All issues > Volume 34(10); 1991

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1991;34(10):1356-1364. Published online October 31, 1991.

An epidemiologic study of measles among hospitalized pediatric patients.

Sung Lae Park¹, Jae Won Oh¹, Sung Hee Oh¹, Hahng Lee¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, Hanyang University, College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Received: March 12, 1991;  Accepted: June 18, 1991.

Abstract

A clinical study was performed on 197 cases of measles that were admitted to the department pediatrics of Hanyang University Hospital during the period of 5 years from Aug. 1985 to Jul. 1990. The patients with measles were classified as preventable or nonpreventable. We obtained the following results: 1) The incidence of measles was greater during the last study year than the previous years. 2) The age distribution revealed more number of younger patients; among total 197 patients, 82 (41. 6%) were under 16 months of age, 58 (29.6%) were 16 months to 4 years of age, and 46 (23.3%) were between 5 to 9 years of age 3) Fifty two (26.4%) out of 197 patients were preventable cases. 4) Eighty two (56.6%) out of 145 nonpreventable patients were under 16 months of age, and this indicates that measles vaccination need to be given at an earlier age than 15 months of age. 5) Out of 58 patients from 16 months to 4 year of age, 31 (59.6%) were preventable cases. This illustrates that implementation of vaccination programe should be reinforced. The rest 27 patients (40.4%) being nonpreventable should be explained with further epidemiological as well as immunological studies. 6) One hundred nine cases had one or more complications, of which pneumonia was the most common. Then, current strategy needed more complete implementation to ensure that vaccination take place at 15 months of age, and analysis of measles epidemiology is indicated so that any necessary change in stratege can be implemented.

Keywords :Measles epidemiology;Preventability