[Immune protection against rubella in a group of women in Latium]

Abstract

This paper reports data concerning the immune status of 252 pregnant women with regard to rubella infection. The inverse haemagglutination was used to titrate rubella virus-antibodies and it was carried out for each pregnant woman on two blood samples, collected at three weeks' interval. Thirty-nine of the 252 pregnant women (15.50%) contracted the infection in the first trimester of pregnancy. Fifty-seven women (22.60%) showed a low degree of protection against the infection while only forty-five women had a protective rubella virus-antibody titre. Finally, 111 of the 252 (44.60%) pregnant women were rubella virus seronegative and therefore susceptible to the infection.