Protection against infectious diseases is provided to young infants by passive immunity through the transplacental transfer of immunoglobulin G during pregnancy and through immunoglobulin A in breast milk [1–7]. Despite the obvious benefits of these antibodies to the youngest infants, their levels wane over time, necessitating the development of active immunity through vaccination. The timing o...

BACKGROUND The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) is a South Pacific nation freely associated with the United States. In 2003, the RMI experienced the largest measles outbreak within the United States or its associated areas for more than a decade, although the reported coverage of 1-dose measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine was 80%-93%. The outbreak ended only after vaccination of >35,000 p...

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 & OBJECTIVES Measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) contribute to significant amount of mortality and morbidity in our country. Though MMR vaccine has been a part of immunization schedule in the developed countries, it is yet to be included in our national immunization schedule. Hence this study was conducted to assess the serological status of measles, mumps and rubella in young children ...

By review of available literature, routine surveillance data, coverage surveys, and hospital records, measles control in Ghana was assessed since vaccinations began in 1978. Nationally, measles vaccination coverage increased from 24% in 1980 to 84% in 2000. This achievement is attributed to health sector reforms that included a higher district share of the total recurrent health budget from 20%...

Measles is uncommon in Australia due to effective national vaccination strategies. In mid-2003, a cluster of nine cases of measles occurred in western Sydney. The index case was a 29-year-old traveller recently returned from Nepal. The case presented to hospital and transmitted the disease to two others in the Emergency Department. Further cases resulted from both community and nosocomial trans...

OBJECTIVE To study measles risk after revaccination. DESIGN A population-based case-control study during an epidemic season. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Relative serologically confirmed measles risk. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS 153 vaccinated cases, mostly from rural areas, were serologically confirmed as measles at the central laboratory in 1988-89. A randomly selected group of 453 controls from e...

Acute idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is the most common bleeding disorder of childhood. Seventy percent of cases of acute ITP occur following viral illness. 1 Classically these infections include rubella, varicella, measles, and the Epstein-Barr virus.2 Acute ITP has also been reported after vaccination against poliomyelitis,3 measles,4-6 and rubella,7 (including combined measles-mum...

1Clinical Microbiology Research Centre, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Islamic Republic of Iran. Received : 10/10/02; accepted: 21/09/03 ABSTRACT An outbreak of measles due to secondary vaccine failure prompted this investigation into the prevalence of measles antibody in children. We studied 608 children in 7 different age groups: 6, 9, 14 and 18 months and 6, 10 and 15 years. ...

MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) immunization in Japan was suspended in 1993 due to the high incidence of mumps meningitis as a complication. As a result, immunization coverage for rubella still remains at the 50-60% level in Japan. One way to increase the coverage rate is to increase the frequency of immunization. We calculated the predicted positivity rate of the antibody and cost and the benefits...