The probability of a measles outbreak this year is very high: why is it dangerous?

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This summer, the state of emergency was lifted around the world due to COVID-19. This was made possible thanks to the protection of people at risk of a severe course of COVID-19 due to vaccination. Without mass vaccinations and quarantine restrictions at the beginning, it is difficult to say how long the restrictions would have lasted and how many lives the pandemic would have claimed. And now we have another threat in Ukraine – a measles outbreak. According to our forecasts, the probability of an outbreak this year is very high. Outbreaks of measles occur periodically when there are many unvaccinated people in society. According to the calculations of experts both in our country and abroad, the measles outbreak in Ukraine should occur in 2021-2022, shortly after the previous one was tamed. This did not happen, because both children and adults were isolated due to quarantine restrictions. No contacts – no infections. At the same time, precisely because of the war, not all children received vaccinations on time – people moved, arranged their lives, looked for doctors in a new place, canceled scheduled visits to the doctor due to shelling and enemy attacks. Because of this, we now have a real threat of a measles outbreak. To prevent the frequency of large outbreaks, at least 95% of the population is vaccinated from year to year, while a few years before the last outbreak in Ukraine and Europe, only 91% of children were vaccinated at the age of one year. Only in 12 months of 2018, about 55,000 cases of the disease and 16 deaths as a result of this disease were registered in Ukraine. Why are we so worried about measles? Because this is not a “typical children’s disease” – it always has a difficult course, both in children and in adults. Measles can lead to pneumonia, inflammation of the brain, other serious complications, disability and death. One of the distant consequences of the disease is sclerosing panencephalitis, which develops on average 5-10 years after measles. Unfortunately, this disease, although it is a rare complication of measles, is always fatal. Measles virus also affects the immune system – it suppresses a person’s immunity for several months or even years, causing “immune amnesia”. As a result, a person becomes more vulnerable to other infections. There is no medicine against measles, the only tool that helps protect the child is timely vaccination. Measles is very contagious – it is easily transmitted from person to person, and definitely causes the disease in those who do not have immunity. Therefore, in the summer, we started increased preparations to prevent an outbreak, especially among children who return to school, will be in collectives and during “air alarms” hide in bomb shelters. Read also: Measles, chicken pox or rubella: photos by which you can distinguish the rashes. On July 17, the Ministry of Health launched a campaign with catch-up vaccination against measles. Scheduled vaccination continues constantly, but now it is important that those children who missed vaccinations – make up for them. There are more than 200,000 such children in Ukraine. The reasons for which these children missed vaccination are different: change of residence, travel abroad, refusal of parents. Some families did not vaccinate their child because they simply forgot whether the immunization coincided with the quarantine during the covid pandemic; shelling, when it was wrong. A separate category is the refusers, who simply do not want to vaccinate children for no reason and believe that it is better that way, or because of religious beliefs. In September, we will continue to vaccinate all first-graders and all children from remote territorial communities. Preschoolers must undergo a medical examination and receive certificates of vaccinations. If there are no planned vaccinations, they will be done immediately. Vaccines are already waiting. Vaccination teams will come to remote communities themselves – this is more effective than calling people to come somewhere for vaccination. In autumn, doctors will intensify their work with other categories of children who have not been vaccinated against measles. First of all, these are children who at one time had temporary contraindications to vaccination (for example, underwent chemotherapy). When remission occurs, it is necessary to make up for missed vaccinations – and this is often forgotten by everyone. But this is an individual approach, and doctors pay more attention to such children. There is a problem with scheduled vaccinations, against measles in particular, in a number of religious communities and among the Roma population. In both cases, a special approach and understanding of the reasons why they are against vaccinations is required. That is why the Center for Public Health is working together with the Council of Churches to establish contact and understanding with religious communities, to emphasize the importance of vaccinations and to explain the details related to vaccination, the impact on immunity and the quality of the vaccine. We have already worked together on polio vaccines and during the COVID-19 pandemic. For anyone who wants to know more about vaccines and medical services for internally displaced persons, there are two hotlines – from the Ministry of Health and from UNICEF. They are followed by a “live specialist”, not an answering machine, who will explain everything in detail and help you. In addition to live communication with the specialists of our call centers, we have developed short informative printed materials (posters, brochures) and educational materials about vaccination. We have developed them together with UNICEF and the Center for Public Health and are distributing them among “primary” doctors and in educational institutions. It is important to remember that vaccination protects not only the vaccinated child, but also children who cannot have them due to medical contraindications. The school, organized teams in which children study, should be a safe environment for all participants of the educational process. If the recommended vaccinations are missed, for example, due to moving to another city, parents should contact the vaccination center or family doctor and make up for them. This is a matter of individual protection for each child against diseases that can be prevented by vaccination. Ihor Kuzin, Deputy Minister of Health – Chief State Sanitary Doctor of Ukraine, specially for UP. Life Publications in the “View” section are not editorial articles and reflect exclusively the author’s point of view.

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