Measles in children. Weren’t you waiting? What should a pediatrician know

From a long time ago to the present day, measles remains one of the leading health problems in the world. The main reason for this is high mortality from measles – 1/500. Despite the availability of an effective and safe vaccine, which was discovered in 1963, there are still epidemic outbreaks of measles. According to WHO, there were 413,308 confirmed cases in 187 countries and 764 deaths during 2019. Most measles deaths are due to complications associated with the disease.
Complications are most common in children under five or in adults over 30 years of age. The most serious complications include blindness, encephalitis leading to cerebral edema, severe diarrhoea and associated dehydration, purulent otitis and severe lower respiratory tract infections such as pneumonia. In a study from 2019, Michael J. Mina and colleagues showed that after measles in the group of unprivileged people, 11 to 73% of previous immune memory is “erased”. Currently, there is no specific etiotropic therapy for measles. One of the pathogenetic links in therapy is the use of interferon replacement therapy. According to the Federal Clinical Recommendations and WHO recommendations, the use of recombinant interferon α-2B and vitamin A is recommended. The effectiveness of interferonotherapy for measles was first shown in 1992 by the Leopardi R team. This study showed that the secretion of measles virus in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells was gradually reduced by increasing the concentrations and blocked at the concentration of interferon α-2B in 1000 units/ml. Moreover, at the XXIV World Congress of Neuroscientists (WCN) it was noted that the safest and most effective method of treatment of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, one of the severe complications of measles, is recombinant human α-2B interferon.

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