Abstract

The prognosis of measles is determined largely by host factors. The objective of this study is to document the clinical profile (host factors) of children presenting with measles in a Nigerian secondary health-care institution. In this case-series study, 77 children with measles (diagnosed clinically), admitted into St Philomena Catholic Hospital, Benin City were recruited over a 4-year period. The age, sex, presenting symptoms/ signs, immunization status, duration of symptoms before presentation, complications and outcome were recorded for each patient according to the month and year of presentation. The relevant paediatric admission registers were examined. Measles accounted for 3.1% of all paediatric admissions. Majority (47.8%) of the cases were presented between the ages of 13 and 24 months. Fourteen of 77 (18.1%) of children with measles were less than nine months old. Seventeen (22.1%) of all cases of measles had been previously vaccinated against measles while the remaining 60 (77.9%) were not. Significantly more cases of measles occurred in the dry season (80.5%) compared to the wet season (19.5%) p< 0.001.  Measles occurred most frequently in the month of March. The two main reasons given by mothers for failing to immunize their children against measles were that the child was ill (35.0%) and the child was less than 9 months old (23.3%). Bronchopneumonia (55.1%) and diarrhoea with dehydration (13.0%) were the two leading complications. Disease-specific burden of measles remains high in our communities due to non-immunization status, occurrence of measles in both immunized children and in those less than 9 months old.

Key words: Age, childhood measles, seasonal variation, vaccination.