Stop measles in Switzerland - The importance of travel medicine.

BACKGROUND: In line with the worldwide strive to combat measles, the Swiss Federal Office of Public Heath (FOPH) launched a National Strategy for measles elimination 2011-2015. In this study, we highlight the importance of travel medicine consultations to complement measles vaccination programmes based on data from the Travel Clinic of the University of Zurich.

METHOD: We analysed measles vaccination data from the Zurich Travel Clinic between July 2010 and February 2016 and focused on three groups: (i) all clients who received the measles vaccination, (ii) all clients aged>two years who received the measles vaccination ("catch-up vaccination"), and (iii) all clients aged>two years and born after 1963 ("FOPH recommended catch-up vaccination").

RESULTS: 107,669 consultations were performed from 2010 to 2016. In 12,470 (11.6%) of these, a measles vaccination was administered; 90.9% measles vaccinations were given during a pre-travel consultation, and 99.4% were administered to individuals aged>two years ("catch-up vaccinations"). An "FOPH recommended catch-up vaccination" was received by 13.6% of all Zurich Travel Clinic clients aged >2years and born after 1963.

CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we highlight the importance of travel medicine consultations to enhance the measles vaccination coverage in the adult Swiss population.