BACKGROUND Despite huge efforts to promote widespread vaccination, measles remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, especially in African children. In March 2011, an abnormally high number of cases were reported from the Ouham Prefecture, Central African Republic to the national measles case-based surveillance system. In response, reactive vaccination activities were imp...

BACKGROUND Studies among HIV-1-infected women have demonstrated reduced placental transfer of IgG antibodies against measles and other pathogens. As a result, infants born to women with HIV-1 infection may not acquire adequate passive immunity in utero and this could contribute to high infant morbidity and mortality in this vulnerable population. METHODS To determine factors associated with d...

Childhood immunisation has been credited with being responsible for reducing childhood morbidity and mortality over the past 40-50 years. It was the first item on the list of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for the ‘Ten great public health achievements’ of the 20th century. The viral diseases smallpox and poliomyelitis were eradicated in the United States of America as a result of vaccina...

measles is one of the viral and extremely contagious and acute diseases of childhood affecting almost all children. prior to the discovery of the measles vaccine, the mortality from this disease was one of the highest child mortality figures, especially in the developing countries, with the death rate ranging over 5 to 10% of the infected? before the vaccination program i was launched in the co...

Infectious diseases and underlying medical conditions common to Africa may affect influenza frequency and severity. We conducted a systematic review of published studies on influenza and the following co-infections or co-morbidities that are prevalent in Africa: dengue, malaria, measles, meningococcus, Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PCP), hemoglobinopathies, and malnutrition. Articles were i...

  Antibody detection is the most versatile and commonly used method for measles diagnosis. Detection of specific IgM antibodies in a single serum specimen collected within the appropriate time after rash onset can provide a good presumptive diagnosis of current or recent measles infection and is the test of choice for rapid diagnosis of measles cases. So, optimal timing for collection of a sing...

Background: Decay of vaccine–induced antibody titres without boosting of the wild measles virus has been well documented. Revaccination against measles has reduced the prevalence of the disease worldwide. Revaccination may cause IgE induced anaphylaxis. Objective: To study measles IgG antibody in revaccinated populations and its relation to IgE induced hypersensitivity. Methods: Blood samples w...

BACKGROUND Measles was responsible for an estimated 100,000 deaths worldwide in 2008. Despite being a vaccine-preventable disease, measles remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in young children. Although a safe and effective injectable measles vaccine has been available for over 50 years it has not been possible to achieve the uniformly high levels of coverage (required to achieve m...

Difficulties in reaching and sustaining high enough coverage combined with the need to delay vaccination until most infants have lost maternal antibodies make it hard to control measles with standard titres of measles vaccine. Maternal antibodies are no longer a factor in infants after 9 months in developing countries and after 15 months in developed countries. It would be good to have a vacc...

Correspondence The State of the World's Children Sir, We were interested to read in David Morley's recent annotation 'The State of the World's Children' that in the Gambia there is a 10% mortality in the subsequent nine months after infection with measles, and this compares with only 1% in controls.' Our own interest in the possible predisposition to subsequent death from measles infection was ...