Rubella transmission and the risk of congenital rubella syndrome in Liberia: a need to introduce rubella-containing vaccine in the routine immunization program

Table 1 Laboratory results for rubella-specific immunoglobulin M antibody testing of suspected measles cases, 2017–2018, Liberia

Variables	^aSuspected measles cases	^bRubella IgM tested	Rubella IgM result
Variables	^aSuspected measles cases	^bRubella IgM tested	IgM + ^c (%)	IgM -	Indeterminate	^dPositivity %
Total cases	2027	1307	472	769	66	36
Year
2017	1191	882	353 (75)	478	51	40
2018	836	425	119 (25)	291	15	28
Sex
Female	1050	703	269 (57)	404	30	38
Male	977	604	203 (43)	365	36	34
Age Group
< 1 Year	81	37	6 (1)	29	2	16
1–4 Years	525	287	109 (23)	172	6	38
5–9 Years	647	460	207 (44)	221	32	45
10–14 Years	329	249	87 (18)	145	17	35
> 14 Years	420	258	56 (12)	195	7	22
NA	25	16	7 (1)	7	2	44
Women of Childbearing Age	211	133	23 (5)	106	4	17

^aSuspected measles cases with known laboratory result, ^bsuspected measles cases which are negative and indeterminate for measles IgM and tested for Rubella IgM, ^cProportion of confirmed rubella cases from total rubella positive cases in each category, ^dRubella IgM positivity rate was calculated by dividing the number of Rubella IgM positive cases to specimen tested for rubella IgM with specific variables, IgM Immunoglobulin M, NA Not available

ISSN: 1471-2334