Application of Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) for Detecting and Measuring Measles Virus Antibodies in Comparison with Those Obtained From Serum Neutralization Test (SNT)

Measles, a viral exanthem of childhood is the most contagious infection of humans. Despite the million's lives that have been saved by the global measles vaccination, some one million infants and children continue to die each year from measles. In order to reduce the above figure, more than 90% of children 9 months of age must be immunized against the disease.It is of great importance to do continuous serum survey to measure herd immunity to measles. There are several serologic tests to do the survey with their own advantages and disadvantages.In this study it was attempled to apply an indirect ELISA method to detect and measure measles antibodies. Atibodies againts human immunoglobulin were prepared in rabbits and were conjugated with horseradish peroxidase. Measles virus, Edmonston B strain, was propagted in Hela cells for preparation of virus stock and its antigens. The test was done in 96 polystyrene flat-bottomed microplats. Some 64 serum samples were tested with both ELISA and microneutralizan methods. Taking SNT as a standard method it was showen that the sensitivity and specificity of The ELISA, run in this project, were 90% and 91% respectively.