European Immunisation Week: ECDC highlights resources available on measles and rubella

​During the course of European Immunisation Week (EIW), 24 – 30 April 2016, ECDC is putting the spotlight on its resources in support of measles and rubella elimination. These range from disease surveillance and epidemic intelligence to communication tools and guides on awareness raising about the importance of vaccination, as well as the vaccination scheduler tool.  

Measles and rubella reporting

ECDC publishes a measles and rubella monitoring report twice a year. The first issue of each year reports on the previous calendar year, while the summer issue focuses on the most recent measles and rubella season and presents the data collected during the past 12 months.

 

Visualisations of measles and rubella data are available online through the measles and rubella pages of the ECDC Surveillance Atlas. In addition, ECDC produces monthly high-resolution maps. The Atlas also provides surveillance data for other vaccine preventable diseases

 

Communication tools and guides

To help increase immunisation uptake and address vaccine hesitancy, ECDC provides communication tools and guides. In the context of European Immunisation Week is launching new materials which countries can adapt according to national strategies and needs.

• The ECDC communication toolkit on immunisation launched in 2015 is now complemented with a new infographic on prevention of rubella and congenital rubella syndrome. 
• A revised version of the guide Let’s talk about protection was launched. This communication guide supports healthcare providers’ conversations on immunisation with parents and caregivers. It includes as additional resources a PowerPoint presentation for healthcare providers and a flipbook to aid in conversations with patients.
• Let’s talk about hesitancy is a practical communication guide for public health programme managers and communicators that identifies ways to enhance people’s confidence in vaccination and addresses common issues which underlie vaccination hesitancy.

Vaccine scheduler

The vaccine scheduler is an interactive platform of vaccination schedules which allows comparisons to be made for vaccination policies between two countries or by disease for all or a selection of countries. Measles and rubella vaccination are included in the vaccine scheduler.

 

A series of blogs by ECDC experts will be posted on the Immunize Europe Forum during the week on topics including vaccination in general, vaccine hesitancy, ECDC’s Surveillance Atlas and electronic immunisation registers.