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Hilla University College Journal For Medical Science

Corresponding Author

Hasan Alwan Baiee

Document Type

Original Study

Keywords

Epidemiology, Measles, Hospital based study, Babil, Iraq

Abstract

Background: Measles considered a highly contagious and serious disease affecting mainly children in their early years, with morbidity and mortality. The effective preventive measure against measles is vaccination.

Objective: To identify the epidemiological characteristics of patients with measles admitted to Maternity and Children’s Teaching Hospital in Babylon Governorate.

Materials and Methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted using structured questionnaire on convenient sample of children infected with the measles virus and hospitalized in Maternity and Children’s Teaching Hospital, Babylon Governorate, Iraq. During three-monthperiod from the first of January to 30th of March, 2024. A special semi-structured validated and reliable questionnaire was used for interviewing. It consisted of two parts, the first part included demographic data related to age, sex, place of residence and the history of vaccination, receiving vitamin A, as well as the number of deaths among all diagnosed patients.

Results: About 1,103 cases of children infected with the measles virus were reported in the main referral Maternity and Children’s Teaching Hospital in Babylon Governorate. The total deaths due to measles were fifteen patients, indicating a case fatality rate (1.36%). A convenient sample of 204 admitted patients were studied through interviewing their companions. The results revealed that males outnumbered females (58.8%). Most of the samples in this study were infants, followed by children in the age group (1–3) years old. The nutritional status of more than half of the study sample was poor, 106(52%). About one-third of patients had received the vaccine 77 (37.7%), while about two-thirdsof them had not received the measles vaccine 127 (62.3%). While two-thirds (67%) did not receive vitamin A supplements. Respiratory tract infection was the most common complication reported in 125 (61.3%), the case fatality rate was 1.36%. Conclusion: Measles is an epidemic that forms a real public health problem. Males were highly affected, the majority of cases were below one year of age, most of the affected children didn’t receive the measles vaccine, and the majority were not receiving Vitamin A. Case fatality was relatively high.

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