Rubella and mumps seroprevalence in 0-59 months age of children Doğankent Health Center

ABSTRACT-KEYWORDSRubella and mummps seroprevalence in 0-59 months age of children in DoğankentHealth Center Rural AreaRubella and mumps are the most frequent infectious diseases of childhood, withgood prognosis. Whereas mumps can cause a few complication after adolesent age, themost important complication of rubella is congenital rubella.In this study we aimed to determine the rubella and mumps seroprevalence in0-59 months aged children in Doğankent Health Center Rural Area where people withlow socioeconomic status live. These children were not vaccinated with rubella andmumps. The study was a cross sectional study and 331 children were included. ELISAwas used for serum study and istatistical analysis was performed by SPSS version 10.0,Epi-Info 3.5 programme.Rubella and mumps seropositivity were 17.5 % and 35.3 %, respectively.Rubella seropositivity was significantly higher in 48-59 months aged children, childrenwhose parents were not educated and children who have siblings educated in school(p< 0.05). 48.9 % of the children was male. Mumps seropositivity was higher in23-35 months aged male group and in children whose fathers have no job (p< 0.05).There was no statistically significant difference between seropositivity of both diseasesand gender, mumps and rubella anamnesis of the child or any relative in house, numberof household, number of 0-6 years old children, presence of 7-14 years old ageadolesencent, number of ≥ 15 years of age person in household and weight and height ofthe child (p> 0.05). Asymptomatic infection for rubella and mumps was 98.3 % and83.8 %, respectively.In conclusion, the Health Ministery of Turkey has just included rubella andmumps vaccine in National Immunisation Programme in 2006. To this programme, 1and 7 years of aged children should be vaccinated against measles mumps, and rubella.So, the children born before 2005 will gain this vaccination once. The seropositivity inour population shows that both rubella and mumps are low in children aged 0-59months. So most of these children born before 2005 should be vaccinated twice and anew programme should be planned for these children.Keywords: Child, mumps, rubella, seroprevalenceXII