Antidiphtheria and antitetanus immunity of recruits in Romania

The concern for maintaining a high antidiphtheria and antitetanus immunity level is permanent. The paper approaches the study of antidiphtheria and antitetanus immunity levels in a group of young recruits (who had been administered a DT booster 5-7 yrs before). The titres of antibodies were determined concomitantly by the neutralization test (NT) in vivo and by the passive hemagglutination assay (PHA) in vitro. The results obtained by the neutralization tests revealed (by the estimations shown by the geometrical means) a high antidiphtheria and antitetanus immunity level proved by an exceeding of the protection limits (0.03 IU/ml and 0.01 IU/ml) of 89 x and 953 x, respectively. The analysis of individual titres obtained by NT showed that of 540 subjects in whom diphtheria antitoxin was determined, 93.52% had protective titres, while of 619 subjects in whom the tetanus antitoxin was evaluated, 97.26% were immune. The results obtained by PHA were comparable with those obtained using the reference methods.