The Importance of a Full Measles Vaccination

vaccination

PnuVax, a biopharmaceuticals and vaccines developer and producer, leverages the professional training and experience of its leaders and staff to help eliminate preventable infectious diseases on a worldwide scale. PnuVax’s efforts are focused on the vaccination needs of developing countries, where infectious diseases, such as measles, still need to be completely eradicated.

A 2019 study conducted by the Harvard Medical School showed that when a child gets sick with measles, between 20 to 50 percent of his or her antibodies get wiped out which results in depleted immunity. It will take a considerable time for his or her immune system to relearn to protect the body from infections. The frame of time from which the measles virus ravages the body until the time the immune systems get to relearn its function is called measles-induced “immune amnesia.”

Measles vaccine protects the body in two ways: prevent the acute illness from infecting, and to provide protection from other infection over a long period of time. The vaccine gives a general boost to the immune system. It prevents the body from forgetting or losing its immune memory, thereby preserving the body’s resistance from other infections.

The study was the first to measure the damage caused by measles virus infection. The study further underlines the importance of preventing measles infection through full vaccination, which includes booster shots of all previous childhood vaccinations.

The researchers also recommend that clinicians should consider bolstering the immune system of patients under-recovery from measles infection by giving them booster shots of previous routine vaccines, such as polio and hepatitis. Re-vaccination following a measles infection can help in mitigating any long-term effects that result from immune amnesia.

Four Approaches to Making Vaccines

PnuVax is a Canadian biopharma corporation dedicated to the development of vaccines and the promotion of better public health practices around the world. With a team that has over 30 years of experience, PnuVax focuses on the research and manufacture of vaccines for diseases such as yellow fever and pneumonia.

The development of vaccines can take many forms. In essence, a vaccine provides active acquired immunity to the recipient against specific infections, but there are several ways this can be achieved.

One of the ways is to weaken germs to the point that it’s nearly impossible for them to reproduce. These weakened germs induce memory B cells in humans which protect us from the same infection in the future.

Another approach is to completely neutralize the germs, effectively killing them. When introduced into the body, even though the germs are inactive, our bodies still recognize them as such and learn to defend against them.

A third method is to only use the parts of a virus that are active in teaching our body to defend against it. This method is only effective against those viruses that elicit an immune response through specific proteins.

Finally, bacteria can be vaccinated against in the same way. By using a neutralized bacterial toxin or the polysaccharide coating of a bacterium, we can become effectively immunized without ever having been infected.

WHO Supports Nigerian Government in Efforts to Eradicate Measles

WHO Logo image from who.int

A producer of biopharmaceuticals and vaccines, PnuVax is committed to helping produce needed vaccines to help prevent the spread of infectious diseases. PnuVax is especially focused on the needs of developing countries, most of which have recently experienced outbreaks of preventable diseases, such as measles.

In November 2019, the government of Nigeria has administered measles and meningitis vaccines to over 28 million children in northern Nigeria. The vaccination campaign was led by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, in coordination with international partners such as the World Health Organization (WHO), and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

WHO has reported the measles continues to be the leading cause of death among children globally despite the availability of vaccines that could prevent the disease. As Nigeria pushed to eradicate measles in its territories, WHO was committed to helping the Nigerian government in reaching all children eligible for measles vaccines, even up to the far-flung areas of the country.

More than 44,000 health workers have been trained by WHO to facilitate the vaccination. They were part of the 17,000 immunization teams who were mobilized for the campaign. WHO and the Nigerian government hoped that the campaign would solve the low routine immunization coverage Nigeria has experienced in recent years which led to the repeated measles outbreak.

The State of Worldwide Measles Vaccination

Woman injecting a girl’s left arm
Photo by CDC on Unsplash

Headquartered in Kingston, Canada, PnuVax manufactures high-quality biopharmaceuticals and vaccines for the promotion of worldwide public health. PnuVax aligns its efforts with the initiatives implemented by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF in massive immunization campaigns to eliminate preventable infectious diseases, such as measles.

The 2018 immunization coverage data compiled by WHO and UNICEF indicated the incidence of several measles outbreaks worldwide. The 350,000 reported measles cases in 2018 have more than doubled the cases reported in 2017.

Looking at the brighter side of things, WHO and UNICEF are using the measles outbreak data as real time indicators to identify the states where the elimination efforts should focus to totally eradicate measles. As a highly contagious disease, measles outbreak points the experts to communities that may be missing out on vaccinations. Then, evaluations can be made to identify the cause for the missed out vaccinations. Among the leading causes are limited access, high cost, or complacency.

The top three countries with the highest reported cases of measles in 2018 are Ukraine, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Madagascar. In that year, Ukraine has managed to vaccinate 91 percent of infants but the effect of low coverage of previous years has taken its toll on older children and adults. The Democratic Republic of Congo is 80 percent covered, while Madagascar has 62 percent coverage.