Short term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on incidence of vaccine preventable diseases and participation in routine infant vaccinations in the Netherlands in the period March-September 2020

Marit Middeldorp; Alies van Lier; Nicoline van der Maas; Irene Veldhuijzen; Wieke Freudenburg; Nina M van Sorge; Elisabeth A M Sanders; Mirjam J Knol; Hester E de Melker

doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.12.080

Short term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on incidence of vaccine preventable diseases and participation in routine infant vaccinations in the Netherlands in the period March-September 2020

Vaccine. 2021 Feb 12;39(7):1039-1043. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.12.080. Epub 2021 Jan 6.

Authors

Marit Middeldorp¹, Alies van Lier², Nicoline van der Maas², Irene Veldhuijzen², Wieke Freudenburg³, Nina M van Sorge³, Elisabeth A M Sanders², Mirjam J Knol², Hester E de Melker²

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Infectious Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, Netherlands. Electronic address: marit.middeldorp@rivm.nl.
² Centre for Infectious Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, Netherlands.
³ Department of Medical Microbiology and Infection Prevention and Netherlands Reference Laboratory for Bacterial Meningitis, Amsterdam University Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Abstract

We aimed to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the incidence of vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs) and participation in the routine infant vaccination programme in the Netherlands. The incidence of various VPDs initially decreased by 75-97% after the implementation of the Dutch COVID-19 response measures. The participation in the first measles-mumps-rubella vaccination among children scheduled for vaccination in March-September 2020 initially dropped by 6-14% compared with the previous year. After catch-up vaccination, a difference in MMR1 participation of -1% to -2% still remained. Thus, the pandemic has reduced the incidence of several VPDs and has had a limited impact on the routine infant vaccination programme.

Keywords: COVID-19; Routine infant vaccination; SARS-CoV-2; VPDs; Vaccine-preventable diseases.

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Child
Humans
Immunization Programs
Incidence
Infant
Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccine / administration & dosage
Netherlands / epidemiology
Pandemics*
Vaccination / statistics & numerical data*
Vaccine-Preventable Diseases / epidemiology*
Vaccine-Preventable Diseases / prevention & control

Substances

Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccine