Prevalence of IgG-antibodies to mumps and measles virus in non-vaccinated children.

The prevalence of mumps and measles IgG antibodies in a randomly selected population of children was determined by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) before routine measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination was introduced in Denmark. Testing of sera from about 2,520 Danish children between one and 17 years of age showed that mumps antibodies were acquired at an early age. The peak acquisition rate was between the ages of four and five; before the age of 15, 90% of children had antibodies to mumps. Immunity to measles occurred at an even earlier age; more than 50% of four-year-old and nearly all (98%) nine-year-old children had IgG antibodies to measles virus. The study showed that about 10% of the young adult Danish population was still susceptible to mumps infection whereas only about 1% of individuals at age 17 had not acquired immunity to measles virus.