Immunization Newsbriefs (c) Copyright Information Inc., Bethesda, MD. Brought to you by the National Network for Immunization Information (NNii). Visit NNii's new website at http://www.immunizationinfo.org.

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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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