FREQUENCY OF VACCINATION IN MEASLES

Abstract

Objective: To calculate the frequency of vaccinated children in measles cases
and to determine association of age and sex with vaccination status of measles. Design: Descriptive Study. Place and
duration of study: Department Of Paediatric Medicine, Military Hospital (MH), Rawalpindi from October 2001 to
September 2002. Patients and Methods: 250 cases of clinical measles, selected by convenient sampling, reporting
in out patient department or admitted were registered. Age, sex and vaccination status were noted. Statistical analyses
were carried out employing “t Test” and “Chi-Square test”, utilizing SPSS version 10.0 for Windows (SPSS Inc.,
Chicago). Test of significance was applied at a confidence limit of 95%. Results: 71.6% were vaccinated and 28.4%
were unvaccinated. Ages ranged from 1 to 12 years with a mean age of 5.4±2.4 years. Vaccinated cases had a
significantly (p<0.05) higher mean age (5.9±2.1) as compared to unvaccinated ones (4.0±2.5). Majority (46%) were
4-6 years old. Among vaccinated 50.3% were 4-6 years old but among the unvaccinated 52.1% were 1-3 years of age.
Male to female ratio was 1.4:1. Proportion of males was significantly more (p value < 0.05) than females in both groups.
Conclusion: Vaccination failure observed in this study, that is 71.6% patients contracting measles despite being
vaccinated, is clearly higher than that accepted for measles vaccine (2-10%). Though high immunization coverage
(>90%) in the first dose is still crucial for eradication there is need to revise the in-vogue vaccination schedule to reduce
the incidence and so is the measles related morbidity and mortality.