INTRODUCTION Young infants are protected from measles infection by maternal measles antibodies. The level of these antibodies at birth depends on the level of antibodies in the mother and the extent of placental transfer. We investigated predictors of levels of measles antibodies in newborns in rural Kenya. METHODS A total of 747 paired maternal-cord serum samples (91 from human immunodeficie...

Measles immunization appears to be emerging as a cost-effective intervention to reduce the child death rate from diarrhea. It seems that measles infection lowers childhood resistance to diarrheal infections in the environment, and this effect may persist for a significant period. As malnutrition, diarrheal, and other childhood infections interact together to kill, measles immunization needs t...

Measles is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in children receiving treatment for leukaemia. A review was made of all the documented cases of measles in children in first remission from acute lymphoblastic leukaemia at four major treatment centres in 1974-84. Over the 11 years reviewed 1043 children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia were referred to these centres. Fifty one (4.9%) died w...

Immune suppression during measles accounts for most of the morbidity and mortality associated with the virus infection. Experimental study of this phenomenon has been hampered by the lack of a suitable animal model. We have used the cotton rat to demonstrate that mitogen-induced proliferation of spleen cells from measles virus-infected animals is impaired. Proliferation inhibition is seen in al...

While a major reduction in morbidity and mortality from measles has been achieved in Qatar since it adopted the measles elimination programme in 1997, the country has experienced small, recurrent measles outbreaks. The aim of this study was to determine the demographical and epidemiological characteristics of measles cases reported to the surveillance programme in Qatar in 2007. Of 362 confirme...

Measles virus infection, a systemic rash illness commonly acquired in infancy and early childhood, is one of the most contagious infectious diseases in humans [1]. Measles is also an important cause of global morbidity and mortality, primarily among infants and children living in resource-limited settings [2]. Since the development of measles vaccines in the 1960s, intensive vaccination efforts...

BACKGROUND Since the introduction of measles vaccine to the vaccination schedule, the burden of measles has substantially fallen in Australia. Despite this, a number of recent measles outbreaks have occurred. The aim of this study was to examine the burden of measles in Australia using notification, hospitalisation and mortality data with the objectives of setting a baseline for comparison prio...

BACKGROUND Measles remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality in children in developing countries. Due to the success of the measles mortality reduction and elimination efforts thus far, the WHO has raised the question of whether global eradication of measles is economically feasible. METHODS The cost-effectiveness of various measles mortality reduction and eradication scenarios wa...

The authors assessed the efficacy of the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation of 200,000 IU of vitamin A in oil to treat acute non-xerophthalmic measles patients. Acute measles patients who did not require hospitalization were enrolled in a randomized, double-masked, clinical trial of vitamin A (n=90) versus placebo (n=110) carried out in Ndola, Zambia, in 1991. Measles-associated mor...