BACKGROUND: In 1992 a major vaccination strategy against measles-mumps-rubella was introduced in the State of Saão Paulo, Brazil. This strategy was based on mathematical models and comprised a pulse vaccination covering all children aged 1-10 years, followed by the inclusion of this vaccine in the routine calendar at 15 months of age. The present work reports the evaluation of the efficacy of this mixed vaccination strategy. METHODS: A rubella seroprevalence survey was carried out immediately and one year after the campaign, comprising 4953 children aged 1-15 years. RESULTS: We show that average rubella seroprevalence increased from 0.40 to 0.97 and that the reported number of congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) cases dropped dramatically. CONCLUSIONS: The mixed vaccination strategy adopted against rubella has proved to be very effective in reducing the number of CRS cases in São Paulo.
BACKGROUND: In 1992 a major vaccination strategy against measles-mumps-rubella was introduced in the State of Saão Paulo, Brazil. This strategy was based on mathematical models and comprised a pulse vaccination covering all children aged 1-10 years, followed by the inclusion of this vaccine in the routine calendar at 15 months of age. The present work reports the evaluation of the efficacy of this mixed vaccination strategy. METHODS: A rubella seroprevalence survey was carried out immediately and one year after the campaign, comprising 4953 children aged 1-15 years. RESULTS: We show that average rubella seroprevalence increased from 0.40 to 0.97 and that the reported number of congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) cases dropped dramatically. CONCLUSIONS: The mixed vaccination strategy adopted against rubella has proved to be very effective in reducing the number of CRS cases in São Paulo.