Journal de la prévention et du contrôle des infections Libre accès

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Seroprevalence for Measles Antibodies among Multi-Transfused Patients with Hemoglobinopathies: The Experience of a Thalassemia and Sickle Cell Department in Greece

Konstantinos Manganas, Sophia Delicou, Myria Pougiouka, Aikaterini Xydaki, Maria Liosi, Denis Gubbini, Vasiliki Skandami

Background: Infections are frequent in patients with hemoglobinopathies and in recent years have become a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in this group of patients.

Aims: The purpose of this study was to determine the immunity status to measles of patients with hemoglobinopathies due to the recent revival of measles in Greece.

Methods: 75 multi-transfused patients were studied. Serum measles IgG antibody titers were measured by an Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay to determine the measles immune status and document previous measles infection in individuals without a prior history of immunization.

Results: All but one of the 31 patients who were born before 1970, date of the introduction of nationwide vaccination, was antibody positive. Of the younger patients, 84% were antibody positive and 7 (6%) negative: of this group 72.7% had been vaccinated during childhood, while 11.8% had suffered measles. Of the vaccinated patients, 40.6% had received 2 doses of the vaccine while 59.4% received one. Of the non-immune patients 71.4% had not been vaccinated and the other two had been vaccinated with one dose of the vaccine. All were offered vaccination: 57.1% accepted and developed antibodies after one dose, while three refused.

Conclusion: Measles seropositivity was uniformly high among patients with hemoglobinopathies. Nearly both subgroups had evidence of measles seropositivity levels greater than the estimated threshold necessary to sustain measles elimination.