How many children in India receive the measles vaccine? Evidence from public health officials and a clinician at an Indian institute of medical research
Children in India receive their first dose of the measles vaccine when they are 9–12 months old and a second dose at 15–18 months. 95 per cent of children need to have received both doses of vaccine in order for them to have herd immunity. Between 2019 and 2021, only 56% of children received the recommended two doses of the measles vaccine by the time they were 3 years old, according to the India’s National Family Health Survey.
The target to eliminate vaccine preventable diseases by 2023 is far away, says an infectious disease specialist who studies these diseases in India. “Now, it is a Herculean job to be able to catch up everyone who missed.”
A large outbreak is unlikely due to low vaccinations, says an epidemiologist at the Indian Council of Medical Research in Chennai. It’s a cumulative phenomenon.
The health departments for Mumbai city and the state of Uttar Pradesh did not respond to Nature’s questions about their immunization campaigns. There were no responses from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare about missing the deadline.
Scientists say surveillance is key to finding outbreaks and launching immunization campaigns. The tracking system for the disease in India is not consistent and there is a risk of an outbreak if there is one, according to an epidemiologist at the Public Health Foundation of India.
India’s public-health system also tracks pregnant women — many of whom give birth at their parents’ home — and their infants. But the system often loses track of them after a few months, says Babu. Consequently, there is a steep drop-off in vaccinations for measles–rubella after that point, he says.
India also has 450 million migrant workers, whose children can be missed by the tracking system, says Madhu Gupta, a public-health researcher at the PostGraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, India.
A CNN Medical Analyst’s View of Measles: Symptoms, Outbreaks, and Vaccine Potentially Infectable Individuals
Up to 20 thousand people were at a religious gathering at the college in Kentucky in February and could have been exposed to a person with the disease.
If you are unvaccinated or not fully vaccined and attended the Asbury University gathering in February, then you should be put under a 21 day quarktay after your last exposure so that you don’t spread the disease to others.
Reading this news, people may have questions about measles, including its symptoms, infection outcomes and who is most at risk. They may want to know about the cause and effectiveness of the vaccine, and whether there’s a cure for measles.
To help answer these questions, I spoke with CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and professor of health policy and management at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. Previously, she served as Baltimore’s health commissioner, where her duties included overseeing the city’s immunization and infectious disease investigations.
The measles virus is transmitted via droplets from the nose, mouth or throat of infected individuals. If someone coughs or sneezes, droplets can land on you and cause a disease. These droplets can land on surfaces, and if you touch the surface and then touch your nose or mouth, that could infect you, too.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/08/health/measles-vaccine-infection-wellness/index.html
The New Millennium Vaccine: Implications for the Prevention and Treatment of Measles-Associated Deaths in Children and Young Adults
Symptoms usually appear 10 to 12 days after infection. There are many diseases that can be included, such as a high fever, a pink eye, and small white spots on the inside of the mouth. A few days after these symptoms begin, many individuals develop a characteristic rash — flat red spots that generally start on the face and then spread downward over the neck, trunk, arms, legs and feet. The spots can become joined together as they spread and can be accompanied by a high fever.
According to the CDC there are one in five unvaccinated people hospitalized with the disease. As many as 1 out of every 20 children with measles will get pneumonia; about 1 in 1,000 who get measles can develop encephalitis, a swelling of the brain that can lead to seizures and leave the child with lasting disabilities. And nearly 1 to 3 out of every 1,000 children who are infected with measles will die.
Wen: The MMR vaccine is a two-dose vaccine. The recommendation is for children to receive the first dose at age 12-15 months and the second dose at age 4-6 years. One dose of the MMR vaccine 93% effective at preventing measles infection. Two doses are 97% effective.
The vaccine was licensed in the US in 1963. In the four years before that, there were an average of more than 500,000 cases of measles every year and over 430 measles-associated deaths. By 1998, there were just 89 cases and no measles-associated deaths. That’s a huge public health triumph.
Young children should receive the vaccine according to the recommended schedule. Older children and adults who never received it should talk to their health care provider about it. And clinicians and public health officials in the US and around the world should redouble efforts to increase routine childhood immunizations so as to stop preventable diseases from making a comeback.