Measurement of Antibodies against Measles, Rubella, Mumps and Varicella Viruses in Health Care Workers with a View to Prevention of Nosocomial Infection

Abstract

It is important to assess the immunity of health care workers against the measles, rubella, mumps and varicella viruses and to raise their immunity through vaccination. We evaluated the immunity of all staff of the Yamagata University hospital and Yamagata University, School of Medicine (total 890 350 males, 540 females) through the measurement of serum IgG specific for the measles, rubella, mumps and varicella viruses by the ELISA assay.Performing these measurements showed that the antibody negative rates of the health care staff were 9.1% for measles virus, 9.6% for rubella virus, 15.2% for mumps virus and 0.6% for varicella virus. These rates were higher in specific age groups with antibody-negative rates increasing to 17.5 % in the 21-30 age group for measles virus, 13.2% in the 41-50 age group for rubella virus and 20.7% in the 31-40 age group for mumps virus. As for the varicella virus, 4 persons in the 21-30 age group were negative for antibodies and 1 person was negative in the 31-40 age group. There were also differences between the sexes in frequencies of antibody-negative persons, especially for the rubella and mumps viruses.More males tended to lack immunity than females.Based on these results, we recommend vaccination against these viruses for the staff concerned.