Spreading awareness: Preventing measles made easy

Timely vaccination, caution in handling contaminated objects minimises chance of outbreak.

Being an infectious disease, measles is preventable. A child who develops a rash should be separated from other children for at least five days after its manifestation to stop the infection from spreading. Vaccinated children and anyone who has already had measles are highly unlikely to catch the disease.

This useful information was passed on by Dr. Rai Muhammad Asghar while addressing a seminar held in Rawalpindi for awareness on prevention of measles, said a press release. An infected child’s mouth and nose needs to be covered while coughing or sneezing and all contaminated handkerchiefs or tissues should either be washed or disposed carefully, he added. Toys and other articles used during the course of the disease need to be washed with a strong detergent.

Elaborating on immunisation for the disease, Asghar told that the vaccine for measles protects the infected child from pneumonia, malnutrition and brain diseases. The combined vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella can also be used as an alternative. The measles vaccine’s first dose should ideally be given to babies between the ages of 12 and 13 months. A second dose or booster dose should be administered to children before they start school, usually between the ages of three and five years old. Since 5 to 10 per cent children do not develop complete immunity after the first dose, the booster dose provides increased protection. After the booster dose, less than one per cent of children are still at risk of contracting the disease.

Talking about post-exposure prevention, Asghar said that sometimes a child younger than 13 months may be exposed to measles infection in the household. Since they have not yet been vaccinated, they may be vulnerable to the infection and its complications. Accordingly, the action taken to prevent the disease from developing will depend on whether the child is younger than 6 months or not.

The seminar was attended by medical faculty members, physicians, general practitioners and students from different medical colleges.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2014.