Measles: A Continuing Problem or Eradication?

Detection of Viral Antigens and Antibodies

“…In many countries, the prevalence of measles has decreased dramatically since the introduction of measles immunization (Hinman et at., 1983;Larke, 1983;Peradze and Smorodintsev, 1983;Sejda, 1983). Nevertheless, a diagnostic screening test to identify nonimmune persons is important because of the severe complications that can occur after infection with measles virus (Morgan and Rapp, 1977), and the occurrence of measles virus outbreaks in supposedly protected populations (Marusyk, 1984). Hemagglutination inhibition tests have been widely used for this purpose but are inconvenient, as sera should be pretreated to remove nonspecific inhibitors or agglutinins that would otherwise influence the reliability or specificity of the test.…”

“…Measles may be associated with complications such as prolonged diarrhea, encephalitis, pneumonia, otitis media, and sometimes subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE). The global case fatality rate in developing countries has been estimated to approach 2%, i.e., 1.5 million deaths per year (Marusyk, 1984).…”

Measles virus specific antibody in infants in a highly vaccinated society

“…In spite of 80-90% vaccine coverage of children in Canada through compulsory or voluntary programs, an increasing number of outbreaks have occurred during the last few years [Editorial comment: Measles in Canada-1986update (1986: Canadian Medical Association Journal 135499-5011. Since in measles infection the risk of death is higher in infants than in older children and adolescents, particularly in third-world countries [Marusyk, 1984;Orenstein et al, 1986;Pisen and Bonmeuil, 19881, this study was undertaken in an attempt to evaluate the serological background to measles in an infant population since the introduction of widespread measles immunization. The impetus for the study was our earlier observation [Makela et al, 19891 that the young adult population in Alberta lacked protective levels of measles virus antibody even though having undergone a series of mass immunizations against measles virus, and our concern that infants born to women in this age group may not be adequately protected with maternallyderived antibody.…”