Poster (in English) presented at the European Scientific Conference on Applied Infectious Disease Epidemiology (ESCAIDE 2007)

A simple and neat investigation of surveillance of suspected cases of measles. Reporting of rash illnesses and testing for measles antibodies is a necessary prerequisite to achieve measles elimination (aside from effective immunization). Since measles rash is not so different from other rashes caused by rubella, parvovirus and many other viruses, it is so important to refer for testing for measles antibodies many patients with rash, even when physicians do not suspect measles. It is especially important in the elimination phase, when very few measles cases occur, mostly "imported" from abroad. Without this documentation of disease absence, no country will be sure it got rid of measles... In this poster, we documented that Poland did not achieve the WHO required threshold for 1 person with rash tested for measles per 100,000 population.