Francisco J. Luquero|Heloise Pham-Orsetti|Derek A. T. Cummings|Philippe E Ngaunji|Marcelino Nimpa|Florence Fermon|Ndong Ngoe|Stephen Sosler|Peter M. Strebel|Rebecca F. Grais
A Long-Lasting Measles Epidemic in Maroua, Cameroon 2008–2009: Mass Vaccination as Response to the Epidemic
Ministry of Public Health|Ministry of Public Health|Médecins Sans Frontières|Ministry of Public Health|World Health Organization
backgrounda measles outbreak occurred maroua cameroon january 2008 april 2009in accordance recent world health organization guidelines outbreakresponse immunization ori conducted january 2009the aim study investigate causes epidemic order guide vaccination strategiesmethodswe performed stratified householdbased survey using cluster sampling determine measles vaccination coverage children aged 9 months 15 yearswe defined 3 strata based measles incidencenext performed casecontrol study measure vaccine effectiveness vecases obtained health center registriescontrols selected among respondents coverage surveyresultsthe vaccinationcoverage survey included 2963 children totalthe overall routine vaccination coverage 741 95 confidence interval ci 700783measles incidence inversely proportional routine vaccination coverage high incidence associated coverage 71 low incidence associated coverage 84the overall 94 95 ci 867974after ori january 2009 coverage 90 strata measles incidence declined rapidlydiscussionour results confirm insufficient vaccination coverage main reason epidemicthe ori conducted january 2009 contributed control epidemic increase vaccination coverage desirable levels