The epidemiology of measles virus amongst children attending Specialist Hospital Sokoto, Nigeria.

Abstract

Measles remains the leading cause of vaccine-preventable childhood mortality in developing countries, with its greatest incidence in children younger than 5 years of age. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence, gender and age most affected by measles, demographic and risk factors of measles virus amongst patients attending Specialist Hospital, Sokoto. A total of 90 blood samples comprising of children of different age groups from 0-7 years were collected and analyzed for measles virus IgM antibodies by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. An overall prevalence of 34.4% was obtained, with a prevalence of 17.8% in children aged 0-1 year and 12.2% in children aged 2-3 years. The prevalence of measles virus increased with age in children 0-1 years and decreased with age in older children (>5 years). A higher prevalence was found in females (18.9%) than in males (15.6%). There was a statistically significant association between the location and vaccination status among participants that shows positive for measles with p-value of 0.010 and 0.001 respectively. There was no significant difference in the tribe and vitamin A status among participants that show positive for measles with p-value of 0.631 and 0.359 respectively. The findings of this study confirm the presence of measles virus infection in children <1 year, mostly from rural areas who do not comply with the vaccination schedule. An improvement on enhanced measles surveillance and routine immunization especially in the northern regions of Nigeria is recommended. There is a need to work out alternate strategies for the control of measles such as introducing a two-dose schedule to halt the endemic transmission.