Despite the effective National Immunization Programme of Slovakia, some population groups are incompletely vaccinated or unvaccinated. We aimed to describe the measles outbreak spread in Eastern ...Slovakia between May and October 2018, affecting the Roma communities in relation to the existing immunity gaps.
We defined a group of persons living in socially closed communities with low vaccination coverage.
Of 439 measles cases (median age: 10 years), 264 (60.1%) were vaccinated, 137 (31.2%) received two doses and 127 (28.9%) one dose of measles vaccines, 155 (35.3%) were unvaccinated and 20 (4.6%) had an unknown vaccination status. Samples from 102 patients (with two-dose vaccination status) were additionally tested for antibodies against rubella and mumps. Of 102 cases, 68 (66.7%) cases had a positive IgM and 23 (22.5 %) IgG antibodies against measles. For rubella, only 20 (19.6%) cases had seropositive IgG levels, for mumps higher positivity was detected in 60 persons (58.8%). We could detect only a small percentage with positive serology results of rubella IgG antibodies across all age groups. We have assumed that rubella antibodies had to be produced following the vaccination. Their absence in the cases with two doses of MMR suggests that these vaccines could not have been administrated despite the fact that this data was included in the medical records. Sequential analysis of two samples showed measles genotype B3.
This outbreak can outline the existence of a vulnerable group of the Roma. Low vaccinate coverage represents a serious public health threat.
Socio-economic inequalities may have an impact on the uptake of selfpaid vaccines. The aim of the study was to identify the effect of some socio economic determinants on vaccination rates with ...self-paid human papilloma virus (HPV) and rotavirus (RV) vaccines.
Vaccination coverage data, available in electronic database cepljenje.net (administered by the National Institute of Public Health), were collected at administrative unit level. The socio-economic determinants (the average gross pay in euros, the unemployment rate, the educational and households structure, the population density, the number of inhabitants, the number of children aged from 0 to 4, the number of women aged from 15 to 30) were extracted from Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia web page. The strength of the correlation between socioeconomic variables and self-paid HPV and RV vaccination rates was determined.
Rotavirus vaccination rates show a slight negative correlation with the number of residents per administrative unit (ρ=-0.29, p=0.04), and no correlation with other socio-economic variables. Likewise, no correlation has been found between HPV vaccination rates and the selected socio-economic variables.
Ecological study did not reveal any correlations between socio economic variables and vaccination rates with RV and HPV self-paid vaccines on administrative unit level.
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