[Vaccination status of children in the Vienna area (author's transl)]

The vaccination status was investigated in 1482 patients between the ages of 1 and 14 years admitted to hospital with scarlet fever. Most of the patients were vaccinated against tuberculosis (97.7%), diphtheria, tetanus and whooping-cough (95.3%) and poliomyelitis (94.1%), relatively few against measles (21.1%) and very few indeed against mumps (0.7%) and tick-borne encephalitis (1.9%). The booster vaccination against tetanus and diphtheria had been omitted in more than 40%. Although the beneficial results of vaccination against tuberculosis, diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus and poliomyelitis remained more or less the same, the tendency towards vaccination did not spread as might have been anticipated. On the contrary, the extent of vaccination decreased, especially during the past years. In the same way the tendency towards vaccination against measles showed a sudden slowing down after a period of rapid increase. This implies that vaccination of children does not tend towards perfection. The vaccination rates differ widely between foreign children living in Vienna and natives. Although the foreigners show a similar vaccination distribution pattern as the natives, the numbers of unvaccinated children are much higher.