Seroepidemiology for measles among elementary school children in Northern Taiwan

Despite the high vaccination coverage in Taiwan, sporadic cases or small cluster of measles still occur every year. Nevertheless, few studies provided information about the serostatus for measles in recent years. This cross-sectional survey aimed to establish the seroepidemiologic data of measles among elementary school children in New Taipei City, Taiwan during 2012-2013.

A multistage stratified sampling design using 14 variables was employed to obtain samples. All selected schoolchildren were bled for the serologic tests of measles by both chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA) and enzyme immunoassay (EIA).

A total of 856 schoolchildren from 14 schools were recruited in this study. Among these individuals, the overall seropositive rates for measles were 82.24% and 92.17% by the Liaison and NovaLisa assays, respectively. For schoolchildren in each grade, the seropositive rates were > 90% for Grade 1, and then decreased gradually to 70-80% for Grade 6 (p < 0.001 for both methods). A decay of measles-specific immunoglobulin G titers was also observed with the maximum drop between Grade 1 and Grade 2 (declining trend of p < 0.001 for both).

Although the seropositive rate of measles was > 90% for Grade 1, the rate for Grade 6 was only in the range of 70-80%, which may be a challenge to prevent outbreaks of measles in the future and should be monitored meticulously.