[The cost of measles in Spain]

With the purpose of obtaining information useful to plan massive measles vaccination campaigns in this country two retrospective surveys were carried out to evaluate cost of care as well as age and seasonal distribution of measles in Spain. Two samples made of 1.781 and 701 school-children, living in a 137.000 inhabitants city and representative of the industrial, construction and services sectors of the spanish population (81.920 of it), were interviewed. The mean cost of care per case was of 8.252 pts. Before six years of age 92% of the individuals studied had had measles, 51% of them between March and May. Between 20 and 24% of patients were 24 months old or less; among the latter group age distribution was the following 50% below 12 months, 35% between 12 and 18 months and 15% between 18 and 24 months.