Vaccination Campaigns for Prevention of Measles

Measles is a highly contagious viral infection caused by the measles or rubeola virus. It mainly causes respiratory infection in children. Symptoms may result in total body rash, flu like symptoms, fever, cough and runny nose. It usually spreads when the fluid like droplets from the infected person is sprayed on the healthy person. For example this may occur when the infected person coughs or sneezes.// Administration of routine vaccines may reduce the number of deaths due to measles every year. However a high vaccine coverage is required to prevent the outbreak of the disease.

A research team from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA has described a model which helps to assess the benefits of supplementary vaccination campaigns which is triggered by the disease outbreak or using serological population survey immunity by measles control strategy.

The study was carried out by capturing four different scenarios with varying incidence of measles. The study estimated that supplementary vaccination campaigns may prevent 28,613 cases of measles in high incidence setting and 599 cases could be prevented in lower incidence setting. While serological survey was found to prevent 89,173 cases and 744 cases in higher and lower incidence settings respectively.

The research study by Justin Lessler and colleagues was published in the Public Library of Science (PLoS) Medicine.



Source-Medindia