article; Outbreak; Student; Students - statistics & numerical data; Surveys and Questionnaires; Tokyo - epidemiology; Universities; Vaccination; Virology; Young Adult; Tokyo; Japan; Enzyme immunoassay (EIA); Outbreak; Hemagglutination inhibition (HI); Student; Measles; Vaccination
• ISSN: 1341-321X; 1437-7780
• DOI: 10.1007/s10156-011-0343-x

In April 2007, seven students belonging to the same class at Teikyo University developed measles. To prevent the spread of infection, 27 of 106 students in the same class who had low anti-measles antibody titers as measured by hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assay were vaccinated. After the outbreak had subsided, the HI values were investigated in 103 students, and they answered questionnaires about their health condition during the period of the outbreak and their previous clinical histories of measles, including vaccination records. There was no new case of measles after introduction of the vaccination program. However, the HI titers of 42% of the students who were not vaccinated in this program were significantly elevated. Fever and catarrhal signs occurred in 7 of these students with pre-exposure titers of 8 or less. The post-exposure HI titers of 71% of students who were unaffected by measles and had high HI titers (>8) before the epidemic did not increase. These results suggested that people with low HI titers may become potential carriers of measles and that measurement of pre-exposure HI anti-measles antibody titer is a useful method for selection of candidates to undergo vaccination.