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Laboratory diagnosis of acute measles infections in hospitalized children in Zambia
Author(s) -
Oshitani H.,
Suzuki H.,
Mpabalwani M.,
Mizuta K.,
Kasolo F. C.,
Luo N. P.,
Numazaki Y.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
tropical medicine and international health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.056
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1365-3156
pISSN - 1360-2276
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-3156.1997.d01-346.x
Subject(s) - measles , medicine , measles virus , rash , antibody , immunology , immunoglobulin m , virology , throat , measles vaccine , vaccination , immunoglobulin g , surgery
Laboratory diagnosis of measles infection is rarely performed in developing countries and tends to depend on clinical symptoms alone. We evaluated detection of immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies for confirmation of acute measles infection in Zambia. In 149 hospitalized children with clinical diagnosis of measles, IgM antibodies were detected in 88.6% (132/149). The IgM‐positive rate increased with time after onset of skin rash and all samples were positive after 4 days. In addition to IgM antibody test, virus isolations from throat swabs using B95a cells were also performed. These were positive in only 20.9% (14/67), and both IgM and virus isolation in combination increased the positive rate to 92.5% (62/67). Vaccinated children had higher neutralizing (Nt) antibody responses and, among IgM‐negative patients, all 4 vaccinated children had high Nt antibodies while all 10 unvaccinated children had negative or low Nt results. The IgM antibody test was proved to be a sensitive method for laboratory confirmation of measles virus infection in developing countries.