Morbidity in whooping cough and measles.

Abstract

SUMMARY Parents of 99 children who were admitted to hospital with whooping cough or measles, and of 50 children with whooping cough or measles who were nursed at home, were interviewed to determine the extent of morbidity and its effects on the family. Children admitted with whooping cough or measles spent a mean of 12-6 and 5 8 days in hospital, respectively. Time to full recovery was 13-7 and 2-1 weeks, respectively. Over a third of the children who were admitted were emotionally upset during the admission and for several weeks afterwards. Parental anxiety and exhaustion were common. Routine family life was appreciably disturbed. Advice from health care professionals, based on misconceptions of valid contradictions to immunisation, was the main reason for refusing vaccination.Routine immunisation against whooping cough and measles is recommended for all except a small minority of preschool children.

Il costo sociale del morbillo in età pediatrica. L’epidemia a Palermo nel 1996–97

“…[5] Tralasciando queste curiosità aneddotiche, occorre fare attenzione a un persistente, diffuso malinteso a proposito del morbillo, cioè che si tratti di una malattia infantile praticamente senza conseguenze. [6] In realtà, si tratta invece di una malattia che può diventare grave, poiché di fatto comporta frequenti complicanze, dall'infezione dell'apparato auricolare medio alla broncopolmonite. [1] Negli Stati Uniti, nel decennio precedente all'introduzione del vaccino virale vivo attenuato (1963) venivano notificati ogni anno ai Centers for Disease Control (CDC) fra i 300.000 e gli 800.000 casi di morbillo, [7] che comportavano polmonite nel 2,7%-6,5% dei casi ed encefalite nello 0,1%.…”