Outbreak of Measles in an Orphanage.

Abstract

Summary: An outbreak cf measles that occurred among 11 of 16 inmates of an overcrowded motherless babies home in Calabar is presented. The last child, aged eight months, to be admitted into the home, was also the first to develop symptoms of measles, 11 days after admission; thus, it is suggested that this child was incubating the disease before his admission. The patients were aged, between four months and nine years, four patients were below the age of nine months, while six were aged between nine and 18 months; four of these six patients had been immunized against measles. Fifty percent of the 16 inmates were malnourished and of these, 87.5 percent developed measles. Complications of measles consisted mainly of diarrhoea, dehydration and bronchopneumonia. The case fatality was 27.3 percent. It is suggested from the present findings, that immunization of children at the age of six months and perhaps, below, in an environment of poverty and overcrowdiness should be a policy in our immunization schedule.