Rubella seroprevalence in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and the changing need of the SAF rubella immunisation programme.

A seroepidemiological study on the prevalence of rubella antibodies in a cohort of Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) recruits was conducted in 1994, twelve years after rubella immunisation was routinely given to primary 6 school boys in 1982. The results showed a high level of immunity (97.1% seropositive) in the study cohort. The implication of this finding is that it may no longer be necessary to routinely immunise recruits on entry into the SAF against rubella; the latter can be limited to those with no evidence of prior rubella immunisation.