CHARACTERISTICS OF PATIENTS WITH MEASLES ADMITTED TO ALLIED HOSPITAL RAWALPINDI
Abstract
Background: Measles, a virus borne droplet infection, is one of the leading causes of death among young children worldwide despite presence of a safe and cost-effective vaccine. Objective of our study was to identify the characteristics of measles patients admitted to Allied Hospitals, Rawalpindi. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted amongst patients admitted with measles in paediatric units of Rawalpindi Medical College Allied Hospitals, Rawalpindi. A standard pro forma was used to collect data from the respondents. Results: A total of 55 patients (mean age-29.36 months) with measles were included in the study. 65.5% children were vaccinated while 34.5% were not vaccinated. Among those vaccinated 14 were male. Out of the vaccinated children 52.6% were residents of middle class areas, 31.6% lower middle class area, 10.5% upper middle class areas and 5.3% rural areas. In 55.0% of patients who were vaccinated with at least one dose of measles at nine month of age the estimated calendar months of vaccination was March to April while in 30% the overall climatic period of vaccination was of summer (May to September). Twenty one study subjects were exposed to a case of measles in the family and thirty five out of all developed at least one known complication of the disease. Pneumonia was the most common complication reported in patients (63.6%) followed by diarrhoea (27.3%). Conclusion: Majority of the patients suffering from measles were not vaccinated and the most common reason for failure to immunize children was lack of awareness. Educated and well off fathers were more likely to get their children immunized. The vaccinated children who developed measles majority were vaccinated during months of March, April and May.
Keywords: Measles, immunization, outbreaks.References
Measles [Internet] 2013 Feb [updated 2013 July 17]. Available from: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs286/en/
Cheng WY, Tung HP, Wang HC, Lee LL, Wu HS, Liu MT.. Molecular epidemiology of measles virus in Taiwan in 2010-2011: The common genotype changed from H1 to D9 and the first appearance of D4. J Med Virol 2013;85( 6):1095-9.
C. Pulcini, ,S. Massin , O. Launay , P. Verger. Knowledge, attitude and practices of general practitioners towards measles and MMR vaccination in southeastern France in 2012. Clin Microbiol Infect 2014;20(1):38-43.
Number of reported Measles cases with onset date from Dec 2012-Jun 2013(6 M period) [Image from the Internet] 2013 [updated 2013 July 27;cited 2013 July 8]. Available from http://www.who.int/immunization_monitoring/diseases/big_measlesreported cases6months_PDF.pdf
Perry RT, Halsey NA. The clinical significance of measles: A Review. J Infect Dis 2004;189 (Suppl 1):S4-S16.
Moss WJ, Griffin DE. Measles. Lancet 2012;379(9811):153-64.
Wallace RB, editor. Maxcy-Rosenau-Last Public Health and Preventive Medicine: Fifteenth Edition: New york: The McGraw-Hill Companies; 2008.
Child growth standards [internet] 2013 [updated 2013 july 28] .Available from: http://www.who.int/childgrowth/standards/weight_for_age/en/
Lahore worst hit by measles [Internet] 2013 [ updated July 26, 2013; cited on Apr 12, 2013] . Available from: http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2013/04/12/city/lahore/lahore-worst-hit-by-measles/
Naeem M, Khan ZM, Adil M, Abbas HS, Khan UM, Khan A, et al. inequity in childhood immunization between urban and rural areas of Peshawar. J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad 2011;23(3):134-7.
Van Boven M, Kretzschmar M, Wallinga J, O'Neil PD, Wichmann O, Hahne S. Estimation of measles vaccine efficacy and critical vaccination coverage in a highly vaccinated population. J R Soc Interface 2010;7(52):1537- 44.
Park K. Park's textbook of Preventive and Social medicine. 20th ed. Jabalpur Banarsidas bhanot pulishers;2009.
Waaijenborg S, Hahne SJ, Mollema L, Smits GP, Berbers GA, van der Klis FR, et al. Waning of maternal antibodies against measles, mumps, rubella and varicella in communities with contrasting vaccination coverage. J Infect Dis 2013;208(1):10-6.
Leuridan E, Hens N, Hutse V, Leven M, Aerts M, Van Damme P. Early waning of maternal measles antibodies in era of measles elimination: A longitudinal study. BMJ 2010;340:c1626.
Gupta SN, Vidya R, Gupta N, Gupte MD. Factors precipitating outbreaks of measles in district Kangra of North India:A case control study. Int J App Basic Med Res 2011;1(1):24-30.
Report on measles outbreak in Pakistan. Wafaqi Mohtasib (Ombudsman)'s Secretariat. Islamabad. 2013.
Dhalaria P. Challenges in cold chain management. [Available at:http://indiacoldchainexpo.com/pharma-presentation/7.pdf] [viewed on 28/07/2013]
Larson H. Vaccination gaps led to rubella outbreaks in Japan and Poland [Internet] 2013 [updated 2013 July 28;cited 2013 July 11]. Available from: http://theconversation.com/vaccination-gaps-led-to-rubella-outbreaks-in-japan-and-poland-15970.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Journal of Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad is an OPEN ACCESS JOURNAL which means that all content is FREELY available without charge to all users whether registered with the journal or not. The work published by J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad is licensed and distributed under the creative commons License CC BY ND Attribution-NoDerivs. Material printed in this journal is OPEN to access, and are FREE for use in academic and research work with proper citation. J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad accepts only original material for publication with the understanding that except for abstracts, no part of the data has been published or will be submitted for publication elsewhere before appearing in J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. The Editorial Board of J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad makes every effort to ensure the accuracy and authenticity of material printed in J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. However, conclusions and statements expressed are views of the authors and do not reflect the opinion/policy of J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad or the Editorial Board.
USERS are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.
AUTHORS retain the rights of free downloading/unlimited e-print of full text and sharing/disseminating the article without any restriction, by any means including twitter, scholarly collaboration networks such as ResearchGate, Academia.eu, and social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Scholar and any other professional or academic networking site.
