Measles is a major cause of mortality in complex emergencies. Both high vaccination coverage and vaccine efficacy are required to prevent major epidemics of measles in such situations. Evaluation of field vaccine efficacy is a critical but underutilized component of program monitoring in emergencies, and is particularly important in rural areas where the integrity of the cold chain is difficult...

In 1997, the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) of the World Health Organization adopted a resolution to eliminate measles by 2010. Of the 23 EMR member countries, 18 are polio-free and are building on this success to eliminate measles. The 5 countries where polio remains endemic are prioritizing polio eradication and working to improve measles control. Measles incidence has been reduced from 1...

Background There has been a resurgence of measles infection in countries with high vaccination rates, including Malaysia. Understanding the geographical variation and associated factors is important for prevention control programs, especially where local information scarce.
 Objective To determine incidence laboratory-confirmed state Melaka, southern region Malaysia.
 Methods We obtai...

Between 1 May and 3 September, 1994, 44 cases of measles were reported to the public health authorities of the Health and Social Services Board for the Montreal Centre Region. Distribution of cases by week of onset is shown in Figure 1. Thirty-nine of those cases met the national case definition for measles and almost half (n=19) were serologically confirmed by the detection of immunoglobulin M...

We studied measles incidence and morbidity in Ghazvin district by retrospective review of cases registered at the central health office and admitted to two hospital in Ghazvin city during April 1997-April 2003. There were 824 clinically confirmed cases of measles over the 6-year period giving a mean annual incidence of 18.67 per 100 000 population, higher than for the country generally. There w...

In 2005, the Regional Committee for the World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific Region (WPR) established a goal to eliminate measles by 2012.The recommended elimination strategies in WPR include 1) ≥95% 2-dose coverage with measles-containing vaccine (MCV) through routine immunization services and supplementary immunization activities (SIAs); 2) high-quality case-based measles surveilla...

BACKGROUND In response to repeated requests for assistance in evaluating the health benefit and cost implications of adjustments to national measles immunization strategies, the World Health Organization (WHO) has developed the Measles Strategic Planning (MSP) tool to harness routinely available data to estimate effectiveness and cost effectiveness of vaccination strategies. METHOD The MSP to...

To determine whether measles case finding is sensitive, we developed a standard by which to evaluate measles surveillance. We compiled data on the incidence of measleslike illnesses (MLIs) from multiple, diverse sources and used the distribution of these values to determine the minimum level of measles case-finding activity that could be expected in a given region. Among surveillance programs i...

To describe the epidemiology of measles in Oman and the implications for a vaccination programme, we conducted a retrospective record-based study from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2003 using data from the national epidemiological surveillance system. All cases notified as suspected measles during the study period were included. Of the 185 notified cases, 19.4% were confirmed measles positive. ...

During a resurgence of measles in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1997, >40,000 cases (peak incidence rate of 246/100,000 inhabitants) and 42 measles-related deaths were reported. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and nucleotide sequencing were used to analyze specimens from patients who had typical clinical measles infection during this outbreak and from six patients who had had measles in...