Two doses of measles vaccine: are some states in India ready for it?

Abstract

We present the results of two surveys of measles outbreaks near Vellore, which perhaps supports the cause for introduction of a second dose of measles vaccine. Survey one had 590 under 10-year olds. The attack rate was 15.1, 11.7 and 5.7% in the unimmunized, among those vaccinated at 6 months and at 9 months, respectively. The overall vaccine efficacy (VE) was 28% if vaccinated at 6 months and 66% if at 9 months. Second survey had 1702 children and adolescents. There were 59 cases of measles of which 49 were over 5 years of age, the mean age being 8.8 years. The VE was 66% for children up to 6 years and 48.4% for those aged 7-15. The data suggests that measles vaccine is better given at 9 months. The low VE in school age children could be improved by introducing a second dose of measles vaccine.