Reduction of vaccine-preventable communicable diseases in a Bedouin population: summary of a community-based intervention programme

Abstract

Background: The Bedouin Arab population of southern Israel is in transition from a semi-nomadic lifestyle to permanent settlement, with many characteristics of a third-world population. A major outbreak of measles in the winter of 1990-91, with an incidence of 415.6 per 100,000 and a case fatality rate of 2.2 % among the Bedouin, led to the establishment of a national committee, which recommended an intervention programme. We report on the effect of the programme implementation on the reduction of vaccine-preventable communicable diseases in a Bedouin Arab population.

Methods: We compared immunisation coverage and incidence of reportable vaccine-preventable communicable diseases before and after implementation of the intervention programme.

Findings: Implementation of the intervention programme was associated with a marked increase in immunisation coverage, from 53% for first measles immunisation among those born in 1988, and reaching 2 years of age in 1990 at the start of the outbreak, to 90% at age 2 years among those born in 2001. We noted a decrease in all vaccine-preventable communicable diseases, except for pertussis, during this period.

Interpretation: The implementation of a targeted programme to improve immunisation coverage, and other concomitant changes in health-care delivery, was temporally associated with reduction of vaccine-preventable communicable diseases in a population of Bedouin Arabs in Israel who are living in semi-nomadic conditions. The success of the programme could be applicable to semi-nomadic populations living in other areas of the middle east.