BACKGROUND Since 1995, measles vaccination at nine and 18 months has been routine in South Africa; however, coverage seldom reached >95%. We describe the epidemiology of laboratory-confirmed measles case-patients and assess the impact of the nationwide mass vaccination campaign during the 2009 to 2011 measles outbreak in South Africa. METHODS Serum specimens collected from patients with suspe...

Vitamin A treatment reduces mortality during acute measles infection, and vitamin A supplementation (VAS) to children above 6 months of age may reduce the incidence of measles infection. The effect of VAS at birth on measles incidence is unknown. In a randomised placebo-controlled trial in Guinea-Bissau, normal-birth-weight newborns were randomised to 50 000 IU (15 mg) VAS or placebo. During th...

In Malaysia, the two dose measles - mumps - rubella (MMR) vaccine was introduced in the Expanded Program on Immunization in 2002. The Ministry of Health then initiated a measles elimination strategy which included enhanced case-based surveillance with laboratory testing of all suspected cases. The objective of our study was to analyse national measles laboratory data from 2004 to 2008 to study ...

INTRODUCTION In developing countries, measles was a major cause of morbidity and mortality before the wide spread use of measles vaccine. The purpose of this study was to describe measles burden in an urban setting, Addis Ababa- since the implementation of measles case-based surveillance in Ethiopia. We analyzed measles surveillance data for 2004 -2014. METHODS Incidence of measles was descri...

INTRODUCTION subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) is a late, rare and usually fatal complication of measles infection. Although a very high incidence of SSPE in Papua New Guinea (PNG) was first recognized 20 years ago, estimated measles vaccine coverage has remained at ≤ 70% since and a large measles epidemic occurred in 2002. We report a series of 22 SSPE cases presenting between Novembe...

Data on measles incidence, acute case fatality, and delayed mortality were collected on 25,443 children aged 0-95 months during the course of a community-based, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial of vitamin A supplementation in rural, northern Ghana between 1989 and 1991. Measles vaccine coverage in these children was 48%. The overall estimated measles incidence rate was 24.3 pe...

There are an estimated 234,000 cases of measles and 13,851 measles-related deaths per year in Mali. In 1998 and 1999, 548,309 children aged 9-59 months were vaccinated against measles during mass campaigns in urban centers across Mali. After the first campaign, measles incidence decreased by 95% in districts encompassing vaccinated urban centers and by 41% in nonvaccinated districts. There was ...

Measles is exquisitely sensitive to immunization programs. We investigated the decline in measles incidence after immunization with 1 or 2 doses of measles-containing vaccine (MCV), with or without supplementary immunization activities (SIAs). Using data from the World Health Organization, we modeled the impact of measles immunization using a negative binomial regression model. All countries of...

Burkina Faso conducted mass measles vaccination campaigns among children aged 9 months to 4 years during December 1998 and December 1999. The 1998 campaign was limited to six cities and towns, while the 1999 campaign was nationwide. The last year of explosive measles activity in Burkina Faso was 1996. Measles surveillance data suggest that the 1998 urban campaigns did not significantly impact m...

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...