Table 1. Reasons for not being vaccinated against measles given by parents of 272 unvaccinated measles patients in Duisburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, 2006.

Reason for not being vaccinateda	Number	Percent
Parents forgot about the vaccination	115	36.4
Parents rejected the vaccination	88	27.8
Afraid of side-effects	41	–
Generally against vaccinations	38	–
Believed measles were not harmful	9	–
Family doctor or paediatrician recommended against vaccination	53	16.8
Underlying diseases of the child	19b	–
Held opinion “it is not necessary”	15	–
Concerns about side-effects	4	–
No reasons given	15	–
Child was too young for vaccination (< 12 months)	41	13.0
Vaccination was not offered by family doctor or paediatrician	19	6.0

^a More than one reason was given by 44. Patients with missing data (n = 33) or who answered “don’t know” (n = 68) were excluded.
^b In 18 of these 19 cases, the reasons provided were not considered true contraindications by the outbreak investigation team (e.g. eczema, “often sick”). In one child an immunodefect was considered a true contraindication.