© 1972 Oxford University Press
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The Epidemiology of Rubella on Taiwan I. Introduction and Description of the 1957–1958 Epidemic
1Department of Epidemiology and International Health, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington Seattle, Washington 98195 and the U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit No, 2, Box 14, APO San Francisco 96263
2Department of Epidemiology and International Health, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington Seattle, Washington 98195 and the U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit No, 2, Box 14, APO San Francisco 96263
3 Department of Epidemiology and International Health, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington Seattle, Washington 98195 and the U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit No, 2, Box 14, APO San Francisco 96263
Requests for reprints may be addressed to Dr. J. L. Gale
Grayston, J. T. (Dept. Epidemiology and International Health, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.), Gale, J. L., and Watten, R. H. The epidemiology of rubella on Taiwain. I. Introduction and description of the 1 957–1958 epidemic. Int. J. Epid. 1972, 1 : 245–252.
Taiwan experienced extensive rubella epidemics in 1957–1958 and 1968–1969. Rubella was not known to have occurred on the island for 14 years before 1957, from 1958 to 1968 or since 1969. This introductory paper describes the earlier epidemic along with the geography, climate, and population characteristics of the island. The outbreak swept over the ten million population from north to south in a single ten-month wave which excluded the hottest months of the year. Attack rates were highest in school children born since 1944, the date of the last previous epidemic. Retrospective serologic evidence indicates that the clinical to inapparent case ratio was 1 : 1 and that 95 per cent of susceptible school children in Taipei were infected.
Received 28 July 1972