Assessing Clinical Competence.

Abstract

Rubella antibody screeningSir, Redhead and colleagues adopted the prag- matic approach suggested by the Immunization Practices Advisory Committee in the United States of America with respect to screening for rubella immunity.'The committee endors- es the view that a documented history of rubella vaccination can be considered presumptive evidence of immunity.2A retrospective survey of women aged between 16 and 39 years found to be rubella susceptible (that is, not immune) on opportunistic screening was carried out.The setting was a rural practice with a list size of 4600 patients.A list of women who were found to be susceptible to rubel- la was generated using a search of com- puterized patient records.The results of the computer search were checked against the written notes.Data were available from April 1988 until April 1994.During this period 559 women had been screened and 12 had been found to be susceptible to rubella.The notes of these 12 women were then reviewed and it was found that eight of them had a record in their notes of previous rubella vaccination.It would therefore appear unwise to assume that a documented history of vac- cination against rubella implies immunity in all women; repeated screening of rubel- la status is still required.