The European Regional Verification Commission for Measles and Rubella Elimination (RVC) recently announced that, for the period 2012–2014, Ireland had eliminated rubella but that measles transmission was still endemic. The report is located here.
Background
The RVC was established by the WHO European Regional Office in 2012 as an independent expert body with the mission of evaluating the documentation submitted by national verification committees (NVCs) in order to verify the elimination of measles and rubella in the Region.
The RVC holds annual meetings to determine the status of measles and rubella elimination in the WHO European Region based on reports and additional documents prepared and submitted by the NVCs. These reports include information on measles and rubella epidemiology, molecular epidemiology, the analysis of population immunity and immunisation programme performance, the quality of surveillance, and changes that have occurred since the last report, together with additional information to support the NVC statement on measles and rubella elimination status.
At the RVC meeting in October 2015, and in the published report, the RVC concluded that in Ireland there was:
Endemic transmission of measles
Interrupted endemic transmisson of rubella
The recommendations of the RVC to Ireland were:
There is no need to increase population immunity by improving coverage with both the 1st and 2nd doses of measles and rubella containing vaccines (referred to as MRCV1 and MRCV2).
- A national immunisation database should be established and fully implemented as soon as possible.
- The linkage between case investigation and laboratory testing data needs to be improved.
- The quality of case investigations needs to be improved
References
RVC report (county specific table) for Ireland
Report of the 4th Meeting of the European Regional Verification Commission for Measles and Rubella Elimination (RVC) (2016)
For most recent information on measles in Ireland in 2015 please see the Infectious Disease weekly report
