INVESTIGATION OF KIZAMIK ANTIBODIES IN HANGING CHILDREN IN KONYA REGION

Occurance of measles cases in previously vac-cinated children necessiate to investigate. the im-munity due to measles vaccination. In this study, le-vels of measles antibodies were evaluated in 617 children who had been immunized and had not had measles disease in the region of Konya. Twenty four percent of all children were se-ronegative. The rates of seronegativity were 25 % and 14.8 % in those who had one and two vac-cinations, respectively (p=0.075). Those who lived in villages had higher rates of seronegativity than those lived in cities (25 % vs 20 %). The time of re-ceiving first vaccine did not affect the seronegativity in twice vaccinated group. The rate of seronegativity was significantly higher in children vaccinated be-fore 9 mo. Generally the rate of seronegativity was high when compared to other studies. The rate of se-ronegativity increased as the time passed in children who were immunized at 8 mo, whereas no sig-nificant increase was noted after 6-7 years in child-ren vaccinated at older ages. Our study showed that the rate of seronegativity was very high in children who had measles im-munization at an early age and they should be given a repeat dose within a short time after the first one and great care must be paid to minimize errors re-lated to vaccine storing rules and immunization practices.