§ Miss KirkbrideTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what protection he plans to offer to women who have not received the rubella vaccination since MMR was introduced in 1988; and how many women of child- bearing age his Department estimates are not innoculated against rubella. [147485]
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§ Yvette Cooper[holding answer 26 January 2001]: All women are tested for rubella susceptibiltiy in their first pregnancy. Any found to be sero-negative are recommended to be immunised after the pregnancy. This programme, along with the surveillance of rubella susceptibility of the antenatal population, has been maintained since the introduction of measles, mumps and rubella. Since there has never been a programme to immunise women of child-bearing age, except those sero-negative, it is not possible to know how many women of child-bearing age are not immunised.
It is not possible to estimate the number of women who have not been innoculated against rubella. In 1995, the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation recommended that rubella immunisation for schoolgirls could cease due to the high level of immunisation through either the MMR campaign started in 1988 or the MR campaign in 1994.