Rubella immunity among prenatal women in Ontario, 2006–2010

BACKGROUND: Countries of the Americas have been working towards rubella elimination since 2003 and endemic rubella virus transmission appears to have been interrupted since 2009. To contribute towards monitoring of rubella elimination, we assessed rubella seroprevalence among prenatal screening tests performed in Ontario. METHODS: Specimens received for prenatal rubella serologic testing at the Public Health Ontario Laboratory, the provincial reference laboratory, between 2006 and 2010 were analyzed. A patient-based dataset was created using all tests occurring among 15–49 year-old females, where prenatal screening was indicated. Multiple tests were assigned to the same patient on the basis of health card number, name and date of birth. Only unique tests performed at least nine months apart were included. SAS version 9.2 was used for analysis. RESULTS: Between 2006 and 2010, we identified 459,963 women who underwent 551,160 unique prenatal screening tests for rubella. Of these, 81.6%, 17.1% and 1.4% had one, two and three or more tests respectively. Rubella immunity remained stable at approximately 90% overall; the proportion of susceptible women was 4.4%. Additionally, 0.6% of women were initially susceptible and subsequently developed immunity. Across the province, susceptibility was highest in the north and declined with increasing age (p < 0.0001). Among women with multiple tests, the proportion who remained susceptible declined as the number of years between tests increased (p < .0001). Based on age at first test, younger women had the highest susceptibility (4.2% among 15–19 year-olds) and were significantly more likely to develop immunity if previously susceptible (p < .0001). CONCLUSION: Rubella susceptibility among prenatal women in Ontario supports elimination goals as population immunity in this group is relatively high. Higher susceptibility among young women and women living in the north highlights an opportunity for greater focus on identification and immunization of susceptible women in these groups.