Use of Measles and Rubella Rapid Diagnostic Tests to Improve Case Detection and Targeting of Vaccinations

Efforts to control and eliminate measles and rubella are aided by high-quality surveillance data—supported by laboratory confirmation—to guide decision-making on routine immunization strategies and locations for conducting preventive supplementary immunization activities (SIAs) and outbreak response. Important developments in rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for measles and rubella present new opportunities for the global measles and rubella surveillance program to greatly improve the ability to rapidly detect and respond to outbreaks. Here, we review the status of RDTs for measles and rubella Immunoglobulin M (IgM) testing, as well as ongoing questions and challenges regarding the operational use and deployment of RDTs as part of global measles and rubella surveillance. Efforts to develop IgM RDTs that can be produced at scale are underway. Once validated RDTs are available, clear information on the benefits, challenges, and costs of their implementation will be critical for shaping deployment guidance and informing country plans for sustainably deploying such tests. The wide availability of RDTs could provide new programmatic options for measles and rubella elimination efforts, potentially enabling improvements and flexibility for testing, surveillance, and vaccination.