Incidence of Measles with Disease Manifestations in Infants: Do Infants Need Measles Vaccine Earlier than 9 Months?

Objective: To find out the incidence of measles with disease manifestations in infants equal to and less than 9 months of age. Study Design: It was a descriptive cross-sectional study based on secondary data analysis. Place and Duration of Study: It was carried out at Cantonment General Hospital Department of Paediatrics from 1st January 2023 to 30th September 2023 (9 months). Materials and Methods: It was a secondary data analysis of all records collected of expanded programme of immunization from Rawalpindi District, Punjab from 1st January 2023 to 30th September 2023. Data included all infants equal to and less than 9 months of age of both genders presenting with signs and symptoms of measles. Infants with positive measles serum IgM antibodies were labelled as confirmed measles cases. Data was analyzed using windows SPSS version 24.0. Results described in both in frequencies and percentages. Results: In our study total of 470 infants were enrolled. Out of which 294(62.6%) were measles IgM positive. Of the total cases, 182 (61.9%) were male and 112 (38.1%) were female. Among them, 20 (6.8%) were vaccinated, whereas 274 (93.2%) were unvaccinated. Age wise distribution showed that IgM positive cases at 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 months were 3(1%), 4(1.4%), 16(5.4%), 19(6.%%), 33(11.2%), 52(17.7%), 52(17.7%), 81(27.6%), 34(11.6%) respectively. Common symptoms seen were fever 294(100%), cough 287(97.6%), coryza 95((32.3%), conjunctivitis 41(13.9%), rash 294(100%). Complications were seen in 41(13.9%) with mortality of 5(1.7 %). Conclusion: We conclude that a significant number of infants are being infected with measle virus before reaching the age of first recommended vaccine inoculation against measles. It is affecting children as young as one month old.