Rubella seroprevalence in children in Dogankent, a rural area of Adana province in Turkey, January-February 2005

A cross-sectional study was performed to determine the rubella seroprevalence in 331 children aged between 0 and 59 months in Turkey who were not vaccinated for rubella and lived in the area covered by Dogankent Health Center, a rural area with a large proportion of residents of low socioeconomic status. Rubella seropositivity was found to be low, with 17.5%, increased with age and low socioeconomic level, and was particularly high in children who live in a household with one member going to school, and in children of uneducated parents (p<0.05). The asymptomatic infection rate was 98.3%. There was no significant difference in seropositivity with regards to the gender, history of rubella infection, size of the household, or number of children at home (p>0.05). Rubella vaccine has only been included into the national vaccination programme in the form of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine since 2006 and is performed at the age of 12 months, in the first year of primary school and at the age of about 15 years. In order to eliminate rubella and congenital rubella syndrome, it is necessary that use of MMR vaccine is expanded to include the children born before 2006.