Cent Eur J Public Health 2018, 26(2):79-82 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a4754

Assessment of vaccine effectiveness during measles outbreak in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2014-2015

Sanjin Musa1, Blaško Topalović2, Sutka Ćatić3, Zijada Smajlagić4
1 Department of Epidemiology, Institute of Public Health of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
2 Department of Epidemiology, Institute of Public Health of Tuzla Canton, Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina
3 Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Health Care Centre, Bugojno, Bosnia and Herzegovina
4 Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Health Care Centre, Visoko, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Objective: Between February 2014 and September 2015 a large measles outbreak (5,084 cases) occurred in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FB&H). The aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of routine measles vaccination in the FB&H.

Methods: We conducted an analysis of the resurgence period surveillance data and a retrospective cohort study involving primary school aged children in randomly selected schools.

Results: Measles cases occurred among all age groups, mostly among the unvaccinated. Among fully immunized, 2.1% contracted measles. Measles vaccine effectiveness was high. The study indicates that one dose reduced the risk for measles by 91.9% (95% CI: 81.4-96.4%), two doses reduced the risk by 97.3% (95% CI: 95.5-98.4%). No evidence of waning immunity was found. Our survey reveals that a significant number of children had no immunization status registered.

Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that the resurgence was likely caused by an accumulation of measles-susceptible children not being vaccinated. This vaccine effectiveness study does not support possible vaccination failure as a contributing factor.

Keywords: outbreak, measles, MMR, immunization, vaccine effectiveness

Received: March 1, 2016; Revised: April 9, 2018; Accepted: April 9, 2018; Published: June 30, 2018  Show citation

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Musa S, Topalović B, Ćatić S, Smajlagić Z. Assessment of vaccine effectiveness during measles outbreak in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2014-2015. Cent Eur J Public Health. 2018;26(2):79-82. doi: 10.21101/cejph.a4754. PubMed PMID: 30102493.
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