Abstract

QUIAN, JORGE; RUTTIMANN, RICARDO  and  MATRAI, LOREDANA. Prevalencia de anticuerpos contra varicela en una población de Montevideo, Uruguay. Arch. Pediatr. Urug. [online]. 2004, vol.75, n.2, pp.133-138. ISSN 1688-1249.

Primary objective: to determine the prevalence of anti varicella zoster (anti-VZV) antibodies in healthy population resident in Montevideo. Secondary objective: to determine the prevalence of anti- VZV, stratified by some demographic variables. Methods: descriptive study, performing a transversal and stratified cut, between January 1^st. 2000 and May 30^th. 2000. A non probabilistic plan was used, including healthy population, attending blood extractions in centers depending on the Public Health Department or in the private Centro de Asistencia del Sindicato Médico del Uruguay (CASMU). Inclusion criteria: age between 1 and 40, healthy, having blood extractions for control, or health certificate, or before surgery, not vaccinated against varicella, and had not received any immunoglobulines nor transfusions in the last 6 months. A questionnaire about medical relevant history was filled as well as demographic data. Results: The global prevalence was 82,1% (798/972) CI 95% 79,7%-84,5%). At the age of 4, 61,9% had already had exposure to the VZV. A higher prevalence was observed in those individuals having personal or familiar antecedents of varicella (95,3% and 91,3%, compared to 67 and 71,5% respectively, p<0,00001). Considering the value of the interrogatory, if the personal antecedents were present, 95,8% had positive antibodies, thus the positive predictive value (PVV) was very high. In the multiple logistic regression analysis, it was determined through all the variants that the age, the low social and economical level, and the familiar history of varicella are independent predictors of the serum prevalence for V. Discussion: the prevalence of anti-VZV antibodies was similar to other studies and accorded the anticipated for this sample. Although the study was not designed with that purpose, the positive predictive value of the interrogatory for varicella was very high (95,8%), and deserves a consideration.

Keywords : CHICKENPOX; ANTIBODIES.

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