Measles, rubella, mumps and Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in saliva of vaccinated students of schools and universities in São Paulo City, Brazil

INTRODUCTION: Vaccines are well-established public health interventions with major impact on the prevalence of infectious diseases, but outbreaks are occurring frequently due to primary and secondary failures, despite high coverage. Surveillance of efficacy and duration of induced immunity is a difficult task as it requires invasive blood sampling in children and teenagers. Saliva can be an acceptable alternative source of IgG to assess vaccine efficacy and toxoplasmosis incidence. We investigated IgG response for measles, mumps, rubella, and T. gondii in saliva samples of vaccinated young people. METHODS: Saliva was collected from 249 public schools students from São Paulo, Brazil, aged 7 to 13 years old, during an interactive exhibition on hygiene. We used S. aureus protein A solid phase capture assay for IgG reactive to biotinylated purified proteins. Paired saliva and serum (47) were tested from young adults with serum evidence of T. gondii infection and from negative children less than 12 month old for standardization. Reproducibility was greater than 98% and sensitivity and specificity of the saliva assays were greater than 95%, as well as the concordance of paired saliva and serum samples. RESULTS: Saliva from high school students showed a prevalence of 8.5% (95% CI: 5.0–11.9%) for anti T. gondii IgG; 96.8% (94.6–99%) of anti-measles IgG; 59.1% (53–65%) of anti-rubella IgG, and 57.5% (51.3–63.6%) of anti-mumps IgG. DISCUSSION: The prevalence of antibodies against mumps and rubella after 6–8 years of vaccination was lower than against measles among students. The findings of this study demonstrate the feasibility of saliva sampling for follow-up of vaccine immune status in teenagers. This useful approach allows for IgG detection for vaccine control or epidemiological studies.