No 17 - 2012

European Immunization Week

This week, WHO celebrates “European Immunization Week”. In this context, the National Board of Health will run an information campaign on MMR vaccination. The target group are parents of children aged 4-5 years and young adults born in 1974 or later. The objective is to increase MMR vaccination coverage, which has been too low for a number of years, EPI-NEWS 21/11.

Information measures targeting parents of 4-5 year-old children:
In the beginning of this week, all Danish kindergartens will receive the children's book "A sick story" (En syg historie) focusing on the importance of vaccination against childhood diseases such as measles, mumps and rubella. The package containing the book also comprises an information folder on the childhood vaccination programme focusing on MMR2 and DTaP-IPV revaccination. Additionally, the information campaign consists of an add campaign targeting the parents of young children.

Further information (Danish language): www.boernevaccination.dk.

Information measures targeting young adults born 1974 or later:
In the same period, an ad campaign aimed at young adults will run. The campaign focusses on the importance of receiving the MMR vaccination if you have not had the diseases or been vaccinated previously.

Additionally, the campaign will inform that MMR vaccination is free for the rest of the year for persons born in 1974 or later, EPI-NEWS 12/12. Further information (Danish language): www.mfrvaccination.dk.

(Danish National Board of Health)

Vaccination coverage at www.ssi.dk/data

An interactive website giving access to surveillance data on the vaccination coverage of the childhood vaccination programme and the publicly financed seasonal influenza vaccination programme will be launched mid-May: www.ssi.dk/data.

Data are based on notifications from GPs on vaccinations performed and dose number. This information is provided via the individual service codes given to the National Health Service Register. The numerator of the fraction is e.g. children of a given birth cohort who have received MMR1 vaccination, while the denominator is the total number of children from such cohort who at the time of calculation resided in the area covered. The interactive website allows users to display the vaccination coverage of DTaP-IPV/Hib1, 2 and 3, PCV1, 2 and 3, MMR1, MMR2, DTaP-IPV revaccination and HPV1, 2 and 3 for girls.

It will be possible to filter the data shown by gender, relevant birth years, municipality and area. The coverage will be shown as bar charts and tables.
Table data may be exported and saved. The filtered vaccination coverage data may also be shown on a map of Denmark. The field “Data basis” (Datagrundlag) provided for each vaccination type describes how to understand and interpret data.

Furthermore, links will be included to more information on each vaccine in the field "More information about the vaccine" (Læs mere om vaccinen). The coverage of the publicly financed seasonal influenza vaccination programme will be illustrated in two ways: vaccination coverage by age group and number of vaccines administered by risk group.

Vaccination coverage may be calculated for each age group as is the case for the childhood vaccination programme. In this context, the age group above 65 years is of particular interest as this entire group is offered publicly financed seasonal influenza vaccination.

For the remaining risk groups, only the number of vaccines given is available, and data may not be displayed on a map. This is due to the fact that the aggregate number of persons in each risk group remains unknown, and the share of individuals vaccinated therefore cannot be calculated.
Initially, data will be updated monthly. When the interactive website is updated, the data shown will typically be three months old. As the Danish Vaccination Register is implemented in 2013, updates will be more frequent and the period from vaccination until it forms part of the data at the interactive webpage will be reduced correspondingly.

As previously, the vaccination coverage will be summarised and published in EPI-NEWS about once a year until further notice.
(P. Valentiner-Branth, T.G. Krause, Department of infectious Disease Epidemiology)

European Football Championships in Poland and Ukraine - risk of infectious diseases

The period 8 June - 1 July 2012 will see the celebration of the European Football Championships (EFC) in Poland and Ukraine.
It is expected that quite a few Danish supporters will attend. Denmark will be playing the initial matches in Ukraine.

Currently, Ukraine is experiencing a major measles outbreak, EPI-NEWS 12/12. By 17 April, nearly 7,700 cases had been reported in the six western regions, and the outbreak does not seem to be receding. The risk of exposure during the EFC finals is estimated as high, and consequently, travellers who have not had measles or been vaccinated are recommended MMR vaccination.

Vaccination is normally offered to children aged 15 months and four years, but may be given from 12 months of age, in special cases (e.g. outbreaks) from nine months of age, but in such cases another two vaccines shall be given after the child has completed its first year of life.
Adults above the age of 18 years should receive a single MMR vaccination.

As presented elsewhere in the present issue of EPI-NEWS, adults born in 1974 or later are entitled to receive measles vaccination free of charge until the end of 2012.
Furthermore, it is recommended that all travellers to Ukraine (above the age of one year) receive hepatitis A vaccination. This recommendation extends to stays in Poland if the duration exceeds more than a few days.

All travellers should also have received diphtheria and tetanus vaccination within the past ten years.
Major events such as this attract sex workers, and travellers should therefore also be aware of the risk of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV and hepatitis B. Protection against these should primarily consist of safe sex practices, including the use of a condom.

See www.ssi.dk/rejser (Danish language) for a more comprehensive recommendation concerning protection against infectious diseases during travels to the EFC finals.

(P.H. Andersen, A.H. Christiansen, Department of infectious Disease Epidemiology)

25 April 2012