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Epidemiological and molecular investigation of a rubella outbreak, Romania, 2011 to 2012
- Mihaela Lazar1,7 , Emily Abernathy2 , Min-hsin Chen2 , Joseph Icenogle2 , Denisa Janta3 , Aurora Stanescu3 , Adriana Pistol3 , Sabine Santibanez4 , Annette Mankertz4 , Judith M Hübschen5 , Grigore Mihaescu7 , Gheorghe Necula1,6 , Emilia Lupulescu1
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View Affiliations Hide AffiliationsAffiliations: 1 National Institute of Research-Development for Microbiology and Immunology “Cantacuzino”, Bucharest, Romania 2 National Center for Immunizations and Respiratory Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States 3 National Centre for Communicable Diseases Surveillance and Control, National Institute of Public Health, Bucharest, Romania 4 WHO-EURO, Regional Reference Laboratory for Measles and Rubella, Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany 5 Department of Infection and Immunity, WHO-EURO Regional Reference Laboratory for Measles and Rubella, Luxembourg Institute of Health Esch-sur-Alzette, Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg 6 Horia Hulubei National Institute for R&D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Bucharest, Romania 7 University of Bucharest, Faculty of Biology, Department of Virology, Bucharest, RomaniaMihaela Lazarmlazar cantacuzino.ro
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Citation style for this article: Lazar Mihaela, Abernathy Emily, Chen Min-hsin, Icenogle Joseph, Janta Denisa, Stanescu Aurora, Pistol Adriana, Santibanez Sabine, Mankertz Annette, Hübschen Judith M, Mihaescu Grigore, Necula Gheorghe, Lupulescu Emilia. Epidemiological and molecular investigation of a rubella outbreak, Romania, 2011 to 2012. Euro Surveill. 2016;21(38):pii=30345. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2016.21.38.30345 Received: 02 Jun 2015; Accepted: 16 Jun 2016
Abstract
We describe a rubella outbreak that occurred in Romania between September 2011 and December 2012. During this period 24,627 rubella cases, 41.1% (n=10,134) of which female, were notified based on clinical criteria, and a total of 6,182 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=16,245 cases). Of all notified cases, 24,067 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 6,182 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.
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