A Study to Assess the Association Between Measles Antibody Titres and Nutritional Status of Paediatric Population

Abstract

Background: Measles is endemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and 89–94% herd immunity is required to halt its transmission. Much of the World Health Organization African Region, including the DRC, has vaccination coverage below the 95% level required to eliminate measles, heightening concern of inadequate measles immunity.Material and methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in the  Upgraded Department of Pediatric, Pmch, Patna, Bihar, India for 1 year on 1-10 year old children. Total 600 patients were include in this study for finding out the seroprevalence and anti-measles antibody levels, and studying their association with age, gender, as well as nutritional status of these children. Blood samples were tested for presence of measles specific IgG antibodies. Results:Majority (68.33%) of the total subjects had been vaccinated against measles. A similar trend was observed in each of the age groups. However, the relationship between age and vaccination status was not found to be statistically significant (p=0.227).No statistically significant difference was observed in the baseline characteristics of vaccinated and unvaccinated group except for mean weight for age Z score which was significantly lower in the unvaccinated  group (p =0.019). % of the total subjects ≤5 years old had severe wasting (severe acute malnutrition), while 20.31% had moderate wasting. Severe and moderate stunting was observed in 4.5% and 25.83% of the total subjects. In children > 5 years, 20.71% had severe thinness, 12.14% had thinness and only 2 (0.71%) case was overweight. Conclusion: Nutritional status of children has an association with measles antibody titres as well GMT of measles specific IgG antibody, with those with better nutritional status having higher measles antibody titres.

Keywords: Measles, Vaccine, Antibody, Vaccination, Malnourished, Anthropometry.