Japanese Society for Infection Prevention and Control-Online Journal

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Examination of the Antibody Prevalence of Viral Diseases (Measles, Rubella, Chickenpox, and Mumps) among Staff in a Cancer Specialty Hospital

Haruka UTSUNOMIYA, Izumi NAKAGAWA and Makoto HAMADA
Infecition Control Team, Shikoku Cancer Center

We examined the antibody prevalence of epidemic viral diseases among the employees (618) in our hospital using antibody titers measured for all of them. As a result, it was found that approximately 70% of the employees should take measures such as investigation of vaccination history and additional vaccination though no one had negative antibody titers of all viral infections.
The rate of our employees with a positive antibody titer meeting the measles criteria was 46.1% of the total. It showed that the risk of an outbreak was high if the measles was brought to our institution. However, more than 90% of the employees with a positive antibody titer met the chickenpox criteria, making it possible to release a small number of employees with being susceptible to chicken pox from taking charge of patients with herpes zoster and disseminated herpes zoster. There was no gender difference in the prevalence of rubella antibody titers. The rate of our employees with a positive antibody titer meeting the mumps criteria was 59.3% of the total, the second lowest after measles, while a concern had been growing about a possibility of an infection spread in the hospital next to measles.
As a result of investigating a vaccination history of the employees in their 20s whose antibody titers did not meet the criteria, we confirmed that 66.7% of the employees had vaccination for measles and 56.5% for rubella. This suggested the presence of vaccine failure, including primary and secondary vaccine failure. It is important to investigate both antibody titer and vaccination history to confirm the status of acquisition of immunity. In the future, we need to review the vaccination history of all employees and recommend vaccinations based on the results.

Key words：epidemic viral disease, antibody titer, vaccination history

e-mail: utsunomiya.haruka.th＠mail.hosp.go.jp

Received: October 1, 2019
Accepted: November 4, 2020

36 (2)：105─110,2021