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Measles and rubella seroprevalence in a population of young adult blood donors, France 2013

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2019

D. Antona*
Affiliation:
Direction des maladies infectieuses, Santé publique France, Saint-Maurice, France
P. Morel
Affiliation:
Etablissement Français du Sang, Paris, France
C. Jacquot
Affiliation:
Etablissement Français du Sang, Paris, France
L. Fonteneau
Affiliation:
Direction des maladies infectieuses, Santé publique France, Saint-Maurice, France
J. Dina
Affiliation:
Normandie Univ, UNICAEN, GRAM EA2556, 14032 France National Reference Center for Measles, Mumps and Rubella, CHU Caen, Virology Department, Caen 14000, France
C. Vauloup-Fellous
Affiliation:
Department of Virology,AP-HP, Hôpital Paul Brousse, WHO Rubella NRL, Paris-Sud Univ, INSERM U1193, Villejuif 94804, France
L. Gimeno
Affiliation:
Etablissement Français du Sang, Paris, France
A. Degeorges
Affiliation:
Etablissement Français du Sang, Paris, France
P. Gallian
Affiliation:
Etablissement Français du Sang Alpes Méditerranée, Marseille, France
D. Lévy-Bruhl
Affiliation:
Direction des maladies infectieuses, Santé publique France, Saint-Maurice, France
*
Author for correspondence: D. Antona, E-mail: denise.antona@santepubliquefrance.fr
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Abstract

As part of the evaluation of the French plan for the elimination of measles and rubella, we conducted a seroprevalence survey in 2013, aimed at updating seroprevalence data for people 18–32 years old. A secondary objective was to estimate measles incidence in this population during the 2009–2011 outbreak, and thus estimate the exhaustiveness of measles mandatory reporting. We used a cross-sectional survey design, targeting blood donors 18–32 years old, living in France since 2009, who came to give blood in a blood collecting site. We included 4647 people in metropolitan France, 806 people in Réunion Island and 496 in the French Caribbean. A further 3942 individuals were interviewed in the south-east region of metropolitan France to estimate the exhaustiveness of measles mandatory reporting. One of the main findings of this survey is that the proportion of people 18–32 years old susceptible to both measles and rubella infections remained high in France in 2013, 9.2% and 5.4%, respectively, in metropolitan France, even after the promotion campaigns about vaccination catch-up during and following the major measles epidemic in 2009–2011. Applying our results to French census data would suggest that around 1 million people aged 18–32 years old are currently susceptible to measles in France, despite this age group being one of the vaccination targets of the national measles elimination plan. Another important finding is that only an estimated 45% of the true number of cases in this age group was actually notified, despite notification being mandatory.

Information

Type
Original Paper
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2019
Figure 0

Table 1. Susceptibility to measles infection, French metropolitan population of blood donors aged 18–32 years, 2013

Figure 1

Table 2. Susceptibility to measles infection: comparison between the results of the 2010 and 2013 seroprevalence surveys, French metropolitan population aged 18–32 years

Figure 2

Fig. 1. Distribution of measles IgG antibodies titres (Log) according to age group, French metropolitan population of blood donors aged 18–32 years, 2013.

Figure 3

Table 3. Comparison of measles IgG GMT between age groups, according to past history of measles infection and vaccination, French metropolitan population of blood donors aged 18–32 years, 2013

Figure 4

Table 4. Susceptibility to rubella infection, French metropolitan population of blood donors aged 18–32 years, 2013

Figure 5

Table 5. Susceptibility to rubella infection: comparison between the results of the 2010 and 2013 seroprevalence surveys, French metropolitan population aged 18–32 years

Figure 6

Fig. 2. Distribution of rubella IgG antibodies titres (Log) according to age group, French metropolitan population of blood donors aged 18–32 years, 2013.

Figure 7

Table 6. Comparison of rubella IgG GMT between age groups, according to past history of rubella vaccination, French metropolitan population of blood donors aged 18–32 years, 2013

Figure 8

Table 7. Estimation of completeness of measles cases reporting