Spotlight on measles 2010: Measles elimination in Europe – a new commitment to meet the goal by 2015

摘要

This is, however, not enough. The compilation of Eurosurveillance papers provides further evidence of the known fact that there are areas or pockets of indi- viduals not protected against the measles virus where coverage for two doses of a measles virus-contain- ing vaccine is often below the 95% minimum needed for the elimination of the disease. These pockets are present throughout Europe and disease can propa- gate and spread within them, but the virus can also spread across country and regional borders with the movement of individuals. Therefore it is important to identify specific groups at risk for measles at local and national levels and to tailor health information and preventive measures specifically for these groups. In addition, one needs to be aware that it is not always possible to identify a specific group at risk [4,5]. While we see many outbreaks reported among Roma popu- lations [6,7], Irish travellers [7] and anthroposophical [9,10] or religious communities [11,12], these popula- tions are from different social backgrounds and there are different reasons why they are not vaccinated. Moreover, clustering in space of highly educated indi- viduals who do not immunise their children put them at increased risk of disease if the virus is introduced into such a community. While immunisation has lead to a considerable reduction in disease over the years, there has been a shift in public perception from the risk, implications and severity of the disease to the safety of the vaccines.