TY - JOUR
T1 - Outbreak of measles in a teenage school population
T2 - The need to immunize susceptible adolescents
AU - Morse, D.
AU - O'shea, M.
AU - Hamilton, G.
AU - Soltanpoor, N.
AU - Leece, G.
AU - Miller, Elizbeth
AU - Brown, David
PY - 1994/10
Y1 - 1994/10
N2 - An outbreak of measles occurred in a community school and the surrounding area in Crowborough, East Sussex, UK, from December 1992 to February 1993. There were 96 suspected cases reported: 66 cases among 1673 students at one school and 30 community cases. The majority of suspected cases were in those aged 11–17 (78%), 2 cases occurred in infants < 1 year old and 8 cases in adults aged 18 years or over. Data collected on 60 (91 %) of the 66 suspect school cases showed 56 (93%) had an illness which met a case definition of measles. Eighteen had confirmatory IgM measles antibody. Two cases were hospitalized. The local percentage uptake for measles immunization for the school age years affected varied between 64 % and 84 %. A survey of parents showed that approximately 74% of the students attending the school had a history of measles immunization. The immunization rates reported by parents for children who developed measles was 21 %. (29 % based on GP records) compared with 77 % for those who remained well. Vaccine efficacy was estimated to be 92%. This outbreak, along with others recently reported in older unimmunized children in the UK, reinforces the need for catch-up immunization programmes to reach this susceptible group of adolescents.
AB - An outbreak of measles occurred in a community school and the surrounding area in Crowborough, East Sussex, UK, from December 1992 to February 1993. There were 96 suspected cases reported: 66 cases among 1673 students at one school and 30 community cases. The majority of suspected cases were in those aged 11–17 (78%), 2 cases occurred in infants < 1 year old and 8 cases in adults aged 18 years or over. Data collected on 60 (91 %) of the 66 suspect school cases showed 56 (93%) had an illness which met a case definition of measles. Eighteen had confirmatory IgM measles antibody. Two cases were hospitalized. The local percentage uptake for measles immunization for the school age years affected varied between 64 % and 84 %. A survey of parents showed that approximately 74% of the students attending the school had a history of measles immunization. The immunization rates reported by parents for children who developed measles was 21 %. (29 % based on GP records) compared with 77 % for those who remained well. Vaccine efficacy was estimated to be 92%. This outbreak, along with others recently reported in older unimmunized children in the UK, reinforces the need for catch-up immunization programmes to reach this susceptible group of adolescents.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0028095570&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S0950268800051785
DO - 10.1017/S0950268800051785
M3 - Article
C2 - 7925672
AN - SCOPUS:0028095570
SN - 0950-2688
VL - 113
SP - 355
EP - 365
JO - Epidemiology and Infection
JF - Epidemiology and Infection
IS - 2
ER -