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April 10, 2002
INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS
"Measles Outbreak in Germany"
Reuters Health Information Services (www.reutershealth.com)
(04/09/02); Stafford, Ned
A German public health insurance group is
suggesting that doctors who are opposed to the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR)
vaccine may be partially to blame for a measles epidemic that has infected more
than 1,000 people in the district of Coburg in the German state of Bavaria since
November 2001. AOK Bavaria could possibly seek monetary damages from doctors
who refused to give MMR vaccines, because treating measles in hospitals is
significantly more expensive than giving out the MMR vaccine at a cost of 100
euros each, says spokesperson Markus Braun. AOK has contacted the Bavarian
physicians organization KBV, which supports the MMR vaccine, but German law does
not require the doctors to administer the vaccines. In the Coburg district,
only 76 percent of children have received the MMR vaccine, compared with an
average vaccination rate of 88 percent in the rest of Bavaria.
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