Key Points

Vaccination rates are increasing among infants born since January 1, 2018, to whom the expanded vaccination mandate applies. To quantify the impact of the mandatory vaccination requirement, vaccination coverage at 7 months of age for infants born between January and May 2018 was compared with that of infants born between January and May 2017, for vaccinations against pertussis, Haemophilus influenzae type b, hepatitis B, pneumococcus, and meningococcus C. In the Normandy region, the increases in vaccination coverage are:

• + 40.7 percentage points in vaccination coverage for the "first dose of meningococcal C" (vaccination coverage in 2018: 73.3%; 2017: 36.6%)

• + 3 percentage points for the use of the hexavalent vaccine, which includes the hepatitis B vaccine, for infants vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus, and polio (usage rate in 2018: 99.1%; 2017: 96.1%)

• +0.9 percentage points for "first dose of pneumococcal vaccine" coverage (vaccination coverage in 2018: 99.8%; in 2017: 98.9%)

Vaccination coverage is also increasing among children born before the law took effect

• + 1.9 percentage points for "measles, mumps, rubella first dose" vaccination coverage among infants who turned 12 months old in 2018 (87.8%) compared to those who turned 12 months old in 2017 (85.9%)

• +3.8 percentage points for the first-dose HPV vaccine coverage among 15-year-old girls born in 2003 (38.6%) compared to girls born the previous year (34.8%)

The increase in vaccination coverage for the first dose of the meningococcal C vaccine at 5 months of age most likely contributed to the decrease in the incidence of invasive infections caused by this pathogen; no cases were reported in 2018 among infants under one year of age.