§ Dr. Roger Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what estimate he has from the last three annual surveys of the number of notified cases 588W of children who were immunised against measles before their second birthday.
§ Sir George YoungNotifications of measles in England and Wales totalled 173,361 in 1977, 124,035 in 1978 and, provisionally, 76,073 in 1979. The number of immunised children who contracted measles is not known but the measles vaccine trials conducted by the Medical Research Council do not indicate any fall in the response to measles vaccine, which has been shown to confer immunity on about 90 per cent. of recipients. The numbers of children, to the nearest thousand, immunised against measles by the end of the second year after their year of birth for the last three years for which figures are available, are as follows:
Year of birth Per cent 1974 293,000 46 1975 293,000 49 1976 276,000 47
§ Dr. Roger Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if in view of the findings of the Spastics Society that 1978 saw a large increase in rubella-associated terminations of pregnancy, he will institute a national campaign to vaccinate women of child-bearing age against rubella and to test early in pregnancy for proven rubella immunity.
§ Sir George YoungA national campaign to increase the uptake of rubella vaccination among women of child-bearing age was launched in June 1979. The circular issued then emphasised the importance of screening all ante-natal patients for rubella.