摘要:Vaccination has lead to a considerable reduction in rubella and congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) in Australia. In 20 02, national notifi cation rates for rubella were the lowest on rec ord and there were no notifi ed c ases of CRS between 1997 and 2002—in stark c ontrast to the pre -vaccination era when there were an average of 120 cases of CRS reported annually. It is a c oncern therefore that two cases of CRS have been repor ted from Queensland in 2003.1To investigate possible reasons why these two cases occurred, we reviewed recent surveillance data about rubella incidence, immunit y and vaccination coverage