Don't Miss Out On Measles Vaccination

By Suparna Chakaraborthy

Wednesday, May 19, 2010, 15:57

The nascent life which has just come out of the protective walls of it's mothers womb, needs a lot of care until it adjusts itself to the ways of the big bad world. Reportedly, infants are most sensitive to measles. A new research has revealed that young infants have a gap in their protection against measles, from around two to three months old until they are vaccinated at 12 months of age.

The reason being the level of antibodies infants get from their mother drops over time, leaving them susceptible until they are vaccinated.

These facts make measles vaccination necessary for infants at around 12 months of age.

The study was done on 207 healthy women-infant pairs, from five hospitals in the Province of Antwerp, Belgium.

They were divided into groups of two according to their medical records.One group consisted of those who had been vaccinated against measles during infancy and another group consisted of those with naturally acquired immunity from measles infection earlier in life.

Then the levels of measles antibodies were measured from blood samples, which were taken during week 36 of pregnancy, at birth (cord blood), in all infants at 1, 3 and 12 months. This was done randomly at either 6 or 9 months.

The result showed that vaccinated women had significantly fewer antibodies than then naturally immune women. Accordingly, infants of vaccinated women measured lower antibody levels than infants of naturally immune women.

The maternal antibodies last only for 2.61 months – 3.74 months. At around six months of age, 99 percent of infants of vaccinated women and 95 percent of infants of naturally immune women had lost their maternal antibodies. By 9 and 12 months, no positive samples were left in either group.

It was noticed that breastfeeding, birth weight, educational level, cesarean section or day care attendance had no effect on the duration of maternal antibodies.

This study concluded that sensitivity to measles in both infants of vaccinated women and women with naturally acquired immunity is the same after a certain period of time.

If future studies show that measles vaccines can be offered with success at an age of less than nine months, policy makers could consider moving forward the routine measles vaccination programme.

The 12th and 15th month of the baby is most sensitive to measles. Thus, these months the infant needs to be vaccinated. Generally it is adviced, not be give vaccination to the infant below nine months.