Measles vaccination

As part of the annual European Immunisation Week, the World Health Organisation urges all 53 participating member states in the European region to consider the economic impact of measles and to restore or maintain effective national vaccination programmes, despite the difficulties of the economic downturn.

“Considering the human costs of measles, a preventable disease that can lead to long-term health complications and even death, we cannot afford to be complacent,” said WHO Regional Director for Europe Zsuzsanna Jakab.

“Achieving high vaccination coverage costs considerably less than an outbreak of measles, and economically, as well as medically, it makes no sense at all to wait for measles to strike when we have the means to eliminate this disease.”

According to a 2009 study in Germany, the average cost of a measles case was €520, includ-ing costs such as outpatient consultations and blood tests.

An outbreak in Duisburg, Germany in 2006 led to the 311 schoolchildren affected missing a total of 2,854 days of school, and the 30 employed adults affected losing a total of 301 days of work.

A study of 10 western European countries revealed that a mother misses from eight to 24 hours of work in caring for a child with an uncomplicated case of measles.

Over 2002/2003, the direct costs of measles incurred by the national health service of Italy were €17.6-€22 million. This would have paid for vaccinating up to 1.9 million children, which would also have prevented many cases of mumps and rubella. The 5,154 hospitalisations during this period cost about €8.8 million.

Measles is highly contagious and requires high immunisation coverage (over 95 per cent) of any population if outbreaks are to be prevented. Unfortunately, many countries in the European Region have slipped from previously good vaccination coverage, and there have been over 90, 000 cases of measles in the past three years. Outbreaks continue in a number of countries.

WHO recommends that each child receive two doses of measles vaccine, commonly combined with mumps and rubella vaccine (and called the MMR vaccine). This vaccine is one of the oldest and most effective in the world.