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Ang LW, Gao Q, Cui L, Farwin A, Toh MPHS, Boudville IC, Chen MIC, Chow A, Lin RTP, Lee VJM, Leo YS. Prevalence of measles antibodies among migrant workers in Singapore: a serological study to identify susceptible population subgroups. BMC Infect Dis 2022; 22:88. [PMID: 35078426 PMCID: PMC8787927 DOI: 10.1186/s12879-022-07066-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2021] [Accepted: 01/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Background In 2019, two clusters of measles cases were reported in migrant worker dormitories in Singapore. We conducted a seroprevalence study to measure the level of susceptibility to measles among migrant workers in Singapore. Methods Our study involved residual sera of migrant workers from seven Asian countries (Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and the Philippines) who had participated in a survey between 2016 and 2019. Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody levels were first measured using a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test kit. Those with equivocal or negative IgG results were further evaluated using plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT). Results A total of 2234 migrant workers aged 20–49 years were included in the study. The overall prevalence of measles IgG antibodies among migrant workers from the seven Asian countries was 90.5% (95% confidence interval 89.2–91.6%). The country-specific seroprevalence ranged from 80.3 to 94.0%. The seroprevalence was significantly higher among migrant workers born in 1965–1989 than those born in 1990–1999 (95.3% vs. 86.6%, p < 0.0005), whereas there was no significant difference by gender (90.8% in men vs. 89.9% in women, p = 0.508). 195 out of 213 samples with equivocal or negative ELISA results were tested positive using PRNT. Conclusion The IgG seroprevalence in migrant workers was below the herd immunity threshold of 95% for measles. Sporadic outbreaks may occur in susceptible individuals due to high transmissibility of measles virus. Seroprevalence surveys can help identify susceptible subgroups for vaccination. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12879-022-07066-2.
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Affiliation(s)
- Li Wei Ang
- National Public Health and Epidemiology Unit, National Centre for Infectious Diseases, 16 Jalan Tan Tock Seng, Singapore, 308442, Singapore. .,Public Health Group, Ministry of Health, Singapore, Singapore.
| | - Qi Gao
- National Public Health and Epidemiology Unit, National Centre for Infectious Diseases, 16 Jalan Tan Tock Seng, Singapore, 308442, Singapore
| | - Lin Cui
- National Public Health Laboratory, National Centre for Infectious Diseases, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Aysha Farwin
- National Public Health and Epidemiology Unit, National Centre for Infectious Diseases, 16 Jalan Tan Tock Seng, Singapore, 308442, Singapore
| | - Matthias Paul Han Sim Toh
- National Public Health and Epidemiology Unit, National Centre for Infectious Diseases, 16 Jalan Tan Tock Seng, Singapore, 308442, Singapore.,Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Irving Charles Boudville
- National Public Health and Epidemiology Unit, National Centre for Infectious Diseases, 16 Jalan Tan Tock Seng, Singapore, 308442, Singapore
| | - Mark I-Cheng Chen
- National Public Health and Epidemiology Unit, National Centre for Infectious Diseases, 16 Jalan Tan Tock Seng, Singapore, 308442, Singapore.,Public Health Group, Ministry of Health, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Angela Chow
- National Public Health and Epidemiology Unit, National Centre for Infectious Diseases, 16 Jalan Tan Tock Seng, Singapore, 308442, Singapore.,Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.,Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.,Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Office of Clinical Epidemiology, Analytics, and Knowledge (OCEAN), Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Raymond Tzer-Pin Lin
- National Public Health Laboratory, National Centre for Infectious Diseases, Singapore, Singapore.,Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.,Department of Laboratory Medicine, National University Hospital, National University Health System, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Vernon Jian Ming Lee
- Public Health Group, Ministry of Health, Singapore, Singapore.,Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Yee Sin Leo
- Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.,Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.,Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.,National Centre for Infectious Diseases, Singapore, Singapore.,Department of Infectious Diseases, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore, Singapore
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