A.I. FAZULZYANOVA¹, S.V. TKACHEVA¹, T.M. MARTYNOVA², YU.YU. LEONTYEVA¹, A.Z. GILMULLINA¹

 ¹Kazan State Medical University, Kazan

²Republic Clinical Hospital for Infectious Diseases named after Prof. A.F. Agafonov, Kazan

Contact details:

Fazulzyanova A.I. — PhD (Medicine), Associate Professor of the Department of Infectious Diseases

Address: 49 Butlerov St., 420012 Kazan, Russian Federation, tel.: +7 (843) 267-80-71, е-mail: al-faz1@mail.ru

Measles remains a serious global threat, despite a potential to prevent it through vaccination. The epidemic process is fueled by unvaccinated individuals and those with unknown vaccination histories. Due to declining measles vaccination coverage, special attention should be paid to vulnerable populations, such as gypsy encampments.

The purpose — to analyze clinical, epidemiological and laboratory characteristics of the measles outbreak in a gypsy camp.

Material and methods. We conducted a retrospective analysis of 60 medical records of patients aged 3 months to 57 years hospitalized with measles at the Republic Clinical Infectious Diseases Hospital. The clinical diagnosis was confirmed by detecting IgM antibodies to measles using ELISA.

Results. Children (70%) aged 11 to 18 years (26.6%) predominated among those diagnosed with measles. All hospitalized patients had been in contact with a patient with measles. Analysis of the vaccination history revealed that most patients (59/98.3%) had not been vaccinated against measles. As part of emergency specific prophylaxis, vaccination was administered to 29 patients (48.3%); two children (3.3%) were administered normal human immunoglobulin. In 81.7% of cases, measles had a typical moderate course, 6 patients (10%) developed severe disease, and 5 (8.3%) were diagnosed with an atypical form, including one with mitigated measles. Analysis of blood biochemistry parameters revealed an increase in C-reactive protein (23.32 (27.55) mg/l) in 45 (75%) patients, which may be associated with virus-induced or bacterial inflammation. Moderate cytolysis syndrome was observed in 52 (86.7%) patients (ALT — 62.31 (91.33) U/l, AST — 87.75 (104.01) U/l), which is confirmed by other authors.

Conclusion. This outbreak confirms that the presence of large non-immune segments of the population creates a high risk of epidemic spread of vaccine-preventable diseases and highlights the importance of developing population immunity.

Key words: measles, gypsy camp, vaccination, clinical and epidemiological features

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