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Vaccine. 2018 Mar 14;36(12):1664-1672. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2018.01.079. Epub 2018 Feb 14.
Freidl GS1 Tostmann A2 Curvers M3 Ruijs WLM3 Smits G3 Schepp R3 Duizer E3 Boland G4 de Melker H3 van der Klis FRM3 Hautvast JLA2 Veldhuijzen IK5.
1
Centre for Infectious Disease Control National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) Antonie van Leeuwenhoeklaan 9 3721 MA Bilthoven The Netherlands; European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training (EPIET) European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) Tomtebodavägen 11A 171 65 Solna Sweden.
2
Department of Primary and Community Care Radboud University Medical Centre Geert Grooteplein Zuid 10 6525 GA Nijmegen The Netherlands.
3
Centre for Infectious Disease Control National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) Antonie van Leeuwenhoeklaan 9 3721 MA Bilthoven The Netherlands.
4
Department of Medical Microbiology University Medical Center Utrecht Heidelberglaan 100 3584 CX Utrecht The Netherlands.
5
Centre for Infectious Disease Control National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) Antonie van Leeuwenhoeklaan 9 3721 MA Bilthoven The Netherlands. Electronic address: irene.veldhuijzen@rivm.nl.
Asylum seekers are a vulnerable population for contracting infectious diseases. Outbreaks occur among children and adults. In the Netherlands asylum seeker children are offered vaccination according to the National Immunization Program. Little is known about protection against vaccine-preventable diseases (VPD) in adult asylum seekers. In this 2016 study we assessed the immunity of adult asylum seekers against nine VPD to identify groups that might benefit from additional vaccinations. We invited asylum seekers from Syria Iran Iraq Afghanistan Eritrea and Ethiopia to participate in a serosurvey. Participants provided informed consent and a blood sample and completed a questionnaire. We measured prevalence of protective antibodies to measles mumps rubella varicella diphtheria tetanus polio type 1-3 and hepatitis A and B stratified them by country of origin and age groups. The median age of the 622 participants was 28 years (interquartile range: 23-35) 81% were male and 48% originated from Syria. Overall seroprotection was 88% for measles (range between countries: 83-93%) 91% for mumps (81-95%) 94% for rubella (84-98%) 96% for varicella (92-98%) 82% for diphtheria (65-88%) 98% for tetanus (86-100%) 91% (88-94%) for polio type 1 95% (90-98%) for polio type 2 82% (76-86%) for polio type 3 84% (54-100%) for hepatitis A and 27% for hepatitis B (anti-HBs; 8-42%). Our results indicate insufficient protection against certain VPD in some subgroups. For all countries except Eritrea measles seroprotection was below the 95% threshold required for elimination. Measles seroprevalence was lowest among adults younger than 25 years. In comparison seroprevalence in the Dutch general population was 96% in 2006/07. The results of this study can help prioritizing vaccination of susceptible subgroups of adult asylum seekers in general and in outbreak situations.
Asylum seekers; Immunity; Refugees; Seroprevalence; Serosurvey; Vaccine-preventable diseases
PMID:29454516