Rubella haemagglutination inhibiting antibodies in females of child-bearing age in western Nigeria.

Hitherto, epidemiological surveys of viral disease in Nigeria had been concentrated mostly on arboviral infections. This could be due to prevalence of the arthropod vectors responsible for the arboviral infections in this country. Recently, however, the Departments of Paediatrics and Ophthalmology of the University College Hospital, Ibadan, reported an alarming number of cases of congenital heart defects and cataracts in some infants in the wards. The clinical histories of these cases seemed to incriminate congenital rubella infection. A serological survey of females of child-bearing age was carried out the detection of antibodies to rubella virus using the haemagglutination-inhibition (HI) test. The results showed that over 70% of the sera tested were positive for rubella HI antibody.