Abstract
In hospitals, infection control for measles and rubella is important. Medical and nursing students as well as healthcare workers must have immunity against these diseases. Many countries have adopted requirements for healthcare workers’ documented vaccination history or laboratory tests as evidence of their immunity. Evaluating a written vaccination history is difficult in many cases. Therefore, we compared measles and rubella antibody titers with self-reported vaccination history and we evaluated the association between the history and measles and rubella antibody titers, using the medical and nursing students’ data. We analyzed 564 data for measles and 558 data for rubella. Vaccination history was requested to be completed as accurately as possible. Students with one or more measles or rubella vaccinations had high positive ratios of titer, and the ratio was significantly higher than that of the students without vaccinations. The positive ratio between the two-dose and one-dose vaccination groups was not significantly different for measles or rubella (measles: p = 0.534, rubella: p = 0.452). Although it should be requested that the history is complete by using other resources, such as referring to maternity passbooks or proof of vaccination, self-reported history may be useful to confirm immunity, even if there is a possibility that the history is not accurate.
Highlights
Measles and rubella are very contagious infectious diseases [1]
It should be requested that the history is complete by using other resources, such as referring to maternity passbooks or proof of vaccination, self-reported history may be useful to confirm immunity, even if there is a possibility that the history is not accurate
The logistic regression analysis showed that the odds ratios (ORs) for positive antibody titer was increased among the students with a two-dose vaccination history compared to those with no vaccination (OR, 10.2; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.90 - 46.1)
Summary
Infection control is especially important in hospitals and other healthcare settings. The confirmation of immunity among healthcare workers is crucial to the prevention of measles and rubella outbreaks. The United Kingdom (UK), and Australia have adopted guidelines requiring a documented vaccination history or evidence of immunity by laboratory test as proof of immunity for healthcare workers [2] [3] [4] [5]. The United States (US), Canada, and New Zealand have adopted a requirement for the laboratory confirmation of disease in addition to a written vaccination history or laboratory evidence of immunity as evidence of immunity for healthcare workers [6] [7] [8] [9]
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