Evaluation of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccination catch-up campaign in England in 2013.

Wednesday, 25th of May 2016

Vaccine. 2014 Aug 6;32(36):4681-8. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2014.05.077. Epub 2014 Jul 2.

Evaluation of the measles mumps and rubella vaccination catch-up campaign in England in 2013.

Simone B¹ Balasegaram S² Gobin M³ Anderson C² Charlett A⁴ Coole L⁵ Maguire H² Nichols T⁴Rawlings C² Ramsay M⁶ Oliver I⁷.

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Abstract

In January-March 2013 in England confirmed measles cases increased in children aged 10-16 years. In April-September 2013 the National Health System and Public Health England launched a national measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) campaign based on data from Child Health Information Systems (CHIS) estimating that approximately 8% in this age group were unvaccinated. We estimated coverage at baseline and of those unvaccinated (target) the proportion vaccinated up to 20/08/2013 (mid-point) to inform further public health action. We selected a sample of 6644 children aged 10-16 years using multistage sampling from those reported unvaccinated in CHIS at baseline and validated their records against GP records. We adjusted the CHIS MMR vaccine coverage estimates correcting by the proportion of vaccinated children obtained through sample validation. We validated 5179/6644 (78%) of the sample records. Coverage at baseline was estimated as 94.7% (95% confidence intervals CI: 93.5-96.0%) lower in London (86.9% 95%CI: 83.0-90.9%) than outside (96.1% 95%CI 95.5-96.8%). The campaign reached 10.8% (95%CI: 7.0-14.6%) of the target population lower in London (7.1% 95%CI: 4.9-9.3) than in the rest of England (11.4% 95%CI: 7.0-15.9%). Coverage increased by 0.5% up to 95.3% (95% CI: 94.1-96.4%) but an estimated 210000 10-16 year old children remained unvaccinated nationally. Baseline MMR coverage was higher than previously reported and was estimated to have reached the 95% campaign objective at midpoint. Eleven per cent of the target population were vaccinated during the campaign and may be underestimated especially in London. No further national campaigns are needed but targeted local vaccination activities should be considered.

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