Measles and rubella monitoring, September 2012
The ECDC measles and rubella monitoring report presents regular updates on measles and rubella transmission in Europe based on reporting from EU and EEA/EFTA countries and ECDC epidemic intelligence activities. This enhanced surveillance report supports efforts by EU Member States and international partners to eliminate measles, rubella and congenital rubella syndrome in EU and the WHO region of Europe by 2015.
Executive Summary
ECDC monitoring shows that 5 037 cases of measles were reported by 29 EU and EEA countries from January to July 2012. In the 12-month period from August 2011 to July 2012, France, Italy, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom accounted for 91 per cent of the 9 183 cases reported. There were no measles-related deaths reported but 10 cases were complicated by acute measles encephalitis.
On rubellaIn 2012, there were 18 297 rubella cases reported by 26 EU/EEA countries up to end of July. Poland and Romania accounted for 99 per cent of the 23 023 cases reported during 12 months period from August 2011 to July 2012.
Starting with this issue, ECDC will report measles and rubella notification rates per one million population and not, as previously, per 100 000 population. This conforms to the World Health Organization's incidence indicator for measles elimination. The aggregated European measles incidence was 18.1 per 1 million population and only 9 countries met the target of less than one case per million in the last 12 months.