Rubella is a mild exanthematous fever characterised by transient macular rash that often goes unnoticed. It is of worldwide distribution. However, rubella infection in pregnant females can lead to grave consequences due to its teratogenicity. Rubella vaccine was included in the National Immunisation Programme only in 2017. Before that the vaccine was available in the private sector. Even after 100% immunisation, there were changing trends in IgG antibody levels in various groups of people. A study was conducted in the department of Microbiology at Government Medical College, Ernakulam to find out the seroprevalence of Rubella IgG antibodies among pregnant women attending the OPD of the Obstetric and Gynaecology department during a period of one year from May 2017 to April 2018 by doing a quantitative ELISA.A total number of 200 blood samples were tested. Majority of the patients were unimmunised (60%) and the seropositivity was 69.17% and the seropositivity among immunised women was 39.5%.

Keywords: Rubella, Quantitative ELISA, IgG antibody.

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Dr J. Lancy

Professor of Microbiology GMC, Ernakulam, Kerala, India