Immune status of young adults to mumps virus infection in northern Jordan.

Eight hundred and seventy-five sera, collected randomly from university students aged 18-24 years, were tested for mumps virus antibodies. The prevalence of seropositivity was 85.3% for males and 87.1% for females using the enzyme linked immunosorbent assay method (ELISA) and 83.4% for males and 77.6% for females using the micro-complement fixation test (CFT). The remaining 14.7%-16.7% of males and 12.9%-22.3% of females, who had non-reactive sera in ELISA and CFT tests respectively indicated the presence of a sizeable population with a high risk of contracting the infection and this recommends the implementation of routine vaccination against mumps in Jordan. The two techniques correlated well, though ELISA exhibited a higher sensitivity than CFT.