Epidemiology and Infection

Table of Contents - September 2012 - Volume 140, Issue 09  

Measles/MMR

Who are the children at risk? Lessons learned from measles outbreaks

C. STEIN-ZAMIRa1 c1, H. SHOOBa1, N. ABRAMSONa1 and G. ZENTNERa1

a1 Jerusalem District Health Office, Ministry of Health, Israel

SUMMARY

We investigated a measles outbreak in the Jerusalem district in 2007–2008 (992 cases). Most cases (72·6%) were aged <15 years, 42·9% aged <5 years, and 12·8% were infants aged <1 year. The peak incidence rate was in infants aged 6–12 months (916·2/100 000). This represents a significant shift from former outbreaks in 2003–2004, where the peak incidence was in the 1–4 years age group. Of children aged <5 years the proportion aged 6–12 months tripled (7·7% vs. 25·6%). In a case-control study (74 cases, 148 controls) children who developed measles were less likely to be registered in a well-baby clinic and had lower overall immunization coverage. The differences in proportions for registration, DTaP3 and MMR1 coverage were 35·1%, 48·6% and 80·8%, respectively (all P<0·001). Rising birth order of cases and their siblings was associated with non-registration and non-compliance with MMR immunization. The vulnerability of young infants and the risk markers noted above should be taken into account in planning intervention programmes.

(Accepted October 31 2011)

(Online publication November 25 2011)

Key Words:

Correspondence:

c1 Author for correspondence: Dr C. Stein-Zamir, Jerusalem District Health Office, 86 Jaffa Road, Jerusalem 94341, Israel. (Email: chen.zamir@lbjr.health.gov.il)

Footnotes

This paper was presented in part at the 27th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases (ESPID), June 2009, Brussels, Belgium.

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