BMJ 1999;319:1448-1449 ( 4 December )

Editorials

Vaccination policies: individual rights v community health

We can't afford to be half hearted about vaccination programmes

Papers p   1462

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The goal of a rubella vaccine programme is to reduce the occurrence of the congenital rubella syndrome. In this week's BMJ, Panagiotopoulos et al describe the history of the use of rubella vaccine in Greece and show that partial vaccine coverage led to a period in which susceptibility to rubella among childbearing women was actually increased (p 1462).1 Therefore in 1993, an epidemic year for rubella in Greece, the incidence of rubella in childbearing women was higher than in previous epidemics, and the incidence of congenital rubella increased. What lessons can we learn from this failure?

Around the world the effectiveness of rubella vaccine programmes has varied. The rubella vaccine, which was first introduced in the United States in 1967, was very effective in reducing the annual number of babies with congenital rubella syndrome from an estimated 20 000 in 1964 to 7 in 1983.2 The US had introduced the vaccine in . . . [Full text of this article]
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Increase in congenital rubella occurrence after immunisation in Greece: retrospective survey and systematic review • How does herd immunity work?
Takis Panagiotopoulos, Ioanna Antoniadou, Eleni Valassi-Adam, and Abi Berger
BMJ 1999 319: 1462-1467. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Hall, D M B (2005). Children, rights, and responsibilities. Arch. Dis. Child. 90: 171-173 [Full text]  
  • Jacobson, P. D., Soliman, S. (2002). Co-opting the Health and Human Rights Movement. J Law Med Ethics 30: 705-715  
  • Feudtner, C., Marcuse, E. K. (2001). Ethics and Immunization Policy: Promoting Dialogue to Sustain Consensus. Pediatrics 107: 1158-1164 [Abstract] [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Immunisation and informed consent
Gregory Rose
bmj.com, 13 Dec 1999 [Full text]
Vaccination policies: individual rights v. community health
Gordon T Stewart
bmj.com, 13 Dec 1999 [Full text]
Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ