The objective of this study was to describe transmission chains of measles observed in Poland during 2008-2009. A decade ago, the incidence of measles in Poland declined and approached one case per million inhabitants one of the World Health Organization's criteria for measles elimination. Following a period of very few reported measles cases (2003 to 2005), an increase in incidence was observe...

The introduction of measles vaccination programs and broad coverage worldwide has meant this infection a rare encounter for pediatricians. In Oman, with almost 100% measles vaccination coverage for children, this infection disappeared from the list of fever and rash differential diagnoses. Encephalitis is a well-known complication of measles infection and sometimes can be the only manifestation...

BACKGROUND When measles vaccines were widely introduced in the 1970s, there were concerns that they might cause subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE): a very rare, late-onset, neurological complication of natural measles infection. Therefore, SSPE registries and routine measles immunization were established in many countries concurrently. We conducted a comprehensive review of the impact o...

Measles is a highly contagious disease that causes immunosuppression in patients. Measles virus infection has been thought to begin in the respiratory epithelium and then spread to lymphoid tissue. In this issue of the JCI, Leonard et al. provide data to suggest an alternative model of measles virus pathogenesis (see the related article beginning on page 2448). In human primary epithelial cells...

A 20-year-old girl developed a subacute neurological illness characterized by seizures and epilepsia partialis continua, which resulted in her death within 10 weeks of her first symptom. Although she had a history of unusual reactions to viral infections, there was no evidence of any underlying disorder resulting in immunosuppression. Histopathology demonstrated the presence of dense infection ...

BACKGROUND On 26 December 2004, a tsunami struck the coast of the state of Tamil Nadu, India, where one-dose measles coverage exceeded 95%. On 29 December, supplemental measles immunization activities targeted children 6 to 60 months of age in affected villages. On 30 December, Cuddalore, a tsunami-affected district in Tamil Nadu reported a cluster of measles cases. We investigated this cluster...

BACKGROUND As China approaches the elimination of measles, outbreaks of measles continue to occur. Healthcare workers (HCWs) are known to be at high risk of infection and transmission of measles virus. A measles outbreak occurred in a hospital in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. We report an investigation of this outbreak and its implications for measles elim...

carried in the upper respiratory tract, a phenomenon we referred to as “copathogenesis.” The mechanism(s) by which such potentiation may have occurred are unknown. We speculated that the 1918 virus may have had increased tropism for or have been unusually cytopathic for tracheobronchial cells, facilitating access of bacteria to the peripheral bronchopulmonary tree and leading to massive diffuse...

Measles continues to be a major childhood disease in terms of global morbidity and mortality. In the main areas of its endemicity the only available means of diagnosis are based on clinical criteria: the presence of a maculopapular rash and fever accompanied by cough, coryza, and/or conjunctivitis. We have studied 38 clinically diagnosed cases of measles in Khartoum, Sudan, by means of serology...

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum of 17 patients with HAM/TSP (HTLV-I associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis), six with multiple sclerosis and six with idiopathic epilepsy (non inflammatory control) from Brazil were analysed for the presence of intrathecal synthesis of virus-specific antibodies against measles, rubella, varicella zoster virus and herpes simplex virus by enzyme-lin...