May 29 2024Penn State However, these analyses are often based on national-level data and, in some countries, may overlook nuances at the local level.
Matthew Ferrari, senior author, professor of biology and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics at the Huck Institutes of Life Sciences at Penn State The research team, working in partnership with the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, studied the epidemiology of rubella in Nigeria. Rubella is a comparatively rare disease, so it's difficult to quantify the potential harm and risk of CRS.
What's more, the concern about increased CRS cases may not be as bad as conventionally believed, Ferrari noted. The team's new estimates of transmission rates show that the 80% threshold is conservative and that introducing a rubella vaccination program in Nigeria today could reduce the number of CRS cases by thousands in the first five years.