The number of asylum seekers in Germany has increased dramatically in 2015. Their medical care includes the officially recommended vaccinations; yet, no detailed information on this is yet available in Germany. In light of the rising number of asylum seekers, we have developed a concept to facilitate their vaccination. This concept includes the coordination of different partners, the supply of vaccines and other materials through the local health office, and the cooperation with the local physicians' association. To evaluate and accelerate progress, we compared the number of vaccinations conducted by physicians independently of the vaccination concept with those conducted within the new concept. For the period of investigation, 2,256 new asylum seekers were temporarily accommodated in the facilities. The vaccination concept was applied in only some of the facilities. Twenty-eight percent of all asylum seekers (642) were vaccinated at least once; 89 % of the vaccinees (571) were vaccinated within the newly developed concept. In the facilities that were not included in this concept, only 6 % of the refugees were vaccinated, whereas in the facilities that were included up to 58 % were vaccinated. Even though the new concept has started successfully, further innovations are required to reach sufficient vaccination coverage among asylum seekers. In view of the large number of new asylum seekers expected, the adjustment and expansion of the new concept requires professional planning and coordination. Furthermore, additional resources are required.
BackgroundMeasles elimination in Europe is an urgent public health goal, yet despite the efforts of its member states, vaccination gaps and outbreaks occur. This study explores local vaccination heterogeneity in kindergartens and municipalities of a German county.MethodsData on children from mandatory school enrolment examinations in 2014/15 in Reutlingen county were used. Children with unknown vaccination status were either removed from the analysis (best case) or assumed to be unvaccinated (worst case). Vaccination data were translated into expected outbreak probabilities. Physicians and kindergartens with statistically outstanding numbers of under-vaccinated children were identified.ResultsA total of 170 (7.1%) of 2388 children did not provide a vaccination certificate; 88.3% (worst case) or 95.1% (best case) were vaccinated at least once against measles. Based on the worst case vaccination coverage, <10% of municipalities and <20% of kindergartens were sufficiently vaccinated to be protected against outbreaks. Excluding children without a vaccination certificate (best case) leads to over-optimistic views: the overall outbreak probability in case of a measles introduction lies between 39.5% (best case) and 73.0% (worst case). Four paediatricians were identified who accounted for 41 of 109 unvaccinated children and for 47 of 138 incomplete vaccinations; GPs showed significantly higher rates of missing vaccination certificates and unvaccinated or under-vaccinated children than paediatricians.ConclusionsMissing vaccination certificates pose a severe problem regarding the interpretability of vaccination data. Although the coverage for at least one measles vaccination is higher in the studied county than in most South German counties and higher than the European average, many severe and potentially dangerous vaccination gaps occur locally. If other federal German states and EU countries show similar vaccination variability, measles elimination may not succeed in Europe.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-017-4663-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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