摘要：Measles outbreaks in Victoria in 1999 and 2001 have suggested that a substantial proportion of young Victorianadults may be susceptible to measles infection. We performed a serosurvey of 300 18-30-year-old healthy blooddonors and 312 sera retrieved after diagnostic testing for a non-rash illness in patients of the same age group, withthe aim of estimating the proportion of young adults in Victoria immune to measles. We also aimed to define moreprecisely the birth cohorts at risk of measles infection, with cohorts reflecting the measles immunisation policies ofprevious years. There was no significant difference in measles immunity between the 300 blood donors (79.0%,95% confidence interval 73.9-83.5) and the 312 patients whose sera had been stored (84.0%, 95% CI 79.4-87.9,p=0.11). There was, however, a significant difference in immunity by birth cohort. In the combined results fromboth samples, the proportion of people born between 1968 and 1974 who were immune to measles was 88.4 per cent(95% CI 84.1-91.6) while the proportion of those born between 1975 and 1981 was 74.1 per cent (95% CI 68.7-79.1).This study confirms that a substantial proportion of young Victorian adults are susceptible to measles, but alsodemonstrates that those born between 1975 and 1981 are more likely to be non-immune than those born before1975. A review of published Australian data supports this conclusion and confirms the need for a measles controlprogram aimed at young adults
关键词：measles; immunity; cohort analysis; immunisation; young adults
