Re-occurring cases of under-five Measles infection in North-Western Nigeria-the need to increase immunization coverage.

Abstract

Measles infection is caused by a highly contagious measles virus (MV). MV is the leading cause of vaccine preventable death among under-five children globally. The widespread adoption of the measles vaccine in national immunization programmes since the establishment of the expanded programme on immunization (EPI) in Nigeria, has marked a decrease in the number of reported cases. But the pre- vaccine era trend is gradually returning owing to poor attitude of the populace on immunization. The aim of the study was to assess the seroprevalence of measles antibodies among under-five measles infected children in Gwaram Cottage Hospital, Jigawa State, Nigeria. The study was a cross-sectional study involving measles infected under-fives as the study subjects. Sociodemographic characteristics were obtained using a semi-structured questionnaire and five milliliters of blood samples were collected and processed to obtain serum. Serum was used to test for Measles specific IgM and IgG antibodies using Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Of the 91 study subjects analyzed, 63(69.2%) had at least IgM and IgG antibodies. A total 17(18.7%) had isolated IgM while 16 (17.6%) had isolated IgG. A total 30 (32.9%) of the study subject has both IgM and IgG concurrently. No statistically significant
association was found between measles specific IgM and IgG with most of the sociodemographic factors except for measles specific IgG and immunization history (p=0.001). The study has shown high prevalence of Measles antibodies among the study subjects with poor level of immunization, making the study area at risk of measles infection especially among under-fives and immunocompromised children and adults, hence, the need to intensify immunization against measles virus.