SERO-EPIDEMIOLOGY OF MEASLES IN CHILDREN FROM DISTRICT FAISALABAD PAKISTAN

Abstract

A comparative cross sectional study was conducted on blood samples (n=200)collected from children of 1 to 10 years of age, selected by convenient sampling method. Differentcoupling agents were used to bind measles antigen with erythrocyte suspensions of differentconcentrations collected from different species for standardization of Indirect Hemagglutination Assay(IHA) which was then used for testing of serum samples for the detection and quantification antimeasles antibodies. Overall prevalence of anti-measles antibodies was 93.5 percent in target population. A statistically significant association was found between vaccinated and non-vaccinated individuals with appreciably high antibody titres in vaccinated individuals (P < 0.01). Measles vaccine coverage was approximately 60 percent nationwide a complete mismatch to the global standards, andwas lowest among all other vaccines included in the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI).Moreover, IHA proved to be a simple and convenient tool for serodiagnosis and for monitoring ofprotective humoral immune response against measles vaccine.