ECDC organised a meeting among invited experts to exchange cross-disciplinary perspectives on the issue of MMR vaccination refusal among the general European population.
Measles and rubella are targeted for elimination in Europe by 2015. ECDC closely monitors progress towards interruption of endemic transmission of both diseases through enhanced surveillance and epidemic intelligence.
This report presents the results of an ECDC survey among 29 EU/EEA countries on surveillance systems of rubella, rubella in pregnancy and congenital rubella in EU/EEA countries in 2012.
The latest data drawn from ECDC’s The European Surveillance System show that of the 29 countries that contribute to measles monitoring, only 13 met the elimination target of less than one case of measles per million population during the last 12 months. Contributing to the 8 032 reported cases are continuing outbreaks in Sweden and the United Kingdom, with the majority of cases in unvaccinated school children and young adults.
8 230 cases of measles were reported in EU/EEA countries in 2012, and rubella cases numbered 27 276. Whilst the number of measles cases is significantly lower than 2011 and 2010 it still continues to exceed the measles elimination target rate of less than one case per million people. The number of rubella cases, on the other hand, has jumped up from the 3 442 cases in the previous year.
In recent years, substantial progress had been made towards eliminating measles, mumps and rubella in Europe. Measles vaccine coverage is on the rise and measles cases decreasing in many countries. However, there have still been several large outbreaks of measles, mumps and rubella reported in European countries.
The latest ECDC report on measles and rubella shows that 8 326 cases of measles were reported by 29 EU and EEA countries from January to November 2012. France, Italy, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom accounted for 87% of all reported cases and there were measles-related deaths during this timeframe. However, seven cases were complicated by acute measles encephalitis.