In order to evoluate the prevalence to diphtheria antitoxin in Yamaguchi prefecture, 638 serum samples of women, their newborn infants and children were collected during Nov. 1977 to Sep. 1980 and were examined by using the method of micro-cell culture.
1) Age distribution of diphtheria antitoxin:
Of 56 women (aged 21-32 years), 56 newborn infants, 42 infants (aged 0-3 months), 79 infants (aged 4-11 months), 144 infants (aged 1-2 years), 128 infants (aged 3-5 years) and 133 children (aged 6-11 years), 39.3%, 39.3%, 35.7%, 1.3%, 15.3%, 73.4% and 88.7% had diphtheria antitoxins, respectively. The age at which increases the prevalence to diphtheria antitoxin was in parallel with that of vaccination. The antitoxin of infants aged 0-3 months were considered as the maternal antibody obtained from their mothers.
2) Mean of diphtheria antitoxin titers by age groups:
The antitoxin of women and their newborn infants were in lower range. The peak prevalence was found to be in the 3-5 years group (0.01 x2
4.3IU/m1) and was found to decrease in 6-11 years group (0.01 x2
3.7IU/m1).
Of 268 samples without history of vaccination, 9.0% were seropositive.In the three stages of vaccination, 72.6% were seropositive in the first stage, 96.6% were seropositive in the secondstage and 100% were seropositive in the third stage, respectively.This fact indicates that the prevalence rates increase with the number of vaccination.
4) Mean of diphtheria antitoxin titer to history of vaccination:
The mean of antitoxin titer was 0.01 x21.9IU/m1 without history of vaccination and this mean nearly corresponded to those of women and their newborn infants. In the three stage of vaccination, the mean in each stage was 0.01 x2
3.4IU/m1 in the first stage, 0.01 x24.01U/m1 in the second stage and 0.01 x25.61U/m1 in the third stage, respectively.
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