Epidemiological and molecular investigation of a rubella outbreak Romania 2011 to 2012.

Tuesday, 11th of October 2016

Euro Surveill. 2016 Sep 22;21(38). doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2016.21.38.30345.

Epidemiological and molecular investigation of a rubella outbreak Romania 2011 to 2012.

Lazar M¹ Abernathy E Chen MH Icenogle J Janta D Stanescu A Pistol A Santibanez S Mankertz AHübschen JM Mihaescu G Necula G Lupulescu E.

Author information

Abstract

We describe a rubella outbreak that occurred in Romania between September 2011 and December 2012. During this period 24627 rubella cases 41.1% (n=10134) of which female were notified based on clinical criteria and a total of 6182 individuals were found serologically positive for IgM-specific rubella antibody. The median age of notified cases was 18 years (range: <1-65) and the most affected age group 15 to 19 years (n=16245 cases). Of all notified cases 24067 cases (97.7%) reported no history of vaccination. Phylogenetic analysis of 19 sequences (739 nucleotides each) from 10 districts of the country revealed that the outbreak was caused by two distinct rubella virus strains of genotype 2B which co-circulated with both temporal and geographical overlap. In addition to the 6182 IgM-positive rubella cases 28 cases of congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) were identified including 11 neonatal deaths and one stillbirth. The outbreak underscores the need to encourage higher vaccination uptake in the population particularly in women of reproductive age and to strengthen epidemiological and laboratory investigations of suspected rubella cases. Genetic characterisation of wild-type rubella virus is an essential component to enhance surveillance and here we report rubella virus sequences from Romania.

This article is copyright of The Authors 2016.