Mass immunisation campaign in a Roma settled community created an opportunity to estimate its size and measles vaccination uptake, Poland, 2009

Abstract

During a mass immunisation campaign following an outbreak of measles in a Roma community settled in the town of Pulawy, Poland, we performed an estimation of the size of this Roma population and an assessment of its vaccination uptake. We obtained a list of Roma residing in Pulawy from the local municipality and estimated using a simple capture-recapture formula that Pulawy had 377 Roma residents (43% under 20 years old), which was 27% more than the 295 registered at the municipality. During the vaccination campaign, demographic information was recorded that could be linked to information from the municipality list as well as to prior immunisation status. Among the people whose data were recorded during the vaccination campaign, 14% were not registered at the primary healthcare centres, and were therefore deprived of access to healthcare. Among 102 screened subjects under the age of 20 years, 51% were vaccinated according to schedule. Vaccine uptake for the first dose of measles-containing vaccine was 56% (54/96) and for the second dose 37% (18/49). The present study indicates the need to get a better demographic overview of Roma communities living in Poland and to understand the barriers limiting their access to healthcare and social services. Organisation of catch-up immunisations of this vulnerable population is necessary.

Migrant's access to immunization in Mediterranean Countries

“…Data provided by the EpiSouth survey not only confirmed previous studies [2,[27][28][29] that identified low immunization coverage and/or presence of outbreaks as a major issue among particularly vulnerable mobile communities [30]. It also provided evidence that this is not only an EU problem [24,31] but affects countries across the Mediterranean region.…”

UNderstanding uptake of Immunisations in TravellIng aNd Gypsy communities (UNITING): a qualitative interview study

“…This enabled us to identify differences and similarities in views within each community as well as draw out meaningful comparisons across the six Traveller communities, both for gender and for different vaccines (childhood and adult). A small number of studies have reported the uptake of immunisation by different groups of Travellers in the UK 1,44,45,47 and Roma communities in Europe; [108][109][110] and an extensive literature exists on Travellers' experiences of health services more generally. [17][18][19][20][21][22]24 However, there is very little research on Travellers' views on, and experiences of, immunisation specifically.…”

The Roma vaccination gap: Evidence from twelve countries in Central and South-East Europe

“…Yet there is little research on the factors associated with immunisation among Roma, in part because of a lack of appropriate data in this hard to reach population 1 . What research does exist focuses on one or a few districts in a single country, often with a very small number of observations 14 15 and authors have repeatedly noted the importance of achieving a better understanding of this issue [16][17][18] . We investigate differences in child vaccination coverage between Roma and non-Roma living in proximity to them, seeking to understand determinants of the vaccination gap, including access to health care and discrimination faced by Roma.…”