§ Dr. Roger Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make a statement on the effectiveness of present rubella protection of young female adults (a) in the light of the latest reports that despite immunisation some 10 per cent. show a lack of the necessary immunity and (b) in view of the fact that immunisation programmes are still falling short of being 100 per cent. in women in advance of child bearing.
§ Mr. Geoffrey FinsbergThe best way of ensuring that women of child-bearing age are not susceptible to rubella is to achieve a high level of immunisation of schoolgirls between their tenth and fourteenth birthdays. Health authorities have been asked to improve the uptake of immunisation in schoolgirls and the level achieved in 1980, the latest year for which full statistics are available, is 84 per cent., an improvement of 16 percentage points over the figure for 1976.
Immunisation of schoolgirls, together with the protection which many will receive through natural infection in childhood, ensures that over 90 per cent. of girls reach child-bearing age with a satisfactory level of immunity to the disease. It is difficult to give a precise figure, because the results of the surveys vary, but there has been an improvement in recent years. Protection of the remainder can be achieved only by screening women of child-bearing age and immunising those who are susceptible. Health authorities were asked to ensure that all pregnant women were screened and at least 90 per cent. of those found to be susceptible were vaccinated after delivery. There are good indications that many health authorities have achieved a considerable improvement in this, but no immunisation campaign could achieve 100 per cent. success.