[Vaccination against Haemophilus influenzae B and rubella]

Haemophilus influenzae B was the most frequent pathogen of bacterial meningitis in childhood during the mid-eighties to the end of the eighties of the present century, taking the place of meningococci since approximately 1984 at about twice the rate of that pathogen, as shown by the records kept during 1980-1990 in Bavarian Departments of Paediatrics. In fact, in 1990 the incidence of HIB meningitides was about 2.5 times that of meningococcus meningitides (85 vs. 34, respectively). For practically 2 years now vaccination against HIB is being publicly recommended and should be made use of as intensively as possible to prevent all HIB infections. For several years the principle of on-target rubella vaccination has been applied to schoolgirls in Lower Saxony, Bremen and Hamburg to prevent rubella embryopathy, a procedure that has proved much more successful than blank vaccination. None of the other Federal German Laender have been following this procedure to date; in consequence there of, although the strategy of on-target vaccination will be continued in Lower Saxony, greater uniformity and greater efficiency are being aimed at throughout Germany by public recommendation of rubella vaccination at an infant age.