title: Measles vaccine effectiveness in central Australian aboriginal children vaccinated at or after eight months of age.
abstract: An outbreak of measles in central Australia in 1994 provided the first opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of the measles vaccine given to Aboriginal children at nine months of age since 1984. Children eligible for the study that was conducted in one community in the region were aged between nine months and 10 years. Eight of the 109 eligible children developed measles. The only unvaccinated child also developed measles. Vaccination failures occurred in 7.8% (6/77) of children vaccinated between eight and 11 months of age and in 3.2% (1/31) vaccinated after 11 months of age. Overall vaccine effectiveness was 93.5%. The level of vaccine uptake in central Australia is high and the last region-wide outbreak before 1994 occurred in 1981-82. If the age of vaccination against measles is to be determined by the average age of infection; the age of vaccination should now be raised to 12 months of age; this is the age at which Aboriginal children in all other states and all children in Australia are vaccinated.
authors.affiliation: National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University, Australian Capital Territory. msp868@nceph.anu.edu.au
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lush
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D007115:Immunization Schedule; D007223:Infant; D008457:Measles / Q000208:ethnology / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008458:Measles Vaccine / Q000276:immunology*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000208:ethnology
chemical_list: D008458:Measles Vaccine