Decay of maternally derived measles antibody in central Turkey.

ABSTRACT

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate maternal antibodies in sera of infants below vaccination age and their relation to the immunity status of the mothers. The study group consisted of 184 mothers and their babies aged 0-9 months. Mothers were interviewed to obtain demographic information. Samples of sera were taken from mothers and their babies and tested for measles IgG antibodies. In our study, 174 mothers (94.6%) were immune to measles. Only 78.4% of the 0 month-old infants of seropositive mothers and 26.0% of the 4-9 month-old infants were seropositive. When correlation analysis for antibody titres was made between the seropositive mothers and their seropositive infants, positive correlation was found. It was found that the time for which infants were protected was related to maternal IgG antibody titre. It will be proper to determine the vaccination strategies considering the changing epidemiological characteristics.