Researchers at the Institute of Child Health in Athens have linked a 1993 increase in congenital rubella in Greece to low immunization coverage in the mid to late 1970s.
The researchers reported in the December 4 BMJ that rubella vaccine was recommended in Greece for children at 15 months of age beginning in 1977. However, their review of documents from several public and private agencies showed that coverage for children consistently remained below 50%. Rubella vaccination for adolescent girls and young women also was limited.
Compulsory rubella immunization was instituted in 1989, and a two-dose vaccination schedule was adopted in 1991, but Greece experienced a major rubella outbreak in 1993. The researchers' review showed that while the mean age of persons with rubella in the early 1960s was 8.5 years, it was 17 years in 1993, and 64% of patients with rubella that year were 15 years or . . . [Full Text of this Article]
