Most of the cases occurred in unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated patients. Forty-six died from measles, a mortality rate of about 1 per 1,000 who contracted the disease. Of these deaths, 16 were among children younger than 12 months, 12 among children aged 12-24 months, and the remainder among those older than 2 years.
These younger patients were also more susceptible to complications of measles, both mild (diarrhea and otitis media) and severe (pneumonia and encephalitis). Most of the uncomplicated cases (75%) occurred in children older than 24 months, with just 25% of uncomplicated cases occurring in the younger groups.
“When we looked at age as a continuous variable, we saw that the chance of having no complications or just mild complications increased with age, and the chance of having severe complications decreased with age,” Dr. Robesyn said.
“We definitely saw that these two groups are at increased risk. The consequences however, are different. For the children who are 1 year of age or older, the message is that it’s really important to strictly follow national recommendations and get timely and complete vaccination. For those younger than 1 year, we have to rely on the population to be vaccinated. It is very important that we reach this 95% coverage rate to protect these youngest children. We need adolescents and young adults who have missed vaccinations to get them completed,” he said.
Dr. Robesyn had no financial disclosures.
SOURCE: Robesyn E et al. ECCMID 2018, abstract O0060