WHO has adopted a goal of eliminating indigenous measles from the European Region by the
year 2007. The strategy focuses on reducing the proportion of susceptible individuals in the
population to low levels and maintaining these low levels of susceptibility. Routine vaccination
against measles for children aged 13–15 months was introduced in Poland in 1975, and a
second dose added in 1991. High coverage (> 95%) is achieved with both doses. In order to
assess progress towards measles elimination in Poland, a serological survey was performed to
evaluate the impact of vaccination on the susceptibility profile of population. Three thousand
residual serum samples from individuals aged 1–30 years were collected from hospitals in six
selected voivodeships (administration units) in Poland. These were tested for measles-specific
IgG using a commercial ELISA. Overall 4% (120/3000) were negative for measles virus
antibody. The highest proportion of negatives (8·2%) occurred among cohorts born 1977–81 –
the only cohorts in which susceptibility exceeded the WHO targets. ‘Catch-up’ vaccination
strategies should target these cohorts.