Vaccine of the day: Measles

A while ago, over a year, actually, I promised myself to do research about one vaccine (or disease) a month. This went nowhere as I would always find some great articles about other vaccines/diseases and get sidetracked. But today I found a lot of great articles from US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health that are related to Measles and vaccines against it. Here is the list, not in any particular order:

1. Measles incidence, vaccine efficacy, and mortality in two urban African areas with high vaccination coverage. (“Even though 95% of the children had measles antibodies after vaccination, vaccine efficacy was not more than 68%.”) - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2230232

2. Measles-specific neutralizing antibodies in rural Mozambique: seroprevalence and presence in breast milk. (“A notable proportion of the population in Manhiça, Mozambique apparently remains susceptible to clinical measles despite recent mass vaccination campaigns.”) - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18981523

3. An evaluation of measles serodiagnosis during an outbreak in a vaccinated community. (“A history of prior vaccination is not always associated with immunity nor with the presence of specific antibodies.”) - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3168353

4. Herd immunity. Measles outbreak in a fully immunized secondary-school population. (“We conclude that outbreaks of measles can occur in secondary schools, even when more than 99 percent of the students have been vaccinated and more than 95 percent are immune.”) - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3821823

5. A persistent outbreak of measles despite appropriate prevention and control measures. (“This outbreak suggests that measles transmission may persist in some settings despite appropriate implementation of the current measles elimination strategy.”) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3618578

6. Major measles epidemic in the region of Quebec despite a 99% vaccine coverage. (“Vaccination coverage for the total population was 99.0%. Incomplete vaccination coverage is not a valid explanation for the Quebec City measles outbreak.”) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1884314

7. How threatening is measles in a civilized country. Clinical and epidemiological findings during a measles outbreak occurring in a population with a high vaccination coverage. (“One or more complications were reported for 68 cases and in 8.9% of the studied cases hospitalization was required.”) - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8668833

8. The 1992 measles epidemic in Cape Town--a changing epidemiological pattern. (“The possible reasons for this [outbreak] include both primary and secondary vaccine failure.”) - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7740350

and the last but not least:

9. Lack of correlation between the number of measles cases (goes up and down) vs. vaccination efforts (increased with time). However, there seems to be another trend: With more children being vaccinated over the years, more of the little ones become sick with Measles (median age fell from almost 7 years to 14 months and to 11 months. Note, first Measles vaccine is given in China at 9 months). Monitoring progress towards the elimination of measles in China: an analysis of measles surveillance data ("The number of provinces that reported an annual incidence of less than one case per million population increased from one in 2009 to 15 in 2012 but fell back to one in 2013. Median case age decreased from 83 months in 2005 to 14 months in 2012 and 11 months in January to October 2013. Between 2008 and 2012, the incidence of measles in all age groups, including those not targeted for vaccination, decreased by at least 93.6%.") - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4007128/

Enjoy.

Parker turns 3

I can't believe Parker is already 3! I don't have much time to write now so this will be quick. Just wanted to note that he dropped his naps almost entirely (takes a nap 1-2/week). Wakes up around 7 am and goes to sleep at 6 if you let him. :) Unfortunately, due to our work schedule we can't put him to sleep until closer to 7 or 8 (we don't come home until 6:30-6:45). In this case he is exhausted and his sleep is not very restful as he wakes up multiple times. Those days he is likely to fall asleep at 6 pm. Last Monday I teleworked from a coffee shop and Aga and Parker came to see me on the way from school. We had lunch together and they decided to stay as there was a playroom attached where Parker played. Parker and I walked home and he ended up falling asleep in my arms at 5:45. Marc and I tried to wake him up for an hour after which we changed him into his PJs and let him sleep,. He didn't wake up until 6:45 am.

Parker goes to a Montessori school 5 days a week from 8:45 to 12. He likes it a lot and really likes one of his teachers, Ms. E. Drop off was pretty hard the first few times but now, after over a week, he is happy to go and there are no tears.

P's allergy "status" has changed since last year. We have confirmed that he has dairy and chick peas allergy, however he does NOT have sesame seed allergy. Unfortunately, he has a pretty bad soy allergy.

He loves soups, pasta, and rice. He likes broccoli, cucumber, tomato and avocado in a form of guacamole. :) He also loves the "healthy" (if such exists) cereal. :)

Parker loves letters, numbers, and shapes. And he is into languages. His first language is Polish (still) and second is English, of course. Lola still speaks to him in Spanish but he is no longer as interested in Spanish as he was a couple of months ago. His new love is Russian! He taught himself Russian alphabet and asks us to tell him how to say things in Russian. He names letters in Russian (so B is Veh and P is R).

Here is the newest picture taken on our vacation at the OBX a few days before his third birthday.