A measles epidemic occurred in Romania with 32, 915 cases and 21 deaths reported between November 1996 and June 1998, despite high vaccination coverage since the early 1980s. Most cases were unvaccinated children aged<2 years and vaccinated school children. A case-control study among preschool children and a cohort study among primary-school children were conducted to eslimate effectiveness of Romanian produced measles vaccine, and to evaluate age at vaccination and waning immunity as risk factors for vaccine failure. Both studies indicated that measles vaccine was highly effective. One dose reduced the risk for measles by 89% (95% onfidence interval (CI) 85, 91); two doses reduced the risk by 96% (95%CI 92, 98). Children vaccinated at <1 year of age were not at increased risk for measles compared with children vaccinated at ↑1 year. Warning immunity was not identified as a risk factor since vaccint effectiveness was similar for children vaccinated 6–8, 9–11, and 12–14 years in the past. Because specific groups were not at risk for vaccine failure, an immunization campaign that targets all school-aged children who lack two doses may be an effective strategy for preventing outbreaks. A mass campatign followed by increased first-dose coverage should provide the population immunity required to interrupt indigenous measles virus transmission in Romania. Am J Epidemiol 1999; 150; 1250–7.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a major public health problem in most countries of the world, especially in developing countries with an underfunded healthcare system. We aim to present a comparative profile of the epidemiological characteristics of the COVID-19 pandemic in Romania and neighboring countries, which have similar onset and a similar socio-cultural pattern. A descriptive comparative study was performed using COVID-19 data collected from various official websites regarding demography, morbidity, mortality, vaccination, and testing capacity. The countries included in the study were Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Republic of Moldova, Serbia, and Ukraine. The study period was from week 09/2020 to week 46/2021. Overall, these countries have reported 8,382,441 cases and 216,014 deaths (during the study period). The highest cumulative incidence rate of cases has been recorded in Serbia (17,801.5) and the highest mortality rate has been recorded in Bulgaria (391.0). Romania is in fourth place regarding the cumulative incidence rate of cases/100,000 inhabitants but in third place regarding the mortality due to COVID-19 (case–fatality rate of 3.1%). Although the World Health Organization and EU co-ordinate the COVID-19 response, each state makes its own decisions regarding SARS-CoV-2 mitigation measures, the epidemiological indicators directing us about the effectiveness of responses.

A large measles epidemic has been ongoing in Romania and many European countries, since 2016. We report case-based surveillance data for all patients (n = 1371) with laboratory-confirmed and epidemiologically-confirmed measles hospitalized in a major infectious diseases hospital in Bucharest Romania during the first three years of the current measles epidemic (July 2016–July 2019). More than half of the patients (57.6%) had ages below 5 years; 6% (n = 82) had preexisting comorbidities. Only 1.5% of the patients had been fully vaccinated, 5.9% had received only one vaccine dose, while 92.8% had not been vaccinated at all against measles. The rate of measles-related complications was 93.4%; complications occurred more frequently among patients who were not eligible for vaccination due to young age or underlying diseases, and among children, who developed pneumonia and enterocolitis more frequently than adults. The median hospital length-of-stay was 6 days. Eight cases (0.6%) required intensive care and mechanical ventilation, and three deaths (0.2%) were recorded. Measles disproportionately affects patient groups who are not eligible for vaccination. During the current epidemic in Romania, 98.5% of the patients hospitalized for measles had not been vaccinated and among these, 75.7% would have been eligible for vaccination. For the remaining pool of unvaccinated children, supplementary immunization activities are urgently needed.

Background: Recording real-time data of vaccinations performed, vaccine stocks, and adverse events following immunization is a particularly useful activity in the effective development of any vaccination campaign or vaccination program, guiding the decisions of public health authorities. The aim of this paper is to present the benefits of the National Electronic Registry of Vaccinations in providing useful information for the optimization of healthcare vaccination policies, specifically related to COVID-19 vaccination. Methods: We performed a descriptive study using data available in the reports generated from the National Electronic Registry of Vaccinations regarding COVID-19 vaccinations performed between 27 December 2020 and 31 December 2021. Results: A total of 27,980,270 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were distributed. Of these, 15,757,638 (56%) were administered in 4545 vaccination centers: 7,882,458 as the 1st dose (50%), 5,878,698 as the 2nd dose (37%), and 1,996,482 as the 3rd dose (13%). More than 25% of the total doses were administered to people over 65 years of age. A total of 41% of the population received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. A total of 4083 adverse events following immunization were reported. Conclusions: The existence of a National Electronic Registry of Vaccinations containing accurate information on vaccinations performed in Romania offers the opportunity to obtain a clear picture of vaccination status that will significantly contribute to the optimization of vaccination strategies and programs.

In Romania, health and social workers were prioritized for COVID-19 vaccination. We aimed to describe the vaccine adverse events identified through an active survey (using an electronic questionnaire) conducted among the staff of a pediatric hospital from Bucharest, vaccinated with the mRNA Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Data on the frequency and duration of adverse events were collected and analyzed using Microsoft Excel, Epi Info, and MedCalc. The questionnaire was sent to 426 persons. The participation rate was 81.2% after 1st dose and 63.8% after the 2nd dose. Overall, 81.9% were women, median age 42 (IQR 32–50 years). A total of 48 respondents (14.8%) reported no adverse event after the 1st dose and 35 (14.1) after the 2nd dose. No anaphylaxis was reported. The most frequent adverse event was pain at injection site, being reported by 261 responders (80.3%) after 1st dose and 187 (75.1%) after 2nd dose. Fatigue and headache were reported significantly less frequently in our study compared with data provided by the vaccine manufacturer. The current study has shown higher local reactogenicity after the first dose of the vaccine and higher systemic reactogenicity after the second dose. This real-world knowledge of the reactogenicity and safety profile may increase the vaccine’s acceptance rate among healthcare workers.