Measles. How to protect yourself against measles

According to the Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare (FSOCPW) the increase in the number of measles cases over the past 10 years is unprecedentedly high. Outbreaks of the disease were recorded in Ukraine, Georgia, Albania, Montenegro, Greece, Romania, France, Moldova, Italy. The agency described the situation with measles in Russia as stable, noting a certain increase in the number of cases.

Experts noted a high rate of measles spread in Europe last year. According to the WHO European Bureau, measles outbreaks were recorded in 47 European countries during 2018. A total of 82,596 people were infected, 72 of whom died consequently¹.

Situation with measles in Russia in 2018 was called stable – 17.3 cases of measles out of 1 million of population were recorded, which is tens of times lower than in Europe¹. The report of the Ministry of Health of Russia noted that in 2018, about 2,538 cases of measles were detected in 66 regions of Russia, which is almost three times higher than the incidence rates for 2017. Most often, a dangerous virus was detected in children². Experts emphasize that the wide spread of the disease in Russia is hampered by mass vaccination of the population, and most of the detected cases are “imported”.

Measles is a viral infectious disease transmitted by airborne droplets with a high degree of contagiousness (infectiousness) – one person with measles can infect up to 18 healthy people during a contagious period.Most often, small children become infected with measles.

Measles causes many complications: doctors especially highlight bronchitis, pneumonia and subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (severe progressive brain damage in unvaccinated children and adults)³.

Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation, Head of the Department of Clinical Immunology and Allergology of the First Moscow State Medical University named after I.M. Sechenov, Aleksander Viktorovich Karaulov: “Vaccination is the only preventive measures against measles. After being infected, a patient requires pathogenetic treatment, including the appropriate administration of inosine pranobex. Foreign studies show the possibility of its use in complex therapy in case of the development of a severe infectious process, taking into account its mechanism of action. In Russia, inosine pranobex is represented, among others, by Normomed®. This drug is available both as tablets and as a syrup, which makes it convenient to use in pediatric practice”.

Inosine pranobex (Normomed®) has immunomodulating and antiviral effect. Effect of inosine pranobex is aimed at reducing the severity and duration of symptoms of intoxication, hemorrhagic element of rash, preventing the development of pneumonia – a frequent complication of the infection⁴. Inosine pranobex as a syrop (Normomed® syrop) is also used for the treatment of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis – a dangerous complication of measles⁵.

• ¹ On the situation with the incidence of measles in Russia and foreign countries on 02/11/2019 (http://rospotrebnadzor.ru/about/info/news/news_details.php?ELEMENT_ID=11283)
• ² RIA Novosti https://ria.ru/20190130/1550126969.html
• ³ https://www.who.int/vaccine_safety/committee/topics/measles_sspe/Dec_2005/ru/
• ⁴ Bayalieva M. M., Smelikov Ya. A. Diagnosis and treatment of measles in children during the outbreak in 2014-2015 //Universum: Medicine and pharmacology: Scientific e-journal 2015. No. 12 (23)
• ⁵ Instructions for medical use of the Normomed® drug.